Movies: Love Actually
Dec. 1st, 2003 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenLove Actually has quite a cast. So if you enjoy all these actors in and of themselves, definitely worth seeing.
A lot of IMDB users complain of trite, cliched writing, which is true enough, there is a lot of that. But framed in the context of the first scene's "wink, wink, nudge, nudge, see how horrible this sappy christmas love stuff is", I think Curtis is actually making fun of his own movie, this genre, and the audience, a conscious self-mockery that manages the trick of getting the audience to enjoy the sap at the same time it pokes some fun. This actually would have worked better had the over-the-top scenes been even more over-the-top, like the aforementioned opening musical scene, the Wisconsin stuff, or the sex scene stand-ins.
The more serious and emotional moving parts of the film are both the films best and worst points. When a film tries simultaneously to treat its subject seriously while also mocking itself and its genre, it is bound to generate mixed emotions and mixed reviews. On the one hand, this made the self-mockery harder to detect for many viewers. But on the other hand, it produced some very moving scenes that were very subtle and well-acted (not over-acted at all).
I'm thinking mostly of Emma Thompson's performance in the scenes in the school, first with Hugh Grant and later even more so in her confrontation of Alan Rickman's character. This certainly cannot come close to matching the tear-inducing splendor of John Hannah's eulogy in Four Weddings and a Funeral, but it still has impact.
And certainly, the humor is very nearly on par with other Curtis ventures. Rowan Atkinson is remarkably restrained compared to his usual antics, yet still funny. Colin Firth never fails to milk the subtler funnies out of a scene.
And the triumph of Grant's Prime Minister over the oily and duplicitous Billy Bob Thornton's U.S. President were certainly worth the price of admission, at least during matinee prices.
A lot of IMDB users complain of trite, cliched writing, which is true enough, there is a lot of that. But framed in the context of the first scene's "wink, wink, nudge, nudge, see how horrible this sappy christmas love stuff is", I think Curtis is actually making fun of his own movie, this genre, and the audience, a conscious self-mockery that manages the trick of getting the audience to enjoy the sap at the same time it pokes some fun. This actually would have worked better had the over-the-top scenes been even more over-the-top, like the aforementioned opening musical scene, the Wisconsin stuff, or the sex scene stand-ins.
The more serious and emotional moving parts of the film are both the films best and worst points. When a film tries simultaneously to treat its subject seriously while also mocking itself and its genre, it is bound to generate mixed emotions and mixed reviews. On the one hand, this made the self-mockery harder to detect for many viewers. But on the other hand, it produced some very moving scenes that were very subtle and well-acted (not over-acted at all).
I'm thinking mostly of Emma Thompson's performance in the scenes in the school, first with Hugh Grant and later even more so in her confrontation of Alan Rickman's character. This certainly cannot come close to matching the tear-inducing splendor of John Hannah's eulogy in Four Weddings and a Funeral, but it still has impact.
And certainly, the humor is very nearly on par with other Curtis ventures. Rowan Atkinson is remarkably restrained compared to his usual antics, yet still funny. Colin Firth never fails to milk the subtler funnies out of a scene.
And the triumph of Grant's Prime Minister over the oily and duplicitous Billy Bob Thornton's U.S. President were certainly worth the price of admission, at least during matinee prices.