As the film's trailer takes pains to point out, Love Actually is being brought to us by the same folks who gave us Four Weddings and a Funeral , Notting Hill , and Bridget Jones's Diary . It's fitting that these three films are being evoked as sort of a Holy Trinity of romantic comedy, for Love Actually turns out to be something of a greatest hits compendium for the genre over the past decade. Unfortunately, writer Richard Curtis (who is making his directorial debut with this movie) seems to have overstretched his talents here, offering up no less than ten stories of love in its many forms (including romantic, platonic, familial, and unrequited). While some of these vignettes are compelling, an equal number feel borderline superfluous, and the film would have been better served by focusing on fewer storylines. Richly drawn characters spouting witty dialogue are Curtis's forte, but the sheer number featured in Love Actually prevent the audience from engaging in their lives the way they did in the aforementioned three films.
This is not to say that Love Actually is an unpleasant film to watch; if anything, it has "crowd-pleaser" written all over it. Even the stories that are strong candidates for the cutting-room floor drew gasps of laughter from the audience I viewed the film with. Some Americans may take umbrage at the stereotypically vapid presentation they are allotted in the movie (Laura Linney's character excepted), but otherwise Love Actually has all the earmarks of a vast international holiday success.
This universal appeal can be attributed to both Curtis's script (despite some weaknesses, he still knows how to tell a good old-fashioned love story) and to the top-notch cast Curtis and producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner managed to snare. Hugh Grant, master of the throwaway line, is given another plum role as the country's newly minted prime minister, a master politician who finds himself at a loss of words around Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), a member of his household staff. At this point, Grant has appeared in so many romantic comedies that he could probably do them in his sleep; it's a testament to his skills as an actor that he manages to keep each performance fresh. Those who accuse him of playing the same role over and over again have clearly not seen the work he has done in the past few years (especially About a Boy).
Bill Nighy also stands out in a hilarious turn as an over-the-hill rock star forced to record a dreadful Christmas single, and Emma Thompson and Liam Neeson, both of whom have been largely off the radar screen of late, remind us of what we have been missing with their deeply felt emotional performances.
As the end credits roll, many of the storylines may quickly slip from one's mind, but the ones that remain – the tentative romance between the prime minister and Natalie, Colin Firth's sweet flirtation with a Portugese maid who doesn't speak English, Bill Nighy's belated appreciation of his manager, and Liam Neeson's bonding moments with his stepson (Thomas Sangster) – make Love Actually a film worthy of comparison to its predecessors.
Copyright © Beth Gilligan 2002-2005
Rating:
0.0 / 5
(0 votes)
|
8035 views
|
Previous
|
Next
|
Best prices on Love Actually
|
Print
|
Email page