Love Actually (2003) – 3/5

Love is in the air, really for everybody

„Love Actually“ is a British live action movie from 2003, so this one will have its 20th anniversary next year already. The writer and director here was Richard Curtis who was in his mid40s when he shot this film that runs for comfortably over two hours, but if you look at the quantity of plots and characters in here, then 135 minutes is really not too much I would say. Curtis has a past with lead actor Hugh Grant as the latter also appears in the other maybe most known film by Curtis and those two films are also among the ones that Grant is most remembered for. I personally remember Curtis more for „About Time“, a film I really adored when watched it the first and I think also only time by now. Very touching movie. But today we talk about this one here: There are simply too many actors to elaborate on every single one of them, but Bill Nighy deserves a mention because he won a BAFTA and this film was maybe the closest he ever came to an Oscar nomination. Until this year I should say perhaps because he really has a good shot now. One who already was an Oscar nominee back then was Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson was already a winner. For Colin Firth it took a little longer to become a winner himself. From the younger cast members, Keira Knightley and Chiwetel Ejiofor also went on to score Academy Award nominations and these two play a married couple in here, which is fairly remarkable if you look at Knightley’s age back then. Martin Freeman is still waiting and rightfully so. As for Laura Linney, this was from the most successful phase of her career you could say, the 2010s, but I just don’t see anything in her at all. Mannerisms and face expressions are always the same and the characters also not much of a difference in a lot of the stuff she is in. Here she once again plays a character like you and me who we are supposed to cheer for because we want her to be happy and she has a crush on the office stud (Rodrigo Santoro). After many years, she finally gets closer to him, but her ill brother gets in the way of this romance thriving any further. This was one of the weak plots of the film. But it was also a good example for us to see how effortlessly Thompson makes her character work and with Linney it is the exact opposite.

There are others with interesting career developments: Just take Andrew Lincoln and how he afterwards became the lead player in one of the biggest 21st century television franchises. Speaking of television franchises, also my fellow Mad Men fans will see something interesting in here. And Hugh Grant of course who gets to play the Prime Minister of Great Britain here. Maybe the connection to the young Tony Blair is no coincidence. Martine McCutcheon did not have the career afterwards that some expected her to have. Or maybe she did as a singer instead. Heike Makatsch is interesting for me to mention as I am from Germany and she was among the most famous German performers back then if we are looking at how they were seen and known in other countries. Not too much left of her popularity nowadays. The only kinda big name who is no longer with us is Alan Rickman and his character had a connection with Makatsch’s that made those two perhaps the least likable characters from the film. As for child actors, Thomas Brodie-Sangster had an early career performance here, even if he had already acted before, and he became pretty big since then. Definitely bigger than his film crush Olivia Olson, even if she has managed a fairly decent voice acting career. Another really unlikable character is Billy Bob Thornton’s little cameo as the unfaithful President of the United States of America. I could say „as Bill Clinton“, but liberals would get very mad there then I suppose. Love the actor though. Or also some are playing themselves like Claudia Schiffer. Or actually she is not, there are merely mentions of Schiffer herself, so something was bound to happen. But Ant and Dec play themselves and I see they were already famous back then. I think they are as annoying as they are now.

And finally, Rowan Atkinson also has a cameo in here on several occasions and that should surprise nobody if you take a look at Richard Curtis‘ past and how often he worked with the man where probably still more recognize the name Mr. Bean than the name Rowan Atkinson. Kinda strange though that he is mentioned on the poster because his screen time is extremely limited. His first scene was still kinda okay, but the second scene then is a bit odd and not too great how he helps the boy by distracting the man at the airport, so the kid can just run through the barrier. Maybe you can say in general that Atkinson’s character here is a bit of a helper because his delays with Rickman’s character also result in him not buying the precious article because he has no time. At least not buying it on this occasion. Of course, he does so later on. There was a lot I liked about this film and some stuff I did not like. If we start with the latter, I was not really won over by any scene from the Hugh Grant segment and some of it was really cringeworthy instead of funny. Take the scene when he dances and thinks nobody sees him, take the moments when he is mad at himself because of the stuff he does when in the presence of the woman he has an interest in. There are other examples, also on the dramatic side. When he stands up there during the press conference and verbally opposes BBT’s character because of what the latter did with McCutcheon’s before that, was fairly cringeworthy. The ending for his character with the car ride to find her and ring on every door was a bit odd too, just like the kiss on stage. By the way, of course he would find Makatsch’s character there next door to the one he is looking for. That also seemed like too much of a coincidence. In general, in terms of blood relation, friendships and romance etc. It was not too credible how all were connected somehow. Just take Thompson’s character for example and how she knows who she knows and unexpectedly runs into her brother, the Prime Minister, at this celebration in the end. It could actually make for a nice challenge to create a chart that shows us all the connections. But we are not gonna do that today.

Firth’s character we can also talk a bit more about today. His segments were also far from perfect and when all the sheets land in the water and what happens next was a bit gooey. Not necessarily that she jumps inside to get them back hoping they are not fully ruined, but Firth’s character’s talk immediately afterwards about how he now has to get in there too because otherwise he will not look manly enough. Also what happens in the water when the two are literally talking to each other through their thoughts. I did not like it a lot and less would have been more there I think. I can forgive them a bit for it though because the ending between these two I really adored. Maybe it is my foreign language background that made this fairly sweet for me, but not just him learning the language to be able to understand her was nice, but also the way we find out that she did the exact same thing was pretty cute. The revelation there with her words was maybe the film’s best moment. Sadly, there Curtis messed up a bit again too by taking it too far when we hear how Firth’s character all of a sudden wants to marry her right away. Don’t take the second step before the first! This is not the 1950s anymore. Another moment I really remember adoring was the one when Lincoln’s character showed the wedding video to Knightley’s. Or was almost forced to show. She found it a bit too quickly. But there it was not really the greatness of the writing, but I quite liked what Knightley did in this scene with her face expression acting only. Awkward in the best way imaginable. Lincoln was really good too though. The scene between the two later on at the door was a winner as well. This segment I really liked. It had a lot of charm I think.

But I also in a way liked the parts about the guy who wants to go to America and it all became true the way he imagined. That was pure comedy gold. Maybe this was one of the segments that social (and gender) justice warriors today would struggle with. How American girls are depicted in this scene. There are probably other issues for them too, like how McCutcheon’s character is called chubby on quite a few occasions they would perceive as weight shaming perhaps. And let’s not even talk about how they made a bit fun of slavery towards the end with Firth’s character’s segment. So I am at the end of the movie again and also at the end of my review. Overall, I can definitely say that I am glad I got to watch this film now again and for the first time on the big screen. Really nice that movie theaters are showing stuff like this again, even if this film is of course far from forgotten nowadays and still extremely popular, at least during the holidays. A lot more to talk about here: I also adored the song we hear many times throughout the film, or the slightly altered version I should say, because I adore R. E. M. In general. There are other nice music inclusions here that made it an even better watch. It was thanks to Nighy’s performance also when he started talking about not so child-friendly stuff during an interview. Of course, it is absurd to believe he really would have made it to the top, but the inclusion of the band Blue there (only talked-about, not seen I think) was decent too. As I stated already, there are some inclusions here that were not entirely credible or realistic (like Atkinson’s character’s wrapping too), but the more you succeed in looking past those, the more you will enjoy the outcome here. Everybody will like other comedic inclusions, segments and characters here I assume, but you will definitely not leave the movie theater indifferent afterwards. „Love Actually“ gets a thumbs-up from me. It’s also worth giving a watch long before or after the holiday season.