‘Love Actually’ intertwines the tears and laughter of life
While just a couple weeks ago I blamed most of the sappy
romantic comedies I watch on my mother,
”
Love Actually
”
is one of the few films I picked out to see on my own.
‘Love Actually’ intertwines the tears and laughter of life
While just a couple weeks ago I blamed most of the sappy romantic comedies I watch on my mother, “Love Actually” is one of the few films I picked out to see on my own. Tagged as the “ultimate” romantic comedy when it was first released, the film has an all-star cast of mostly British powerhouses and it worked in ways that few romantic comedies ever do.
I saw it in the theater shortly after it opened around Christmas with a graduate school friend and the reason it worked for me is not that it made me laugh the most, but in between the laughter and spontaneous smiles it pulled out of the audience, it also made us cry.
The movie starts with the marquee moments in most people’s lives – one group of family and friends gathers for a wedding while another gathers for a funeral. And from there the tales shake out and we follow the lives of many couples as they weave their way through the maze that is love.
The funeral leaves Daniel (Liam Neeson) without his wife and without a mother for his 11-year-old stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster). Even though young Thomas Sangster, who has soft red hair and dark brown eyes shares the screen with several distinguished (and gorgeous) actors, he shines through and seems so self-assured that he makes me believe he is a sage when it comes to the topic of love. Young Sam has several of the best lines in the film.
Daniel worries about Sam when he starts locking himself in his room, assuming that his pre-teenage misery is due to the recent death of his mother. With the encouragement of a friend, Karen (Emma Thompson), Daniel sits Sam down for a talk.
“Is it just Mum or is it something else?” the cautious stepfather asks. “Maybe…school – are you being bullied? Or is it something worse…?”
Sam confesses that he is in love with a girl and Daniel laughs it off, saying he thought it was something worse.
“Worse than the total agony of being in love?” the young boy responds.
For anyone who has been there – and I know I have – Sam’s pretty much got it right.
Later in the film Sam also opines “Let’s go get the shit kicked out of us by love.”
Once again, I’ve been there, too, but the upshot is it always seems worth going through it again.
Other than Sam and Daniel’s scheming to win the 11-year-old boy the heart of a beautiful American girl who attends his school, the story twirls around the other characters. Written by Richard Curtis, of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” fame, the movement from character to character and in between stories, works superbly.
There is Jamie (Colin Firth), who finds his girlfriend in bed with his brother when he returns early from a wedding. He escapes to a village in France where he tries unsuccessfully to make small talk with his beautiful Portuguese housekeeper. David (Hugh Grant) is the newly appointed prime minister and while he can handle himself around foreign dignitaries, he becomes flustered every time his staff member, Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), arrives with chocolate biscuits and tea.
Sarah (Laura Linney) longs for the company of the gorgeous Karl (Rodrigo Santoro – he’s a Brazilian model!), but keeps her feelings to herself due to family obligations. Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is in a similar boat as he constantly gives Juliet (Keira Knightley) the cold shoulder so that his best friend’s wife won’t know how he feels about her.
There are other stories woven in – some hilariously funny as with a British fellow who is convinced he could have unlimited sex solely because of his accent if he only made it to the United States – and others heartbreakingly sad – as a wife wonders if her husband is having an affair.
As in real life, some of the stories end happily and some of them do not. It is the mix of happiness and sadness that makes the picture work for me. And I know the next time around I’d be up for having the shit kicked out of me by love again because in addition to being total agony, it can be pretty damn great, too.
