Yay Netflix! I'm not sure how the film migrated to the top of my Netflix queue (probably I had heard something good about, and Ksenia asked me to get some romantic things. And/or maybe I noticed it was "Rated R for Sexuality, nudity and language", the triple threat!)
But anyway...Love Actually is a great movie, a British romantic comedy consisting of at least ten interwoven subplots.
The connections between the subplots aren't too forced (well, maybe a bit at the end) but they let the movie cover a wide range of romantic experience:
- love across language barriers
- love across social ranks
- comraderie from years of working together
- forbidden feelings for your friend's new wife
- infidelity in the workplace
- love after the loved one dies
- performing great feats to prove young love
- love blocked by other obligations
- love expeditions in the New World
- even love on the outskirts of the arthouse pornography industry
Be sure to check out the DVD's deleted scenes, there was a lot that had to be left on the cutting room floor due to time constraints.
I'd strongly recommend this film to anyone who hasn't seen it, especially if they like that whole British polite comedy. Heck, it's probably even worth seeing a second time. It's a little sappy around the edges, but I think that's forgivable, especially around Christmas (the entire film is set in the 5 week run-up to the holiday.) Young Thomas Sangster's recreation of Colin Firth's heartstruck stoic has to be seen to be believed... and they're not even in the same subplot.
