Love Actually (2003)

"Love Actually is irresistible. You'd have to be Ebenezer Scrooge not to walk out smiling.  Claudia Puig, USA Today
"... Love Actually is just about impossible to dislike.  Steven Rae, Philadelphia Inquirer
"A roundly entertaining romantic comedy, Love Actually is still nearly as cloying as it is funny...  Todd McCarthy, Variety

Editor's Note Written and directed by Richard Curtis and produced by Duncan Kenworthy (the team behind NOTTING HILL and FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL) this zingy British comedy weaves a vivid crazy quilt of interlocking or unrelated vignettes all dealing with the subject of love over the Christmas holidays in London. The big name cast includes Hugh Grant as a prime minister who falls for a staff member, Liam Neeson as a widower counseling his son in the ways of romance, Laura Linney as a shy woman working up the nerve to ask out a coworker, Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman as a couple faced with infidelity, and Colin Firth as a writer who falls for his Portuguese maid. Additionally, a pair of porn film stand-ins bond on the set, an artist fantasizes about his friend's wife; and perhaps funniest of all, an aging rock star (Bill Nighy) tries for his comeback with a Christmas novelty song. The likes of Billy Bob Thornton, Rowan Atkinson and Denise Richards turn in cameos, helping making this film a throwback to those all-star, multi-plotted comedies of the 1960s and '70s, such as IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD (1963), NASHVILLE (1975), and CALIFORNIA SUITE (1978). With Curtis' comedic credentials and the star wattage of pros like Grant, Neeson and Thompson, LOVE, ACTUALLY is a laugh-packed affair, with more than a few tears to be shed along the way, and a startling amount of bawdy raunchiness.

	Bill Knightly
	Colin Firth
	Emma Thompson
	Gregor Fisher
	Hugh Grant
	Liam Neeson
	Rory MacGregor
	Rowan Atkinson
	Sienna Guillory
	Craig Armstrong - Original Music By
	Duncan Kenworthy - Producer
	Eric Fellner - Producer
	Jim Clay - Production Designer
	Michael Coulter - Cinematographer
	Nick Moore - Editor
	Richard Curtis - Screenplay
	Richard Curtis - Director
	Tim Bevan - Producer

Los Angeles Times
"...[Curtis brings] a sharp sense of character comedy combined with a very human touch. His feeling for people is as genuine as his wit, and he manages it all with a light-on-its-feet casualness..." 11/07/2003 p.C1

Entertainment Weekly
"...A movie as sweetly munchable as a Christmas cookie..." 11/14/2003 p.93-4

Rolling Stone
"...There are laughs laced with feeling here..." p.103

Total Film
"...A big, snug duvet of a movie that you can flop into and get lost in..." 12/01/2003 p.90-1

USA Today
"LOVE ACTUALLY is irresistible." 11/07/2003 p.6E

Chicago Sun-Times
"It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs." 11/07/2003 p.38

Film Comment
"[T]he film's freshness, sure-footed control of its emotional effects, and sincerity are hard to dismiss." 05/01/2004 p.78

James Berardinelli's ReelViews 8 of 10
Love Actually doesn't have a cynical frame in its celluloid. It's for all those romantics who

Entertainment Weekly 8 of 10
It's a toasty, star-packed ensemble comedy in which a handful of lonelyhearts attempt, with some suc - Owen Gleiberman

Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
The movie is written and directed by Richard Curtis, the same man who wrote three landmarks in recen - Roger Ebert