Love Actually

Love Actually looked very inviting to me in the previews. After spending 2 1/2 hours watching Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World I was looking for some light Christmas refreshment. Alas, what could have been a montage of about eight love stories turned out to be a hodge-podge of tales that intertwined (more or less) and made this, to me, a less than appealing Christmas film. The one part that made me give this a thumbs down was the soft porn actors falling in love as they went through their scenes – which the audience gets to see. Sure, it’s a comedy. I just didn’t laugh very much. I did like the Liam Neeson and step-son story as well as Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman… Colin Firth and the lovely Portugese housekeeper in France was somewhat puzzling, but with only two hours you have to get in all you can. What was really insightful, though, was Billy Bob Thornton as the Clinton-esque visiting President and Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister showing the US who’s who. There is enough love to go around, but I am not sure this movie does a good job of spreading it.