London, five weeks before Christmas. Mark tapes the wedding of Juliet and Peter with his camera. When Juliet insists on seeing the recording, she finds out Mark only taped her face and is in love with her... Writer Jamie falls in love with his Portuguese maid Aurelia, but she doesn't speak English... Harry, the director of an agency, decides to buy a necklace for Christmas for one of his attractive employees, Mia, but his wife Karen spots the gift... David, the British Prime Minister, falls in love with his assistant Natalie... After the death of his wife, Daniel tries to help his 10-year old son Sam gain affection of the girl he is in love with, Joanna, by having him play the drums on her school concert... Sarah finally asks her coworker Karl out on a date... Colin doesn't have success with women, so he travels to Wisconsin and meets three American girls at a bar who fall for his British accent... Stand-ins for a sex scene in a film, John and Judy, decide to go out on a date...
The feature length debut film of screenwriter Richard Curtis is definitely weaker than his previous screenwriting-exclusive works, such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Bridget Jones's Diary", but it still has enough of his specific charm and heart-warming humanity that it is able to stand on its own. "Love Actually" has a major problem: it is overburdened by its 9 different stories which are of uneven, disparate quality, since at least four of them are weak and should have been cut (Daniel and Sam; Harry and Karen; Colin; Sarah and Karl) for the sake of a more fluent pace and narrative. These four are simply subpar. The story of Sam, a 10-year old who is in love with a girl, so his dad Daniel tries to help him and persuades him to even run through metal detector control at the airport, so he is chased by several security guards, only to say goodbye to the girl before her flight, becomes so naive, sugary and cliche that it is embarassing. And no joke in said story is able to outweigh the cringe factor in that airport finale. Another missed opportunity is the Sarah and Karl story: it starts off great, with the boss Harry and Sarah having this exchange: "Tell me, exactly, how long it is that you've been working here?" - "2 years, 7 months, 3 days and, I suppose, what... 2 hours". - "And how long have you been in love with Karl?" - "2 years, 7 months, 3 days and, I suppose, an hour and 30 minutes." Sarah and Karl finally go out, they go to bed, start kissing, but all of a sudden her phone rings—and instead of ignoring it and enjoying the person she loved and is right there with her now, she stops and picks up the phone to have the call. After the call, they try to resume kissing, but then the phone rings again—and instead of taking a hint from Karl's angry reaction, she again picks up the phone and talks for minutes, until the momentum is gone. This is anticlimactic.
Colin's story is the most preposterous. Having no luck with British women, he concludes that he has better chances with American women, as he hilariously declares: "I'm Colin, God of sex, I'm just on the wrong continent". He indeed travels to the US, to Wisconsin, goes to a bar, and then meets three attractive American women who find his British accent charming. They invite him to their home, to sleep over, in the same bed, without clothes, because it is "too hot inside" the bedroom. Throughout, you expect that this will turn out to be a parody or some sort of a satirical dream sequence at the end, and expect a cynical punchline. But no. This exaggerated, ridiculous situation is presented straight-forward, in all seriousness, as something realistic. It's a parody that doesn't know it's a parody, something like Poe's law. Luckily, other stories are better and charming, with great performances by Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Bill Nighy as the cynical rock star. The story where Jamie and his maid Aurelia fall in love, but cannot communicate because they only speak English and Portuguese, respectively, but in the end learn each other's languague to ask each other out, is sweet, as is the one involving Juliet realizing Mark filmed only her close-ups at the wedding, and completely forgot about filming her husband, because he is secretly in love with her. There are too many stories here, but the Christmas finale is emotional, optimistic and uplifting, believing in the kindness of people. Curtis combines all these characters by a common search for love, and although he is actually more inspired during the more sarcastic-cynical moments than during the syrupy ones, "Love Actually" is a feel-good fairytale that gives idealistic energy to its viewers.
Grade:++
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