Love Actually

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Love Actually - 6/1/2006 10:12:55 AM

Empire Admin

Posts: 26334
Joined: 29/6/2005

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Post #: 1

A soundtrack...that must have cost a fucking bomb. - 15/2/2006 8:14:30 PM

mentalchaffinch

Posts: 2
Joined: 14/2/2006

The problem with creating an ensemble peice like this, is keeping the audience interested and focused, caring about every single little sequence. However, the biggest problem that can derive from this, is the audience caring about every single character. And that really does not happen here.

Okay, the stories that are good. Alan Rickman and Emma Thompsons, interrupted marriage is credible and beautifully acted, especially Thompson. The Hugh Grant arc, is pretty good, Hughie does a good job as a patriotic, very english prime minister. Liam Neeson's very good too. In fact most of the cast are great, especially Kris Marshall as...well Nick(My Family) basically, but I'm not complaining.

The problem comes with the more pointless stories, the Keira Knightley one is just a waste of screen time. The Laura Linney story about her and her mentally ill brother, is depressingly short, when so much more could have been made of it, despite how touching it is. And the Colin Firth bit. Just no, if I want schmaltz thrown at me like so many meteorites I'll go and watch some film like Pride and Prejudice (which incidentally is very very good)

So all in all, a great idea, with a great cast, with some great stories, and some really crap ones.

The End

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Post #: 2

not bad - 17/5/2006 12:32:44 PM

alexisreaver2132

Posts: 83
Joined: 6/5/2006
From: UK

romantic, funny, comical, multiple storylines really enjoyed it...

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Post #: 3

Were you lot watching the same film?! - 10/7/2006 11:46:13 AM

Empo

Posts: 139
Joined: 24/4/2006
From: The middle of the earth!

This film is amazing in every possible way and I'm disgusted that it only got three stars! What's wrong with you Empire!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Post #: 4

- 13/7/2007 1:10:31 PM

FortWilliamLoyal

Posts: 29
Joined: 29/3/2007

Really enjoyed this film to be honest. Thumbs up.

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Post #: 5

Dire - 31/7/2007 3:50:10 PM

swordsandsandals

Posts: 12569
Joined: 6/1/2006
From: A magical forest

Plot Coherence is a funny old thing, isn't it? It makes some films, and yet others thrive with no leading plot strand whatsoever. However the idstiinct lack of plot in Love Actually is so terribly noticeable due to the fact that there isn't anything to laugh at either, let alone a plot to follow. A couple of the characters are funny, Kris Marshall's trip to America is worth a few chuckles, and Bill Nighy's aging rocker is worth a couple of laughs, but these do not make up for the huge gaps where nothing funny happens at all, and we get bombarded with some of the most flimsy, scmaltzy dialogue ever to disgrace the screen.

And the climax is so feebly pathetic, clutching desperately at different threads an trying to bring them all together that not even Alan Rickman can save it. Colin Firths, also, is apparently nothing to do with anything else.

Romantic comedies are not necessarily bad things, but this film gives a bad name to the genre, and leaves the viewer with a sickly taste in the mouth.

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Post #: 6

The best rom-com ever made - 11/11/2007 4:58:42 AM

Pinguman

Posts: 22
Joined: 29/7/2006

Come on guys Love Actually is fantastic! As a self confessed loather of rom-coms this is a great movie, hilarious at almost every minute, well acted and at the height of enjoyableness. All the acting is nearly flawess (apart from Laura Linney, the film's letdown) and this film is a great way to feel the Christmas spirit.

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Post #: 7

- 13/12/2007 12:30:27 AM

Mr. Lowry

Posts: 22
Joined: 28/8/2007

Worth fours stars because despite it's flaws, at the end of it all, there is an overwhelmingly warm, and genuine feeling from it. the biggest problems are the conclusions (or lack of), and some stories could have been cut out, some of the sections had 5 star written on them. Liam Neeson's story is superbly done, perhaps even better because it contrasts with sentiment elsewhere in the film. Besides Neeson gives an incredible performance in a limited time period. The ambition of linking so many stories together, comes off without being pretentious, it's simply that some were better than others. Performances universally good, (you'll know the best ones when you see it) even smaller characters such as Carl sparkle with honesty, or comedy. In a world so heavily populated by serious, masculine films or simply shite comedies and romances, it's nice to have something like this in the mix. It's not an overdose of sentiment, so it is thoroughly enjoyable for all. Flawed, but who cares, when there's so much that's good to take in.

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Post #: 8

So lovely funny. - 29/3/2008 8:16:59 PM

nc_jj

Posts: 662
Joined: 20/2/2008
From: Manchester.

Hilarious, sweet and charming.

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Post #: 9

So lovely funny. - 29/3/2008 8:17:00 PM

nc_jj

Posts: 662
Joined: 20/2/2008
From: Manchester.

Hilarious, sweet and charming.

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Post #: 10

- 15/9/2009 5:46:58 PM

FanaticalAboutFilm

Posts: 106
Joined: 8/9/2009
From: somewhere else

I LOVE THIS MOVIE! Each year I can't stand not to watch it before christmas! It's great fun and the cast is amazing: emma thompson, alan rickman, hugh grant ...there's even a hillarious scene with rowan atkinson in it!! it's not that typical christmas movie and that's what makes it so enjoyable!!

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Post #: 11

- 2/1/2010 1:27:31 PM

TheGodfather

Posts: 5100
Joined: 21/10/2005
From: Sin City

Even after five viewings I still think that this is one of the best (if not the best) romantic comedy/christmas film of the last years. Beautiful, loveable characters in cute storylines that are woven together excellent at the ending.
Even the world biggest hater of rom com will be become a little happier after seeing this. I did, anyway. An excellent film.

8,5/10

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Post #: 12

Sweet And Effortlessly Likable - 15/3/2011 5:17:57 PM

blaud

Posts: 722
Joined: 13/12/2007

I'm not a huge fan of romantic comedies myself, but the sheer scope of Love Actually drew me in immediately. Super performances from all the leads (the notable exception being Emma Thompson, who has rarely been worse), and cleverly woven, intricately told storylines that swoop and glide up to their individual crescendos. It's definitely overlong, and most certainly lacks its' own identity, but this is, nonetheless, an enjoyable and entertaining romcom, and the best genre exercise since Four Weddings And A Funeral.

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Post #: 13