Love Actually (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:180
Fresh:114
Rotten:66
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: A sugary tale overstuffed with too many stories. Still, the cast charms.
Runtime: 2 hrs 15 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed – but I don’t see that – seems to me that love is everywhere. Igniting laughter, wreaking havoc, breaking... General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed – but I don’t see that – seems to me that love is everywhere. Igniting laughter, wreaking havoc, breaking hearts, daring commitments, forcing choices, catapulting spirits, forging inroads, creating risks—ecstatic, exciting, unexpected, unwelcome, inconvenient, inexplicable, inelegant, unequalled. Love actually is all around. From the new bachelor Prime Minister (HUGH GRANT) instantly falling in love with a refreshingly real member of the staff (MARTINE McCUTCHEON) moments after entering 10 Downing Street… To a writer (COLIN FIRTH) escaping to the south of France to nurse his re-broken heart who finds love in a lake… From a comfortably married woman (EMMA THOMPSON) suspecting that her husband (ALAN RICKMAN) is slipping away… To a new bride (KEIRA KNIGHTLEY) mistaking the distance of her husband’s best friend for something it’s not… From a schoolboy seeking to win the attention of the most unattainable girl in school… To a widowed stepfather (LIAM NEESON) trying to connect with a son he suddenly barely knows… From a lovelorn junior manager (LAURA LINNEY) seizing a chance with her long-tended, unspoken office crush… To an aging “seen it all, remember very little of it” rock star (BILL NIGHY) jonesing for an end-of-career comeback in his own uncompromising way… Love, the equal-opportunity mischief-maker, is causing chaos for all. These London lives and loves collide, mingle and climax on Christmas Eve—again and again and again—with romantic, hilarious and bittersweet consequences for anyone lucky (or unlucky) enough to be under love’s spell. Acclaimed screenwriter RICHARD CURTIS (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary) now steps behind the camera for his directorial debut on his latest project, Love Actually—the ultimate romantic comedy that weaves together a spectacular number of love affairs into one amazing story. Curtis is re-teamed with producers DUNCAN KENWORTHY and Working Title’s TIM BEVAN and ERIC FELLNER—the filmmakers responsible for some of the most popular looks at modern love in all its guises, including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary. The powerhouse cast brought together for this look at love and laughter also includes ROWAN ATKINSON, ANDREW LINCOLN, MARTIN FREEMAN, KRIS MARSHALL, THOMAS SANGSTER, JOANNA PAGE, LUCIA MONIZ, BILLY BOB THORNTON and many others. Joining Curtis and producers Kenworthy, Bevan and Fellner are an esteemed group of behind-the-camera talent, including director of photography MICHAEL COULTER, B.S.C. (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Sense and Sensibility), production designer JIM CLAY (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), editor NICK MOORE (Notting Hill, The Full Monty, About a Boy), costumer JOANNA JOHNSTON (The Sixth Sense, Contact), composer CRAIG ARMSTRONG (William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, The Quiet American) and casting director MARY SELWAY, C.D.G. (Notting Hill, Gosford Park). [More]
Starring: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley
Starring: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Rowan Atkinson, Martine McCutcheon, Shannon Elizabeth
Director: Richard Curtis
Director: Richard Curtis
Screenwriter: Richard Curtis
Producer: Duncan Kenworthy, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
Composer: Craig Armstrong
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Love Actually
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Disconcertingly lubricious. Full Review |
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It’s a perfectly respectable debut for Curtis. Full Review |
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This is an embarrassment, an overdrawn rom-com gone very wrong. Full Review |
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A charming little film that, unfortunately, gets carried away with itself and never quite makes the grade. Full Review |
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It wants to swirl round the world and find love in every cranny, but it doesn't have the effortless rush of energy that it would need to make the masses of plot come together. Full Review |
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No review available.
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This kind of comedy has just hit the wall. Full Review |
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You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! And you’ll go home feeling ever so slightly used… Full Review |
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'Why make one good romantic comedy when you can make nine bad ones?' Full Review |
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Warm, bittersweet and hilarious, this is lovely, actually. Prepare to be smitten. Full Review |
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At many points it's memorable, affecting and funny. But just as often it's lachrymose and in thrall to a breathtaking sentimentality that provides a cinematic sugar-rush. Full Review |
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[Richard Curtis is] a smart enough filmmaker to play with cliches without ever falling back on them; the overall structure is carefully manipulative and we don't mind at all. Full Review |
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Bombastic audience-hooting moments aside, Curtis has written his most accomplished film, finding the energy to direct the hell out of it as well. And it's even gloriously R-rated to boot. Full Review |
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N/R
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Click to read the article Full Review |
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Loads of fun as long as your expectations aren’t overly raised by the hype, the cast and the taglines. Full Review |
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Transfixed by the taboos of the...British class system, Curtis seems to think that nothing could be more erotic than the subordinate who fetches tea or dusts the crockery. Full Review |
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For the cuddlers out there who like things a little too light and fluffy. Full Review |
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No review available.
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This is cloying, deceitful, and more or less irresistible. Full Review |
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Without ever sounding a false note, this endearing ensemble holiday flick manages to be nuttier than Notting Hill, more satisfying than Bridget Jones' Diary, and even more intricate than Four Weddings and a Funeral. Full Review |
Latest News for Love Actually
September 07, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis has a plan. "What I've decided is to choose recent films," he explains to RT. "I do think that often people get stuck in always saying the five greatest films of... More...
April 02, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Bill Nighy
There can be few actors better suited to starring in a film about the golden age of British rock and roll than Bill Nighy. No wonder, then, that he's front and centre as part of... More...
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