Review: Love Actually
This romantic comedy breaks the conventional mould of it’s genre in ways that no romcom has done before. With Love Actually, anyone wishing to watch doesn’t require a high level of estrogen. This was recently proven by my mass-murdering-torturing-violence-loving-exploding-death-war-loving boyfriend. In the beginning, he watched to please me. By the end? I watched it twice more to please him.
Love Actually explores outside the “conventional” love which is often portrayed in romantic comedies. The film sees ten unique stories beautifully entwined, each covering a different form of love. Though it remains in loves legal boundaries, the plot is quite literally the A-Z of love. We see the story of the husband, wife and wannabe mistress, the secret love, the love that can never be, the rockstar and his manager, the work mates (with a interesting twist), the step-father and son, the PM and his secretary, love through the language barrier, young love, and lastly, the unlucky in love, who tries to get lucky in America. A round of applause must be granted to the writes, in the way that they manage to not only tell each story, but link them together, without causing the audience to reach for the headache pills.
More credit must be granted to the impeccable cast. The crème de la crème of British actors and actresses are joined by a few yanks, thrown in to ensure the films success over the pond. As well as the typical actors found in romantic comedies – Hugh Grant and Colin Firth – you also find world class talent in superb performances by the likes of Bill Nighy and Laura Linney.
Nighy plays the has-been rock star Billy Mack, who is attempting a comeback with the help of his exasperated manager Joe. Billy Mack provides much of the comedy of the film, as shown in the opening scenes.
The opening scene depiction of Heathrow Airport and a small speech by Hugh Grant about love being “all around”, brings the warm gushy feeling to your stomach in the first five minutes. The following scene, shows Billy Mack in the recording studio where he gives the classic line: “shit, bugger, arse head and hole.” This line brings us right back to the very hilarious, and very British, reality which this film strongly tries to uphold.
Keeping in tune with reality is one of the many reasons that this film is a success, and manages to refrain from becoming an overly nostalgic lovey-dovey mush. My favourite proof of this has to be in the films one almost-sex scene. In the average romcom, it would have been quick-paced, passionate and noisy. Love Actually? Unplanned, slightly awkward start and a dress that won’t budge!
I must also grant a special round of applause – and an entire paragraph -to Martine McCutcheon. She brilliantly shakes off her tacky soap opera past to reveal fresh, believable acting talent. Her role as Natalie, the Prime Minister’s secretary sees McCutcheon wholly embrace the personality of the normal West London girl and grants her a space in all our hearts.
My personal love for this film comes from the fact that it is as British a film could ever be. The weddings are filled wit big hats, vol-au-vent buffets and dodgy DJs. The language is stuffed with handfuls of ‘bugger’ and gallons of ‘bloody.’ A common case with romcoms is for the British actors to attempt a non-regional dialect (once again to make the film more accessible for our old American buddies). Love Actually tosses this aside and instead the accents are as regional as you could possibly desire. Contained in this film is every form of the London accent that exists as well as Scottish, American and Portuguese! I also love the multicultural cast that truly reflects London streets. As well as this, the film has an inter-racial relationship in the form of Keira Knightly and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Love Actually continues to break moulds and bring new meaning to the word “romantic comedy” right to the very end. I had expected a disappointing and predictable romantic comedy ending, but I was wrong. The endings were as predictable as English weather. There are plenty of happy endings to please the usual romcom lovers, who only watch for the lovey-dovey feeling at the end and use these films to revive their hope in the big ‘L’. But what you must not forget is that this film intends to keep to reality by showing love at its worst as well as its best.