Love Actually is perfect escapist entertainment.
Richard Curtis' directorial debut tells the tale of 9 stories of love, some of which
intertwine over the five weeks leading up until Christmas. What the film proves is what
we all know, which is when love doesn't work out, or simply being single, especially near
Christmas, can make you feel like shit. When things do work out, everything's completely
turned around, although if things don't work out repeatedly however much one tries
then one's conscience can only be consoled by several hours of
Grand Theft Auto,
a rocket-launcher and a cheat for infinite ammo.
When it comes to the cast in this ensemble piece with many well-known names and cameos,
although Hugh Grant doesn't make for a believeable Prime Minister, most of the actors
onscreen are just playing themselves or the same kind of character they always play,
often all trying to find love in one form or another so you can overlook any shortcomings
in characterisation as there are relationships that blossom which really do shine above
the rest such as that between Harry (Alan Rickman) and his horny secretary, Mia
(Heike Makatsch), despite the fact that he's married to Karen (Emma Thompson),
sister of the aforementioned Prime Minister.
There are relationships that are set to work out, while others don't, either due to fate or
because of knock-on effects of those that did.
It also seems like a longform video at times because a number of scenes punctuate the
characters' emotions by blasting out music to a backdrop of a nice central London skyline
and furnishings in posh studio apartments, where everyone's nice to each other and everything's
so nicey-nice you'd have thought the word "nice" hadn't actually been invented by The Good
Life as we all know they did.
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