Love Actually (2003). Far too many naughty bits for me to ever own it, but I tend to get it from the library every December. It's kind of a romantic comedy version of Crash (2004), though I guess since that came out a year later, maybe Crash is the dramatic version of Love Actually. Anyway, it's a series of interconnected vignettes about all kinds of disparate Londoners who each have some kind of love problem in their lives. I love how deeply some of them delve in just ten or twenty minutes, sprinkled here and there amid other story lines. My favorite characters are the widower Daniel (Liam Neeson) and his stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) -- Daniel is grieving over the wife he buries at the beginning of the film, and Sam is grieving too, but he's also falling in love with a fellow grade-schooler.
Neeson and Sangster have a great chemistry as two people finding their way into the new roles they have in each others' lives now that the one person who tied them together is gone. Every scene of theirs is a delight.
My other favorite couple is The Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) and Natalie (Martine McCutcheon). The bit where he ends up caroling to strangers on Christmas Eve always cracks me up, especially when his driver joins in with a surprising singing voice.
I'm also quite fond of John (Martin Freeman) and Just Judy (Joanna Page). I can't wait to see Freeman as the new Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit!
Of course, this movie is loaded with famous people, like Emma Thompson, Keira Knightly, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, and oodles more. It's a great blend of humor and pathos, and makes me alternately cry and laugh every time I watch it, sometimes both in the same scene. Plus, it's Christmasy!
I just watched it for the first time! Sam and his dad, and David and Natalie were what made it worth while (the Prime Minister's caroling was the best part of the whole movie!)! I also enjoyed (after the beginning) Colin Firth's story. I don't actually know about John and Judy because I skipped over all their parts. Might watch it again, might not. You never know!
ReplyDeleteMC, awww, how fun! I'm planning to rewatch this between Christmas and New Year's this year. Sam and Daniel are still my faves, but every time I watch it, I love someone new.
DeleteJohn & Judy's scene where he walks her home is totally okay, and very cute, but the rest, erm, noooooooo.
Hee, no, don't skip John and Judy's scenes! They're absolutely adorable, shy and awkward with each other, and the contrast of that with their job is so charming! (Yes, they're naked and pretending to have sex, and yet it still comes across as innocent as they focus on each other's faces and flirt in such a sweet, bashful way!)
DeleteKristycat, I agree -- I, as a mature, married adult woman, have watched Judy & John's scenes. Once. They're cute and sweet. But they're also naked, and some people choose not to view naked people who are not their spouses, and I 100% support that as well. Better to avoid what you will feel guilty about or are convicted in your conscience is wrong for you to watch, than to watch it for the sake of cuteness and burden your conscience needlessly.
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