Love Actually (2003)

Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

Director:

Richard Curtis

Writer:

Richard Curtis

Stars:

Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 10 wins & 26 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bill Nighy	...	Billy Mack
Gregor Fisher	...	Joe
Rory MacGregor	...	Engineer
Colin Firth	...	Jamie
Sienna Guillory	...	Jamie's Girlfriend
Liam Neeson	...	Daniel
Emma Thompson	...	Karen
Lulu Popplewell	...	Daisy - Her Daughter
Kris Marshall	...	Colin Frissell
Heike Makatsch	...	Mia
Martin Freeman	...	John
Joanna Page	...	Just Judy
Chiwetel Ejiofor	...	Peter
Andrew Lincoln	...	Mark
Keira Knightley	...	Juliet

Storyline

Against the backdrop of aged has-been rock star Billy Mack's Christmas themed comeback cover of "Love Is All Around" which he knows is crap and makes no bones about it much to his manager Joe's chagrin as he promotes the record, several interrelated stories about romantic love and the obstacles to happiness through love for Londoners are presented in the five weeks preceding Christmas. Daniel's wife has just passed away, leaving him to take care of his adolescent stepson Sam by himself. Daniel is uncertain how to deal with Sam and his problems without his wife present, especially in light of a potential budding romance within their household. Juliet and Peter have just gotten married. They believe that Peter's best friend and best man Mark hates Juliet but won't say so to his or her face. Others looking at the situation from the outside believe Mark is jealous of Juliet as he is in love with Peter himself. Jamie, a writer, is taking a writing retreat by himself in rural France ...

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Plot Keywords:

christmas | minister | prime minister | aging rocker | love at first sight | 

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Taglines:

Very romantic. Very comedy.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

Universal [United States]

Country:

UK USA France

Language:

English Portuguese French

Release Date:

14 November 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Love Actually Is All Around

Filming Locations:

Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$6,886,080 (USA) (7 November 2003)

Gross:

$59,365,105 (USA) (13 February 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, StudioCanal, Working Title Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min 129 min 129 min (Asian Edition)

Sound Mix:

DTS (as dts) Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the working titles is "Love Actually is All Around" taken from The Troggs' song "Love is All Around", written by Troggs lead singer Reg Presley. An alternate version by Wet Wet Wet featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) was at number one in the UK charts for 15 weeks in 1994, and Richard Curtis thought it would be amusing to start Love Actually (2003) with the same song that had driven everyone to distraction nine years earlier. For this film it is reworked by Bill Nighy's character, who turns it into a Christmas song. "Christmas is All Around", the resulting tacky joke theme song, was actually released in Britain in hopes that it would be "Number 1 for Christmas 2003".

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Goofs

When Colin visits the Wisconsin girls' home, the house is shown from the outside. On the street, a parked car is seen on the side of the street, facing the wrong direction. In America, unlike Britain, a parked car must be facing the direction of traffic, and all traffic drives on the right-hand side of the road. (This is not a traffic rule that is commonly ignored, and in Milwaukee, a vehicle parked facing the wrong direction would be ticketed and towed.)

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Quotes

John: I might get a shag at last!
Judy: Naughty!

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Crazy Credits

Terence, who's in charge - Frank Moorey

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Connections

Referenced in Greek: Love, Actually, Possibly, Maybe... Or Not (2010)

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Soundtracks

All I Want For Christmas Is You
(1994)
By Mariah Carey / Walter Afanasieff
Performed by Olivia Olson
Courtesy of Universal Pictures Music

User Reviews

Clever and delightful, actually.

This was a lovely script, and I was surprised I hadn't heard much about this movie before I caught it on HBO. I turned it on to keep myself company while working and ended up glued to the screen. I really enjoyed it.

The movie is a series of vignettes about several different people that seemingly have no connection to one another, although by the end the connections are finally all present and accounted for. There's a fair amount of subtle satire and a generous portion of irony; the characters are quite human and often don't do the right thing. I was caught off-guard by the incredibly successful results of the trip to America, but I laughed pretty hard and decided I wouldn't have written the script any other way. Not everyone ends up getting what they want, but then again that's love, er, actually. Nice little film.