This movie redeemed my faith in romantic comedies yesterday. I watched it upon the recommendation of Bald Bryan from the podcast, "The Film Vault." I thought, "Yeah, he's known for liking the Muppet Movies, but he also loves Transformers. So if he also recommends Love, Actually, it might be something to see."
I hadn't known before I started watching it that it was written and directed by Richard Curtis who also wrote and directed Pirate Radio, a movie that I like very much. I realized the connection when Love, Actually opened with a scene that felt familiar to me. In Love Actually, Bill Nighy plays an aging, dissolute rocker. In Pirate Radio he plays a d.j. of a similar nature. Once I knew that Curtis wrote and directed both films, I could see how the movies had a similar heart. In both movies, there is a profound affection for music. Both movies have sprawling storylines involving numerous characters. We had previously watched the commentary for Pirate Radio, where Curtis had said that for both of his movies, he had hours and hours of footage that had to be cut, as he liked to let the actors improvise, and the stories would literally get away from him. I imagine it must be an nightmare when you get to the editing process, but I do think what you get from working in this way is some moments that feel real. This was such a relief for me to see after Crazy, Stupid Love where everything felt calculated to the nth degree.
The story is set in Christmas time. There are multiple stories about love. There are great actors in it including Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, and Laura Linney. My favorite moment is one without words, where a character weeps and the music she loves plays in the background. It's such a touching moment, and we are given the opportunity to linger in her sadness. How often does that occur in a movie? On the other side of the table, there is the moment where Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister is happy and he dances in a choreographed manner to a song, which made me think, "Richard Curtis is usually so smart. Why didn't he just tell Hugh Grant to dance? Or what if he just told him to do something that this character would do to express joy? I don't know how many people actually break out in dance. That would have been so much more interesting."
It's one of those movies that, along with Pirate Radio, will be put in heavy rotation. They are both movies that are funny and poignant, that make you want to cheer on the actors, that make you want to start the whole thing over again after it's ended. They are really fun to watch.
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