Love Actually (2003)
Richard Curtis’ directorial debut, Love Actually, offers more of the elements (romantic comedy with British characteristics) that made his earlier screenplays Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill pop hits of the ’90s, but this is a deeply flawed film that defeats its own purpose.
The film is ambitious – it showcases no less than eight or nine couples, and running at a full 135 minutes, it would certainly appear not to be your run-of-the-mill romantic comedy. However most of the film’s charm is lost by the hour mark, and even during the first hour it is a very uneven effort. There are moments when it simply oozes charm, and even the most skeptical critics would be pleasantly surprised by the its fit; but for every such moment, there are plenty of counterweight scenes where the plot is silly and the humor is vulgar; so much so, that when the whole film has finished, the sparkles of charm are lost in a sea of dreary, cheesy, cliched and flat-out boring sequences.
The script’s not-so-novel idea of telling many stories in parallel is at first confusing (as the audience stumble to recognize the dozen and more characters), then mildly amusing (as no sub-plot dominates the screen and there’s always something fresh), then frustrating (the more interesting stories are frequently interrupted to give way to others) and finally down-right boring (as each individual story falls flat). Because of the sheer scope, there are far too many loose threads, and the film adopts a fire-and-forget approach by totally ignoring to tie up loose ends or give meaningful closure. The whole spirit of the film is apparently saying – this is a holiday movie, so why the fuss?
From that perspective, the film does indeed have its merits. After all, not every film will you have the chance to see BIlly Bob Thornton play a horny Mr. President of the United States, or Claudia Schiffer making a cameo appearance as Liam Neeson’s love interest. And the A-list line-up all dutifully perform their roles, with Bill Nighy stealing every scene he’s in (right from the opening scene, actually) as the wacky rocky star who does a cover of “Love is All Around”.
For me though, that song only serves to remind the good times of Four Weddings and a Funeral. Maybe I’m allergic to the genre in general, but Love Actually really doesn’t shine at all. The uneven mix of stories makes it squarely stuck between a teen movie and a mature romance – it would be fine if it chooses to be either, but as it stands, it is a grossly unsatisfying viewing experience.
5/10