Richard Curtis’ “Love Actually” Triumphs in the End Essay

Introduction

What happens when someone would want to see a romantic flick, a Christmas theme, lots of big-name stars, and a light comedy rolled into one film? Then, Richard Curtis’ Love Actually (2003) would be the picture-perfect answer. Although the film is as forgetful as any light romantic comedy film we have seen in our lifetime, it surely made waves in connecting all the plots and characters in the film to make viewers realize that love is all around us. The film explores almost all the boundaries where love can exist and viewers could identify love in all its forms. Most of all, love is even more magnified because the film’s milieu is Christmas time in London – where everyone has no choice but to give love.

Main body

The most exemplary part of the film is not the barrage of famous actors and actresses who are part of the cast – where everyone will surely be delighted to see Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and even Mister Bean himself (Rowan Atkinson) in one movie. It is actually the effort of the film to show all facets of how love can exist – family love, romantic love, puppy love, and even platonic love. We can see that love sees no status when the bachelor Prime Minister himself (Hugh Grant) had found to see something special in one of his office staff. We can also see that love can be formed in unexpected places, in the part where nude film stand-ins found that they have many things in common. Viewers will also realize that love knows no language when a famous writer (Colin Firth) had sought solace, after being dumped by his wife, from a Portuguese maid who could not even understand the words she spoke to him. Of course, love can come from family members too, as the film also showed how a father taught his son to follow his heart.

Seeing the film would definitely make people realize that love is not just for lovers. It can be for everyone. In the movie, viewers can see an aging rockstar who had sudden revelations of his platonic love towards his manager. Also, we can feel the pangs of puppy love from a young boy, who risked bypassing Customs just to pursue his feelings of love to a little schoolmate who turned out to be a beautiful young Afro-American girl. In this part, it could also qualify in the notion of love knowing no race or creed. All in all, there are about nine interwoven tales of love that viewers can actually get an overload of all forms of love, aside from the fact that we can barely focus on the characters who are all big stars crammed up in one movie.

Despite the too common plots that were masterfully combined into one film, the film comes out as simple but sweet. It does not seek to become complicated because we all have a notion that love can be complicated sometimes. The movie slides through all the different plots and comes out as something special but not very memorable. As David Ansen (2003) judged the movie, the director “has whipped up a heaping meal of cinematic comfort food, sweet as English pudding and just spicy enough to earn an R rating”. It is a movie that is “a panoramic, star-studded British romantic comedy that is very eager to be liked”. Ansen (2003) concluded that although the move was “slick, expertly acted and shameless”, the film “is alternately beguiling and bloated, witty and warmed over, smart and pandering”.

Conclusion

Another critic Lewis Beale (2003) lashed out that Love Actually was “overlong and over-plotted, this wants to be another romantic comedy in the Notting Hill vein, but falls short”. Indeed, everyone cannot be pleased with this film because it has nothing new to offer or show the viewers. However, it seeks to warm the hearts of the most movie-going public. The various stories are too common that everyone can relate to it or see themselves as one of those characters. In the end, love triumphs above all odds, and the film comes out as a feel-good flick that succeeds to give a relatively pleasant viewing experience.

Works Cited

Ansen, David. “Playing to the Crowd: The Brit comedy ‘Love Actually’ aims to please. Before it makes $125 million, quick question: is it any good?” Newsweek (2003): 73.

Beale, Lewis. “Love Actually. (Buying & Booking Guide) (Movie Review).” Film Journal International 106.11 (2003): 52.