Love Actually (a confession)

I've just watched the whole thing and have been intermittently booing, not upduffed, but maybe hormonal

I absolutely love love love that film. I can watch it over and over and never get bored.

That Emma Thompson scene has me bawling every time too.

My other favourite 'story' in the film is the Colin Firth/Portugese girl one. "Just in cases..."

My next favourite but from what I've just seen was where Andrew wotsit shows Keira Knightly the bill boards. I'm not really a fan of hers either but think she looks her prettiest in this film, just very girl next door pretty. Oh, perhaps I'm a lesbian too...mmm

It's my favourite film, I love it so much, it is like a comfort blanket to me! We had 'God Only knows' as our first dance because we were watching it (again) when sorting out our seating plans and realised how perfect the words were *(though there were some concerned/ confused faces from those who did hear the lyrics properly)

*Also because I was marrying an old man, he loved it and was relieved it was none of the modern rubbish around that i wanted ?

I know I'm going to be in a minority (possibly of one!) but I don't particularly rate the film, although the Emma Thompson/Alan Rickman storyline was the best part

I felt it was as though the writers had sat down and said, "Right, we need an 'across the boundaries' love story, some unrequited love . . . . oh, and a disappointed wife . . . . and we could shoehorn in a widower . . . . and Rowan Atkinson for comedy value . . . . and can we squeeze in a sex scene? I know, how about something to do with a porn film?"

Just too formulaic for me

It didn't feel like a film at all to me, just a series of sketches without any cohesion or drive.

I adore Four Weddings and a Funeral though.

I adore LA. it's my favourite wrapping up xmas presents film. i start sniffing at the opening bit in the airport...

but i'm hardly a glowing endorsee...according to nick j i'm a cultral desert as i don't get lost in translation ?

What knownowt said. there are some funny bits, but as a film i think it sucks the fat one.

I went to see this with a boyfriend once. We came out of the cinema and it was snowing, it was all terribly romantic.

He dumped me about an hour later ? ?

I don't think it's a particularly good film technically, but I do like it. Does that make sense? It does to me! I don't normally like romantic comedies as I'm more a sci-fi or shoot-em-up film fan, but I have a soft spot for Love Actually.

I agree.

4 Weddings - brilliant

Notting Hill - mildly diverting

Love Actually - barely got through it

L
xx

I saw this on Malaysian airlines not long after it came out.

I had not realised til I saw it again about 2 years later that they had cut the porn bits out...I had wondered the relevance of Martin Freeman and woman who only appeared at the end of the MAS version!

The crucial difference is that Four Weddings had a halfway decent director who wasn't afraid to tell Richard Curtis which bits of his original script just didn't work. As did Notting Hill, which I think is rather underrated.

Unfortunately, once you let Curtis direct his own material, the final film is as overlong, flabby and self-indulgent as I imagine his first drafts probably are - in fact, for a very good comparison, look at the first series of Blackadder (which Curtis wrote with Rowan Atkinson, who's no-one's idea of a great comedy writer) and compare it with the other three (where Ben Elton was ruthless with Curtis - and vice versa - about what didn't work).

The other problem is that these multi-stranded films are very very hard to bring off really effectively even if you're a far more experienced director than Curtis was. Robert Altman could do it in films like Short Cuts and Gosford Park because he had a rare genius for turning sprawling chaos into absolute gold. But very, very few others have the same gift, and Richard Curtis certainly doesn't.

By all accounts The Boat That Rocked has exactly the same problems, but although JK has summoned wild horses on a few occasions (she's such a Curtis groupie that she even watches Vicar of Dibley repeats for the twentieth time), even they have failed to drag me along to see it.

Hurrah, it's not just me then! ? I was in floods the whole way through the film. Mr FigJam obviously loves seeing me cry so much that he then bought me the book as a Christmas present... I was bawling by about the 5th page and every 5th page after! ?

Love this film. Rather embarrasingly for mr delicious he loves it even more than me! he's such a girl.

I especially love the liam neeson/son storyline and love emma thompson/alan rickman.

Have to say though our favourite lines it the

'There was more than one lobster at the birth of christ?'...'well duh!'

I actually agree with all of this. Why did everyone say 'what Knownowt said' and not Smint too?! lol

I just absolutely love the Emma Thompson/Alan Rickman bit too as it was just so believable and incredibly well acted. I think I have a crush on her ?, I think she's wonderful.

Well, apart from the crap part she was given in The Boat That Rocked. Agree with Mr JK, yes, I think THAT FILM was absolutely dire.

I love, love, love Love Actually. Think it's a great film which makes me ?

[sings] God only knows what I'd be without you........... [/sings] ?

Not seen this film. I read the book which made me ? even though SophieM slated it for being a terrible book ? ? I enjoyed it. I'd like to see the film, but worried I wouldn't stop ? for days ?

Because I'm invisible on these forums ?

I love this film, even though it is a total rom com by numbers. That said, I think Notting Hill was the worst offender on the formulaic front. In my head can even hear the pitch they would have made to the film execs when I watch it.

You won't... make sure you stockpile tissues! ? I think I blubbed more at PS I Love You than I did at Marley & Me and I'm a huge animal lover!

I like Love Actually, not because it's a technically brilliant film, but because it's fluffy and festive and doesn't require any brain power! (and I love rom coms anyway, definitely not sophisticated when it comes to fil-ums! ? )

Got to admit I love Love Actually, Four Weddings and Notting Hill.

Four Weddings is the funniest but I hated Andie McDowell in it. Her character is so unlikeable and I couldn't see Hugh Grant falling in love with her.

Love Actually is a Xmas film in our house. Always watch it a couple of times in December to get us in the festive mood.

I actually like Notting Hill though I know a lot of people don't. It's obvious but fun.

I love Love Actually - it's become a bit of a tradition since Mr Caterpillar and I got married, that we watch it on Christmas Eve with a bottle of wine, and I tend to sob all the way through it.

I think my favourite bit is when Colin Firth is trying to propose to the portuguese girl and saying all sorts of funny things! But I love it all really...

But I can excuse that, given the context.

Four Weddings and a Funeral was the smash hit that put PolyGram Filmed Entertainment on the map, and over the next five years they tried to become the closest thing to a British Hollywood studio - and almost succeeded. But in order to proceed to the next level, they needed a genuine global megahit that was nonetheless also distinctively British - hence a Richard Curtis romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts (and it had to be her, because of the constant frisson that comes from a fictional "biggest female star in the world" played by the actual biggest female star in the world). So they had to be pretty conservative when putting it together, because the idea was that the millions of dollars it would generate would fund far more adventurous stuff - PolyGram also greenlit Fargo and Being John Malkovich, so they already had a pretty good track record in that department.

Sadly, though Notting Hill was indeed the megahit that had been expected, it didn't shake up the British film industry, because in an act of corporate treachery PolyGram Filmed Entertainment was shafted by its Dutch parent company and closed down just before it opened. Which was an utter disaster, given that most non-PolyGram British cinema at the time consisted of unwatchable Guy Ritchie rip-offs - I interviewed PFE's former chief exec a few years ago and he was still visibly furious about what happened.

So given all that, I think Notting Hill turned out pretty well - it's just a shame (a tragedy, in fact) that it wasn't allowed to achieve its original aims.

and she can't act

apparently her wooden 'is it raining i didn't notice' bit was intentional. my arse. ?

Yes, it's really toe-curling seeing her in Green Card opposite Gérard Depardieu, who not only can act but is one of the greatest screen actors of all time as far as I'm concerned.

Mind you, he was a bit hamstrung too by having to act in English - JK claims he's one of her favourite actors, but she's never actually seen any of the roles that gave him his reputation. (Not for want of trying on my part...?)

Now you've got me in the mood for watching Jean de Florette!

I enjoyed Love Actually but I could pretty much see the strings where they were manipulating my emotions. You can almost hear the director calling for them to bring on the motherless child because things aren't schmaltzy enough.

It was entertaining and it did leave me feeling warm and fuzzy, but not a patch on Four Weddings, Andi McDowell notwithstanding.

I adore Love Actually.

Some films just set me off. I never cried at ET or Bambi as a kid, but in recent years, I can be a real watermelon! I blubbed through Ps I love you, Million Dollar Baby, Manon, Brokeback Mountain, A river runs through it, La Vie en Rose, The Notebook, The Color Purple and Dead man walking to name a few!

Death seems to be a central theme....like LP I will start thinking about losing H and that will be it.