Review of Love Actually (2003) by Johnathon W — 05 Jan 2018

Delightful romantic comedy that is excellent for the most part but suffers from too many characters & subplots. The cast is uniformly excellent, the highlights being Hugh Grant as a befuddled new Prime Minister & Emma Thompson as a wife who discovers her husband is having an affair (her breakdown scene is one of the highlights of her distinguished career).

The scene stealer, though, is Bill Nighy as an aging rocker dealing with having produced a cheesy Christmas song & deciding not to hide how he feels about it. Behind the camera, writer/director Richard Curtis crafts a fun 'romantic comedy epic', intertwining the various stories in natural ways while exploring everything from first crushes to adultery.

Unfortunately, he has too many characters & plots, which drags the film down a bit. Two in particular, one involving a Brit traveling to the United States to hook up with American girls, while another involving body doubles for a sex scene in a film, could have easily been cut.

Plus, the material should have been toned down to PG-13, considering a main story is a young boy declaring his love to his first crush. Overall, still a fun, romantic movie and a great addition to the holiday film rotation.