Love Actually

I liked this movie, although my disbelief was swinging like a pendulum over my head the entire time... I think it's my cynicism. There was some fairly syrupy moments in the film, although I never felt the need to vomit or crap because of them.

The film is one of those many sides of many people's lives and even though they are gently tied together, it's not very tightly. Their relationships to one another is not of extreme importance. The problem is that there are too many of them for you to truly care too much about any of them. Young Sam madly in love at the tender age of 11 and the steps that his stepfather (who is left as his sole caretaker now that his mum has passed away) goes to to help him out are just awesome. That was far and away my favorite of the storylines.

Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister who falls in love with one of his employees was pretty cute. There's a "He's a Hero" moments when he talks tough to the US President, as played by Billy Bob Thornton. The entire storyline didn't make a ton of sense though, because he winds up letting her go because he caught her in a tangle with the President. (No surprise, the President is a bit of a sleeze and is trying to mack on the girl.) It resolves itself with him tracking her down on the dodgy end of her street and wishing random voters Merry Christmas.

Another interesting storyline involved Colin Firth (you may know him as Mr. Darcy to Bridget Jones) falling in love with his housekeeper, who only speaks Portuguese. There are some cute exchanges between them as they struggle to communicate in their own languages, but ultimately I had a problem with the fact that he could fall in love with someone he didn't even know. Am I this addicted to the need for communication and it's importance in our lives?? You bet your ass. How can you fall in love with someone and not know anything about them?? That's not love, people. Still, I love Colin Firth in spite of myself (I had a wicked urge to watch The Importance of Being Earnest again.) so I was pretty happy when he was marching through her village to sweep her off her feet, with all of the villagers in tow.

There was a storyline involving Alan Rickman toying with the idea of an affair until his poor wife Emma Thompson finds out. Ho hum. Laura Linney chooses her mentally challenged brother over the hottie in her office that she's had a crush on for "Ahm, two years, seven months, three days and, I suppose, and hour and thirty minutes". Couldn't understand that for a second and if you could have SEEN that guy, neither could you. A couple meets while doing stand-in for a porno, that was weird. Then there are the two best friends, one of whom is in love with the others wife. I didn't get that one at all -- in the beginning it seemed as if they were gay and the one was forced to get married to some random girl. That was odd. And then there was the priceless Billy Mack, the aging rock star who's trying to make a comeback with "Christmas is all around" (to the tune of Love is All Around) and he's so over-the-top with his sex, drugs and rock & roll comments that you really HAVE to love him, actually. ;- )

So, there it is. Is it worth going to see? Yeah, I guess. But, if you wind up waiting for video you're not going to be cursing yourself.

Next up, I really want to see the damned Matrix Revolutions. What a pain -- I really don't think that I am even going to like it that much, but I sat through the first two and I want to see how it all ends. That's how they GET you!

OFF TO COFFEE...
HP