LOVE, ACTUALLY

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Because of: nudity, sexual content, language

Rated:

Love is all around us, in everyone's life. This is the story of eight couples in the weeks before a British Christmas. Most of the storylines are sweet and intoxicating, a few are remarkable, and two of them are offensive. It's a surprisingly intricate film for being so segregated into "portions." Everyone knows someone else and at the end it wraps into a pretty little package. If the lure of plot means nothing, then at least you have the joys of watching one of the largest collection of English actors to date, including a bunch of Austen production thespians. The irony of having Emma Thompson married to Alan Rickman, being Hugh Grant's little sister, and befriending Liam Neeson is just too good to miss.

In the weeks before Christmas, various couples are experiencing renewed joy, getting together, or splitting up. Washed up singer Billy Mack (Bill Nighty) has just rewritten one of his classic romance songs with holiday lyrics, and it's climbing the charts. A vulgar, foul-mouthed old man with lecherous appetites and slightly off the wall comments, he's unhappy at being stuck in with his "overweight manager," thinks his latest song is "crap, but you should buy it anyway," and couldn't care less if it makes a dime. It starts climbing the charts, influencing the lives of all who hear it. Jamie Bennett (Colin Firth) has just gone to the wedding of an old friend, and returned home to find his girlfriend cheating on him with his younger brother. Dejected and tired of love, he moves into a cabin in the countryside to recover and is befriended by the non-English speaking Portuguese maid Aurelia. She's falling in love with him, too. In the meantime, Daniel (Liam Neeson) is attempting to recover from the death of his wife. His ten year old son Sam (Thomas Sangster) has become emotionally withdrawn and hides away in his room. Daniel soon discovers his son's melancholy is because he's in love, and the two scheme how to best "win the girl."

England's new Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) is unorthodox and constantly berating himself for "flubbing up" in public. He's distracted by one of the new interns, but has political powers to contend with, no time for romance. In the meantime, Karen (Emma Thompson) is slowly coming to realize that her husband (Alan Rickman) may be conducting an affair with his sexy secretary, and Juliet (Kiera Knightley) stumbles onto the knowledge that her new husband's best friend has loved her silently from afar. Then there's the unlucky at love British guy who just wants romance, and decides to head for America because the women there are "buxom, beautiful, bold, and totally dig the British accent!" (Well, he got the last part right.) The movie-stand-ins that manage to find innocent romance despite their nudity-entrenched day job, and the quiet secretary who has been in love with a co-worker for years but never made a move. By Christmas Eve a few hearts will be broken, others mended, proposals offered, first dates conducted, and marriages strengthened as all find that love is in the air year around, not just at Christmastime.

Movies like this could be extremely hard to follow, but Love, Actually manages to keep us interested by showing how the plots are interwoven. Sisters, cousins, friends, and coworkers bring everyone into an airport for the movie's final scene. Even though the movie cannot cover a great deal of character development, tight writing and good directing keep us appraised of exactly what's going on at every given moment. The best "new" romances are those of Hugh Grant and Colin Firth's individual characters, and the women who blundered their way into the men's lives. The intern who can't keep her mouth shut, and the import who manages to drown Colin's manuscript in the lake and then dives in after it. I also liked the Kiera Knightley subplot because it's very frank, honest, and not self-seeking. Her husband's best friend isn't there to lure her away from her happy new marriage. He's just there. He comes by on Christmas Eve to offer a touching gift in friendship, and the relationship between them is so innocent and sweet that we're certain they'll remain just good friends.

The most interesting and complicated plot involves Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman's characters. Harry is a good husband by all appearances but lured slightly by his secretary, who makes obvious plays for him. As most men would be, he's slightly intrigued -- enough to get manipulated into purchasing her an expensive piece of jewelry, but is never unfaithful to his wife. She, in the meantime, suffers the belief that he is. (Emma gives a remarkable performance of solitary shock and sorrow when she realizes that the pretty little trinket she found in her husband's coat pocket isn't meant for her.) There are good performances all around and enough romantic ballads to make cynics go weak at the knees. It could have been a fabulous chick flick were it not for all the unnecessary and blatantly coarse content. Porno Christmas art in the background at a party is the least of it, the worst being simulated sexual acts by two nude movie stand-ins. (There's never any male frontal, but upper on females numerous times.) Co-workers get pretty frisky in an apartment but are ultimately interrupted by the telephone. (Not before half her clothes come off.)

Sex-related dialogue intervenes on many occasions, whether it's tongue in cheek (Billy Mack jokes about sleeping with Britney Spears) or more serious (such as when Jamie returns to his apartment to hear his girlfriend shouting for his brother to hurry up and get in the bedroom). There are a lot of offensive implications and pieces of dialogue, but language is even more of a deterrent. Two abuses of Christ's name mingle with about a dozen f-words. Billy Mack talks about his former drug addiction and jokes that kids don't need to buy them; become a pop star, and they give it to you for free. Lobsters are present at a nativity scene in a school play, and rather than singing a carol the children cater to "Catch a Falling Star." In America, our sex-obsessed Englishman makes a passé reference to God when confronted with the notion of spending the night with four naked females (seen undressing him in silhouette through a window), prompting one of them to croon, "Oooh, and he's a Christian, too!"

There are also some social and political commentaries to be concerned about. Americans may be offended that our president is portrayed as a womanizing bully (a double-whammy, since one is a direct reference to the Clinton Administration, and the other fits in with liberal hogwash surrounding President Bush), and in a press conference the Prime Minister lashes out, saying that relations between the two countries will no longer be submissive and sweet. Many have credited Hugh's character as also taking a dig at Tony Blair; certain similarities and habits are obvious. Daniel asks his son if his crush is male or female. These moral blunders turn what was a fun film into much less enjoyable Christmas treats. I wouldn't see it unedited, but several wonderful companies offer a family-friendly version that eliminates the pornographic sub-plot, takes out the blonde American bimbos and their British boyfriend, and removes all the sexual dialogue. It's well worth seeing in altered form, it's just too bad filmmakers didn't give us that option in the first place.