FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

eric262003 Due to his stature as the icon for British culture, complete with with aristocratic accents, and an immaculate view of upper-class London, writer/director Richard Curtis truly has the substance factor in his favour. However in his holiday season themed film "Love Actually", he throws all that posh out the window in resorts to sentimental gush, saccharine music and indecorous humour. This is a far cry from "Four Weddings and a Funeral".It's great that Curtis called up his partner in crime Hugh Grant to be one of the stars in "Love Actually", but he's been rendered down to a small supporting role and is lost in the crowd to the over-stacked ensemble cast. Grant plays the part of David, who's been a newly elected British Prime Minister, his comical moments truly usurps the other who's who in this ultra-British cast that includes Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy and Alan Rickman. In his witty and subtle demeanour, Grant has become a stapled icon in the romantic comedy genre and can generate a lot of humourous moments with his twitches and in this instant, the shake of his tush.A character break into dance mode has become common in romantic comedies, but Grant conveys a new and eccentric twist to what is an awkward predicament. When he was dancing to The Pointer Sisters' "Jump (For My Love)" we can see how embarrassed he his doing it, but his sportsmanship is something we can applaud to. With all these intertwining subplots, the one that's barely given screen time involves around Prime Minister David as he's mitten over his ravishing assistant Natalie (Martine McCutcheon). The chemistry between the sophisticated Prime Minister and the slightly lower class help is the one that sparked my interest the most. McCutcheon even adds an original twist to her character by breaking the cliche of the cute newly in love assistant by unceremoniously swearing at her superior.The opening scenes centres around the week before the holiday season as the ever-present variation of a Mod rock song "Love is All Around" with a hint of holiday cheer is rubbed into our faces. Yes the British love their pop music and Curtis is not ashamed to exploit that to us. He did a similar thing in "Four Wedding and Funeral" with "Bye Bye Baby" by the Bay City Rollers. This eye-roller sets the tone of many absurd things to come.With a myriad of romantic subplots, they could all stretch to half an hour segments before we see them one more time. Sadly, not all of them were not given enough time and could've easily been edited out. One example would be the body doubles John and Judy (Martin Freeman and Johanna Page) who are dating quietly while giving fake orgies on the movie sets. Or the story involving a hopeless romantic named Colin (Kris Marshall) who travels to America to use his British accent to woo hot women, which to me felt like an overlong coke commercial. Still most of the stories work due to the talent pool and the good vibes it brings to the story.Liam Neeson is wonderful as a widowed man named Daniel who's 11 year old stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) seeks his first crush, an American girl named Joanna (Olivia Olson). Sangster conveys a daring and dashing presence of energy in his character, but his drive feels too young and forced for his age. However, his comic skills when he meets his dreamboat for the first time is flawless.Colin Firth plays a sympathetic note here as Jamie who after feeling betrayed by his girlfriend (Sienna Guillory) hides out to his French cottage and gets love-struck by his Portuguese maid Aurelia (Lucia Moniz) though they can't speak each other's language, the magic comes from the fact that the language of love bears no boundaries. Moniz embodies a keen sense of intelligence and seductiveness to her character. Both Moniz and McCutcheon are more interesting performers than the more established ones here. Emma Thompson's housewife Karen believes that her husband Harry (Alan Rickman) is secretly having an affair with his sultry receptionist, Mia (Heike Makatsch). Thompson and Rickman's talents are badly wasted here and their cliched ways proves the point here. The love between each other makes it hard to believe that Harry is a cheater and when Karen who was expecting an expensive necklace from Harry as a Christmas gift only to realize that the gift was not for her (her's was a Joni Mitchell CD) we get the music score running with Mitchell's weary version of "Both Sides Now". The song was nice I felt bad for Karen, but it still was drained out.Laura Linney plays Sarah, who works at Harry's company and is attracted to her co-worker Karl (Rodrigo Santoro), but the relationship is set back due to her mentally ill brother, Michael (Michael Fitzgerald). Sure Curtis like to include somber pieces to his agenda, but the thing that transpire in this subplot results in strange and jarring moments. Bill Nighy has equal comical moments as Grant playing a has-been rock star knows his best years are behind him, but still has some optimism that his awful holiday song might be the keys to comeback and promotes this song at a gala event hosted by Sir Elton John. While he and his partner Joe (Gregor Fisher) spend the holidays inebriated and watching porn.Yes the British strive to get a #1 single has been a tradition since the 1960's which has a community feeling in the UK than it does in America. Sure the cost of oneness is expensive, especially having to deal with saccharine music.

rainegrewal So I watched this at the theatres when it first came out, with my sister and our children (ages 7 to 11) and in the third row from the front. Obviously last minute pick. At that time, I enjoyed it, found it entertaining. Didn't care for the Martin Freeman (naked stand-ins) story line - then mostly due to the fact that we had our children with us! So now watching it at home, 15 years later, I'm floored by how relevant this movie is--I still don't like the MF story line though. The acting is superb, the writing is good, the direction is on-point. Re-watching it, what surprised me is the story line with Hugh Grant. When I first watched this, I thought the character of the American President seemed over-the-top and unrealistic, but as I watched it tonight, I could not believe it! Billy Bob Thornton as the American President was playing Donald Trump. Wow!Overall, I thought the movie captured the "agony of love", all its pitfalls, its joys, its mundaneness and its reality. If you have never watched this thinking it "another rom-com", give it a chance. It has aged well.

tombutton15 I watched this film recently, mainly as my partner absolutely loves it. But I must say it is one of the worst films I have watched, for many reasons. One of the story-lines involves a man (Peter) getting married to his fiancée (Juliet). This guy has a best friend (Mark) who is in love with Juliet. She eventually finds out when she sees the footage of the wedding Mark took which features her. And just her. Instead of being creeped out, she is flattered. Later on there is this romantic scene where he confesses his love (because "It's Christmas"). How is this romantic? On the other hands another story-line features a WOMAN wanting to get it on with her (married) boss. Yet, it seems when a man does it it's romantic. But when it's a woman, then she is treated by the film as just a relationship-ruining, walking, talking vag**a. I'm not saying the secretary was in the right in any way. It's just the double-standard that gets to me here. Plus you have Colin Firth's character falling in love with a Portuguese woman. Despite neither of them being able to communicate because of the language barrier. Yeah, yeah, it's all romantic because they went and then learnt each others languages, but still, by the time they meet up again, both dual-linguistic, so Colin Firth can ask her for marriage, they still haven't actually spoken to each other yet. Then you have Colin. A guy who can't seem to get himself with any lady for some reason. I dunno, you'd think calling a woman you don't know your "Future Wife" would have her throw herself into your arms. He decides he'd have more luck in the US. Turns out he was unbelievably right, it a scene so completely over-the-top ridiculous and just utterly dumb, I was (and am) still convinced it was just Colin having some sleazy dream, because even in a fictional movie, it was just that ridiculous. And I haven't even got to the fat-shaming, the poor writing, the general sexism, the stupid airport scene (where the film went from completely cheesy to vomit inducing), the concept that the woman who worked at that office lost her chance at love because she has to care for her mentally ill brother, Emma Thompson's character telling a guy grieving over the death of his wife to get over it, Emma Thompson & Alan Rickman's story-arc...i could go on.Overall, I would not recommend this to any one. It manages to be cheesy, boring, sexist, and anger-inducing at the same time.Avoid

Sam_Owens There were several good story lines. The movie would have been much better without the Liam Neeson and Laura Linney stories. The fake porn people could of been dropped too. Next get rid of the dumb guy that goes to Wisconsin and finally fewer pictures of the skinny girl smiling. Bill was great, Hugh and thunder thighs were great and the Portuguese story was great.