Love Actually (2003)

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

Director:

Richard Curtis

Writer:

Richard Curtis

Stars:

Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 10 wins & 18 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

The characters are falling in love, falling out of love, some are with right people, some are with the wrong people, some are looking to have an affair, some are in the period of mourning; a capsule summary of reality. Love begins and love ends. They flirt a lot. They are all flirting with love. At all ages and social levels, love is the theme. Romantic love and brotherly love is the hotchpotch through out the movie. Most of the movie is filmed in London, during Christmas and the characters all ended up at Heathrow airport a very uplifting note.

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Plot Keywords:

love | christmas | friend | travel | minister | 

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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 [us]

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:

£30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$647,984 (Japan) (6 February 2004)

Gross:

$5,010,288 (Japan) (5 March 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

Number 10 Downing Street in the movie is not, of course, the actual Prime Minister's residence, but a replica. The exterior was created in the Shepperton Studios car park and the interior is a set. In preparation for the movie, writer-director Richard Curtis and his production designer Jim Clay were escorted on a two-hour tour of the actual Number 10 by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown (Prime Minister June 2007-May 2010). They were not permitted to take photographs or make sketches of the interiors, and throughout the entire tour they were flanked by security. The "Number 10" that appears in the movie was designed by Clay, solely from memory.

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Goofs

When Sarah and Karl are first kissing in her bedroom, Karl strips to the waist but still has his trousers on. In the next shot, as they fall onto the bed with Sarah sitting astride him, his trousers are missing.

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Quotes

Karen: Mia's very pretty.
Harry: [nonchalantly but unconvincingly] Is she?
Karen: You know she is, darling. Be careful there.

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Crazy Credits

Jamie's bad brother - Dan Fredenburgh

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Connections

Referenced in Chuck: Chuck Versus the Masquerade (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Silent Night"
(1818)
(Traditional)
Music by Franz Gruber (uncredited)
Lyrics by Joseph Mohr (uncredited)
Performed by Pre Teens
Courtesy of Pickwick Group Ltd

User Reviews

Surprisingly Enjoyable

I hate romantic comedies. I detest them. You can list the actors I avoid watching: Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock, Richard Gere, Julia Roberts. Romantic comedies make me cringe and I avoid them like the plague so you can imagine the foul mood I was in when I was forced to watch this film.

And the introductory voice-over by Hugh Grant as we watch an airport full of people hugging made me want to commit an act of violence - either against the people who forced me to watch this film or against myself just to end the torture.

Then the most unbelievably shocking thing happened. Bill Nighy and Gregor Fischer came on screen, mocking one of the most hated love songs in Britain, "Love is all Around" and I found myself getting sucked into the film.

By the time I reached the end of the film I found myself facing the impossible, there was one romantic comedy out there that genuinely is a comedy and actually likeable. No-one was more shocked than I.

Many different kinds of love are covered (although not all kinds), there's 8 storylines and the biggest cast list I've seen in a long time. Somehow, it works. You'd think it wouldn't, I know I certainly didn't.

If you're looking for a full-length story, this is not the film for you. It snap-shots the important events leading to the resolution of the couples involved, nothing more. If you want a classic romantic film, this might not be the film for you. This is funnier than most straight comedies I've seen in recent times, however (I'm just as harsh a critic of comedy films as I am of romantic films).

It's not trying to be the meaning of life, it's not trying to look at the big picture. In fact, it's only trying to do one thing, and that's say positive feelings crop up in the most unexpected places or are more prevalent than people think. One of the storylines, one that is cited constantly in reviews as one of the failed storylines with a sad ending is actually bittersweet. It doesn't end with failure but the failure of one type of love in favour of a different kind.

This film isn't perfect, I'll never find the perfect romantic-comedy because I hate the genre so much, for example, one of the storylines did annoy me intensely and yet ironically still made me laugh in places. However, the flaws in the film are vastly outweighed by positives. It's superficially complicated but is really a very simple film. It makes a statement: "love actually is all around" then shows why it makes that statement and doesn't attempt to do or be anything else.

And like the fact it covers different kinds of love, it covers different attitudes and portrayals of it - so a couple are realistic, a couple are classic fantasy, a couple are pure comedy and a couple are pure rom-com tradition.

I have seen no reviewer give this film a middle-of-the-road review, and I've read many reviews. I think, in the end, Love Actually is up to the individual. It's like Marmite. You either love it or you hate it.

Speaking as a cynical, misanthropic, Marmite-hating, Romantic-Comedy hating member of the human race, I actually liked Love Actually.