Review of Love Actually (2003) by Sid F — 20 Apr 2014

Although it sounded a bit like a generic ensemble romantic Christmas comedy on the surface, Love Actually boasted a very talented cast and left me more than happy to see it.

Love Actually features a bit of an overkill in its story. It has too many characters for its own good and tries to give them all their own personalised stories, but there is too many of them to keep up with and so it becomes easy to forget what the importance of each character is because things are constantly shifting between them. But the focus is problematic not only because it is constantly jumping, but because it puts more of its focus on the less interesting stories and characters than the more interesting ones. The stories which feature Colin Firth or Hugh Grant are arguably less entertaining than the stories focused on the character portrayed by Alan Rickman or Bill Nighy. The balance in Love Actually is poor which is a shame because it gives a weak structure to the entire feature. It seems that the writer-director Richard Curtis reached for a bit too much as the writer and then failed to give the appropriate focus as director. For his debut feature as a film director his effort it ok, but it is clear that he is inexperienced in that area and that Love Actually does not feature his best writing talents. It features some of them, and he does manage to write out a few good comedic moments, but he doesn't exactly create enough of them to justify Love Actually's 136 minute running length or create any real consistency with the material. All in all, Love Actually is good in parts but as a whole is rather rudimentary and manages to capture certain elements of the spirit of Christmas while leaving other scenes to wander around aimlessly as audiences wait for something to happen. Overall, the lack of stable balance in terms of story focus ends up being the downfall of the ambitious feature that Love Actually ended up being.

Love Actually tries to make a small link between its characters which is a decent touch, but it doesn't feel necessary due to the fact that nothing really comes from having them interact. Really, the idea of an ensemble cast film with a large series of stories which has them slightly joined in one way or another is a bit too out of Richard Curtis' grip. It wallows in comparison to Paul Thomas Anderson's additions to the style of filmmaking such as in Magnolia or Boogie Nights. While it is hard to compare them due to their dramatic nature in comparison to the comedic nature of Love Actually, the general plot structure is the similar element of both films which is stronger in Paul Thomas Anderson's films than in Richard Curtis' effort due to stronger writing and directing. The best that can be said about Love Actaully is that it is an ambitious effort which features a mostly strong cast as well as some nice scenery which is captured with strong cinematography, and the musical score has a nice Christmas feel to it as well.

But the cast is the strongest asset in Love Actually,.

Hugh Grant has his charm, but his character is a generic one stuck in a boring storyline which isn't that funny, so frankly whenever he was on screen I didn't find myself that entertained. I don't find Hugh Grant to be as funny as everyone else seems to, and that has been the case with a few of his previous films such as his previous collaboration with Richard Curtis on Bridget Jones' Diary, and that seemed to be a repeated case in Love Actually, so I wasn't all that pleased with his quantity of screen time in comparison to the superior actors.

Colin Firth's story doesn't really go anywhere either, and while his performance is ok, it also feels a little routine and doesn't have much comedic success. It's good to see him working in comedy, but the material really doesn't live up to his talent unfortunately.

But the rest of the cast manage to give a good effort to the film.

Bill Nighy opens up the film well with a scene of him singing a generic Christmas song, and he sings it well. His moments of speaking are pretty funny due to how he articulates his delivery of swear words, and his performance finds a strong balance between being restrained and over-the-top, so while his screen time is very insufficient.

As I am more familiar with Alan Rickman portraying villainous characters in films such as Die Hard and the Harry Potter series, it is great to see him in a significantly more down to earth performance in Love Actually. His comedic awkward demeanour is fairly funny, and his introverted nature makes a successfully humourous presence in a rather energetic and extroverted film, so he is a strong asset to the success of Love Actually.

Emma Thompson makes a nice presence as well simply because even with fairly basic material she manages to put all of her best talents into Love Actually to make it an effective effort, and she manages to make an emotional impact on the story with her dramatic strength at line delivery.

Keira Knightley's natural charm and beautiful smile make her an easily successful element in Love Actually, and her natural English charm makes her scenes very easy to enjoy simply because she is naturally a genial presence. Her supporting performance is a good addition to the cast.

Liam Neeson's performance is a nice one due to the fact that his scenes focus on his chemistry with the young Thomas Sangster, and while Liam Neeson is known for playing strong high-profile characters, seeing him playing an emotionally troubled character there to help a young boy facing a troubled time made Love Actually a more enjoyable feature. Liam Neeson's chemistry with Thomas Sangster is gentle and sweet, making Love Actually more of a heartwarming film, and both of them give fine performances.

Kris Marshall's performance is a nice comedic touch as well, and Chiwetel Ejiofor gives it a good effort from earlier on in his career.

Lastly, Rowan Atkinson's brief appearance was a nice touch because any film that boasts his presence is certain to have some comedic charm to it, and his cameo was enjoyable with a nice comedic touch to it.

So while Love Actually boasts a mostly successful cast, Richard Curtis' ambitions go into overkill and create an overpacked but underwhelming comedy film which is unbalanced in its focus and not as funny as it should be.