ViewGuide

Created Dec 26, 2016 10:08PM PST • Edited Jul 14, 2019 08:26AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   As cheerfully commercial Christmas movies go, Love Actually is actually a crappy, er, great one. Stars aplenty populate ten mostly separate love stories, making for a generally lighthearted confection. Writer-director Richard Curtis is a master of these trendy RomComs. Like his Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, Love Actually stars Hugh Grant, here as a Tony Blair-like UK Prime Minister.

   The movie is approaching its sell-by date however, since Tony Blair has long since left Downing Street, one of several cultural references that no longer resonate. Fortunately, it benefits from several clever bits and a handful of bracingly serious notes, including a glimpse into the familial impact of mental illness.

   The funniest recurring bit centers on the nakedly crass song Christmas Is All Around Us, a rather catchy little number. Like Love Actually itself, it’s an effective – albeit nakedly crass – commercial confection.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Strong Ensemble Cast

   • Bill Nighy hit late career gold as an over-the-hill pop star who hits late career gold.
     • Gregor Fisher plays his long suffering manager.
   • Chiwetel Ejiofor & Keira Knightley jumped offscreen as an exceptionally attractive couple.
     • Andrew Lincoln plays their third wheel.
   • Alan Rickman & Emma Thompson employ their matchless dryness as a long-married couple.
     • Heike Makatsch smolders as a secretary with unholy intent.
   • Hugh Grant channels Tony Blair, if the New Labour star were single.
     Martine McCutcheon is a delight as his profane muse.
     • Billy Bob Thornton plays POTUS as a horndog bully, i.e., how a Lefty guy like Richard Curtis must of viewed Bill Clinton & George W. Bush.
   • Colin Firth & Lúcia Moniz play a jilted author and his unlikely romantic savior.
   • Liam Neeson & a preteen Thomas Sangster play a father-son dealing with loss and love.
     • Olivia Olson & Claudia Schiffer cameo as their romantic saviors. Olson won great acclaim for her bravura rendition of Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You.
   • Laura Linney plays a repressed career woman, with Rodrigo Santoro her object of office desire.
     • Michael Fitzgerald cameos as her mentally ill brother, in a heartbreaking scene.
   • Kris Marshall plays a charming goof convinced that American girls will love his British accent.
     • January Jones, Elisha Cuthbert, Ivana Milicevic, Shannon Elizabeth & Denise Richards comprise a fantasy harem of American girls who do just that.
   • Martin Freeman & Joanna Page play an oddball pair of nude models.
   • Rowan Atkinson plays a very funny Christmas angel, first at Selfridges and then at Heathrow. Atkinson & Richard Curtis are longtime collaborators.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    Writer-director Richard Curtis is a master at trendy, glossy comedies studded with lump-in-your-throat moments. Love Actually is of a piece with Pirate Radio, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill.

    The leavening drama in Love Actually comes from an affecting marital crisis and a sensitive glimpse of severe mental illness. The rest might be manipulative crap, but those serious notes elevate the entire film.

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.0

    Some oddball nudity and a fantasy harem in Wisconsin (of all places) give the movie some cheerful titillation.

17. Sex Titillating 2.5

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Salty 2.4

21. Reality

    Glib 1.8

    It’s true that British accents are given undue deference here in the States, but that doesn’t mean bars full of hotties in middle-America are waiting for a goofball Brit to walk through the door.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Glib 1.5

24. Physical Natural 1.0