I'll be honest, I have a little bit of a bias against romance movies in the same way that I have a bit of a bias against horror movies. It's not that I inherently dislike them, it's just that there's a lot of tropes in both genres that get overused, so when I see these tropes used I find myself viewing these films through a tougher lens. However, I saw a considerable amount of high praise for this movie, so I was determined to at least give this a chance.
In giving it a chance, I was not disappointed. Love Actually is a delightful if absurd movie, with a massive cast, brilliant dialogue, good performances and a lot of stories to tell. It's through telling so many stories that the film finds its greatest strength, and its greatest weakness.
Seriously, there are nine different story threads that are all in some way interconnected and all need to be built up and then resolved in the space of 2 hours. What's more, they all have to somehow sync up around Christmas. Each thread is entertaining in its own way, containing name actors having fun in their roles and basically working with their own innate charisma, because with so many stories there's not enough time to actually build character, leaving the general feel of the characters to be portrayed by the actors rather than the story itself.
There's the story of Julie (Keira Knightley), Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and Mark (Andrew Lincoln). Peter and Mark are best friends, and Julie and Peter are newlyweds. Mark fancies Julie, so he's kept his distance, but Julie discovers his secret. This one's a bit annoying, and contains some of the issues that I have with romantic movies. The key problem in this case is the fact that a lot of gestures that seem romantic because the movie says they are romantic are actually really creepy, and such is the case with Mark's gesture to Julie at the resolution of their arc. Mark silently professes his love for Julie, and it's both creepy and unbelievable, because according to their conversations post-reveal, the two have basically never spoken beforehand.
The same problem can be seen in the story of Jamie (Colin Firth) and Aurelia (Lucia Moniz). This one features Jamie withdrawing to his cottage after he discovers his girlfriend cheating on him with his brother (oof, sad things seem even sadder when it happens to Colin Firth). It's there that he meets Aurelia, his new housekeeper who only speaks Portuguese. Despite the language barrier, the two manage to connect, and eventually Jamie learns enough Portuguese to ask for her hand in marriage, to which she says yes. This is far less creepy, and actually kind of sweet, but again ridiculous when you consider this all happens over a period of a few weeks. Have them end up together? sure. Have them get engaged? That's a bit much.
There are a couple of excellent stories, however. The story of Sarah (Laura Linney) is bittersweet, but ultimately real because she chooses to assist her mentally ill brother instead of pursuing a potential relationship. It isn't necessary for these two things to be mutually exclusive, but in this moment, it is for her.
The story that follows married couple Harry (Alan Rickman) and Karen (Emma Thompson) and Harry's temptations with Mia (Heike Makatsch) is a bit more tragic, and isn't entirely unbelievable, just a little rushed and underdeveloped, which is to be expected with so many stories happening at once.
To avoid going on much longer, I'll just say that the stories that follow Liam Neeson's Daniel and Hugh Grant's David are both sweet and end happily, and the other story threads are predictable and silly but mostly played for comedy, so they're not without their charm.
Each actor pulls their weight and the dialogue is tremendous, which makes up for the weak characterisation that survives on pre-built characters.
The Verdict: Love Actually is light movie that doesn't profess to take itself seriously; it's fluffy and tender, with a lot of laughs from its hilarious dialogue, and it's sin is trying to tell too many love stories at once and ultimately stretching credulity with its sheer number of coincidences. I can comfortably recommend this movie to anyone who doesn't mind their films a little heavy on the romantic side.
Rating: 7/10
Published July 10th, 2016
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