Love Actually (2003)

Number Rolled: 45

Movie Name/Year: Love Actually (2003)

Genre: Romance

Length: 134 minutes

Rating: R

Director: Richard Curtis

Writer: Richard Curtis

Actors: Bill Nighy, Gregor Fisher, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Kris Marshall, Heike Makatsch, Martin Freeman, Joanna Page, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Nina Sosanya, Martine McCutcheon, Laura Linney, Abdul Salis, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Alan Rickman, Rodrigo Santoro, Lucia Moniz, Billy Bob Thornton, Rowan Atkinson, Elisha Cuthbert, January Jones, Olivia Olson, Claudia Schiffer, Shannon Elizabeth, Denise Richards

Normally I start a blog with a basic synopsis of how the movie begins. “Love Actually” doesn’t have a single clear beginning. In fact, the film has ten different beginnings. Although it isn’t technically an anthology, “Love Actually” takes ten different stories and ties them together in the end. Not unlike some movies that followed it like: “New York, I Love You” or “He’s Just Not That Into You.”

Since this movie came out I’ve heard nothing but good things. Critics and audience members both seemed to love it, but I resisted. I don’t mind the occasional romance story, but I tend to like it more with the added plotline involving magic, explosions, assassins, horror, or just generally dragons of some sort – literal or figurative. The way this film was portrayed to me had me believing it was serious and heavily on the realistic side. In other words, I completely got the wrong idea. It’s actually more of a romantic comedy and, though it does have some basis in reality, it’s not stuck on a serious note. Evidence of it has been removed from the film for the most part, but one of the characters is even supposed to be an angel; an actual heaven-born angel. That piece of trivia makes all the difference to me.

When I was a young child, I was really sick and not able to do too much. My mother would bring home videos from a store where they sold the tapes 10 for $10. I fell in love with the stories that helped me escape reality. It’s probably why I don’t tend to go for heavy dramas or serious romances.

I digress. “Love Actually” was a lot more simple and relatable than I was led to believe. However, there was a lot of fluff and a lot of characters. If you just glance over the credits I listed above, you’ll see a LOT of BIG, familiar names. That’s because there were a lot of main characters. In fact, I’m still having trouble remembering what name goes to what character. I can’t tell you whether or not that’ll be a problem for you, but I can tell you I couldn’t put a name to a face but I still enjoyed the stories and the way they twisted together.

Richard Curtis pulled off a huge success for his first step into directing and, I hate the term, he raised the bar for himself. I haven’t seen his other two directions, but my expectations will be very high when I do.

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 3.8/5

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 63%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 73%

Trust-the-Dice Score – 4/5

P.S. Netflix gave me the following movies in the “more like this” section of screen for “Love Actually”: “New York, I Love You,” “I Don’t Know How She Does It,” “Mona Lisa Smile,” “Bachelorette,” “The Rebound,” “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “She’s All That,” “The Kids Are All Right.” Personally, I think their database is a little screwed because I’ve seen 6/8 of those movies and the only one that actually belongs in that “more like this” category is “New York, I Love You.”

Movie Trailer: