In London, from five weeks before Christmas up to a month after Christmas, the lives of different persons are linked by love. The Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) and the member of his household, Natalie (Martine McCutcheon); his sister Karen (Emma Thompson),her husband Harry (Alam Rickman) and Harry's secretary, Mia (Heike Makatsch); Harry's employees, Sarah (Laura Linney),a woman with a serious problem in her life, and the designer Karl (Rodrigo Santoro); the writer Jamie Bennett (Colin Firth) and his Portuguese maid Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz); the grieving widow Daniel (Liam Neeson) and his son, Sam; a porn actress and her colleague; the singer Billy Mack (Billy Nighy) and his manager; the just married couple Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Juliet (Keira Knightley) and their best man Mark (Andrew Lincoln); a British young man that travels to USA, trying to score women in that country.
"Love Actually" is a delightful homage to love. There are different situations, some of them dramatic, others funny, sometimes touching but never corny. The interconnection of the stories has a perfect timing. The cast is a constellation, highlighting the shining beauty of Keira Knightley and the nice role of Hugh Grant. There are many wonderful moments, such as the collective interview of the Prime Minister and the American president; or the moment when Karen finds that her Christmas gift is a CD of Joni Mitchell; or when Mark declares his secret love for Juliet; or the relationship of Daniel and Sam; or when Daniel meets Carol; or when the manager of Billy makes a comment about Elton John; or the narration in off in the beginning of the movie. I believe I could list many other magnificent moments, but better off the reader of my review rent or buy the DVD and have a good time. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Simplesmente Amor" ("Simply Love")
Love Actually
2003
Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance
Love Actually
2003
Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance
64% - Critics
72% - Audience
7.6Keywords: christmaslondon, englandusa presidentrock starchristmas party
Plot summary
Against the backdrop of aged has-been rock star Billy Mack's (Bill Nighy's) Christmas themed comeback cover of "Love Is All Around", which he knows is crap and makes no bones about it, much to his manager Joe's (Gregor Fisher's) chagrin as he promotes the record, several interrelated stories about romantic love and the obstacles to happiness through love for Londoners are presented in the five weeks preceding Christmas. Daniel's (Liam Neeson's) wife has just died, leaving him to take care of his adolescent stepson Sam (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) by himself. Daniel is uncertain how to deal with Sam and his problems without his wife present, especially in light of a potential budding romance within their household. Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) have just gotten married. They believe that Peter's best friend and best man Mark (Andrew Lincoln) hates Juliet, but won't say so to his or her face. Others looking at the situation from the outside believe Mark is jealous of Juliet, as he is in love with Peter. Jamie (Colin Firth),a writer, is taking a writing retreat by himself in rural France following catching his latest girlfriend (Sienna Guillory) in an indiscretion. Jamie ends up spending much time in France with Aurelia (Lúcia Moniz),the Portuguese woman hired as the housekeeper. The question becomes not only if they can communicate their day-to-day needs with each other as she speaks no English, he speaks no Portuguese, and neither speaks French very well, but communicate what seems to be their increasing mutual attraction to each other. Sarah (Laura Linney) has been in love with her co-worker Karl (Rodrigo Santoro) for the two years they have worked together, this attraction about which everyone in their workplace knows. Sarah has to decide if she can be forward enough to express this love directly to Karl, especially in light of what has been her personal priority of dealing with a family issue. Harry (Alan Rickman) and Karen (Dame Emma Thompson) have been in a stable long term marriage. His new assistant Mia (Heike Makatsch) drops hints to him that she would like them to be romantically involved. Harry has to decide whether to fall to the temptation, especially considering being married to a perceptive wife. Single and relatively young David (Hugh Grant) is the newly elected Prime Minister. At 10 Downing Street, he is attracted to one of the new household servants, Natalie (Martine McCutcheon),but isn't sure what to do about it seeing as to their respective positions, the probable public scrutiny, and an incident involving the visiting U.S. President (Billy Bob Thornton). Socially unaware Colin Frissell (Kris Marshall) believes that the lack of romantic love in his life is all the fault of standoffish British women. As such, he decides to take decisive albeit somewhat unusual geographic action. And John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page) are movie body doubles. They can communicate with each other straightforwardly while they are simulating sex filming a movie, but they may not be able to translate the feelings behind that simulation in real-life to each other.
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Delightfull Homage to Love
Pretty good
This wasn't so bad; it has a warm and fuzzy feel to it and I can see why it's so popular. The writing is of a better quality than expected although the odd casting choices go for popularity rather than talent, so I could have done without Nighy, Grant et al.
This is a great film to watch with a box of Kleenex
This film is an odd one in my household. Although my wife is a rather famous romance writer, for once I actually liked a romantic film more than her. I think the reason for our divergent views is that in most romance novels, all the nice people get the love of their lives by the end of the film. However, in LOVE ACTUALLY, some do but others do not. So, if you need to have a romance where everything works out perfectly, this is NOT the film for you. However, if you are like me and don't mind a bit of ambiguity about the characters, then you are sure to love this film.
This story is a complicated film where there are many different stories occurring at the same time just before Christmas. What ties this all together is that the various stories all relate to each other somehow. In other words, this film is about people and their friends also have separate stories that diverge. I rarely have seen this type of film work so well.
I could spend a lot of time talking about all the plots but I won't bother. Part of this is because there isn't enough space here to adequately do it and part of it is because there are tons and tons of very thorough reviews already on IMDb for this film, so I don't want to plow familiar ground. Read these longer reviews if you are interested in a play-by-play analysis.
Instead, understand that some of the romances work out perfectly, others are uncertain and others are heart-breakers--just like in real life. In fact, that's the beauty of this film. While you really can't believe all the plots (some are very, very far-fetched and silly),all the people talk like real people. And the romances are just so adorable and sweet you can't watch this film and keep a dry eye. Plus, in the cases where the romance fails, I liked them as well because they all had wonderful object lessons for us all.
Amazingly acted, directed and written--this is one case where a popular film actually deserves all the hoopla. In the UK it's sold like a bazillion DVDs and I can see why.
By the way, there were only two things about the film I did not particularly like. First, the Prime Minister's love interest (Natalie) was a lovely woman but repeatedly throughout the film they made fat jokes about her. This made no sense, as she was gorgeous and the comments tended to reinforce the stereotype that a beautiful woman must be stick-thin--like Keira Knightley. Even if she was overweight, which she wasn't, this is gross to say and the film made it seem cute or funny to do so (not just with her but with a Portuguese lady as well). She was curvy and even if these gross comments were true, women are supposed to have curves and not be anorexic!! Second, the scene where the little boy runs through security really, really annoyed me. In reality, the kid would have either been shot or arrested and the airport would have been shut down--yet the movie shows no consequences for this insanely stupid and selfish behavior. Neither problem ruined the film but they did detract from my enjoyment of an otherwise brilliant movie.