My Review of Love Actually

Rating Scale:

12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made

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Greetings, everyone! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for tonight! This evening, I will be reviewing Love Actually, a Christmas-themed romance/comedy/drama film from 2003. This is an unexpectedly wholesome Christmas movie as I had low expectations for this prior to watching it. For a rated R movie, it felt like something I would watch in a live-action TV series with more or less episodes to cover the exact same theme of love. Honestly, there are a number of issues that dragged the story down but thankfully didn’t result in the ruination of the plot or the movie itself.

This movie is about a number of individuals who have their own romantic dilemmas in a few weeks prior to Christmas. Once they respectively figure out who they truly love, they finally understand whom they want to be with.

Before I mention any positives for the film, I really want to point out what I found to be the main distracting element thereof. First off, this film has a lot of main characters—too much for my counting. The protagonists have their separate character arcs until most of them finally meet each other on-screen at the end of the movie. That in itself is perfectly fine except that the movie focused a little too much on all of them, some more than others—giving them an almost equal amount of screen time. It was really hard for me to get a good knowledge on one main character since it kept switching to the other character, then the next, etc. Whom am I supposed to relate to more? Whom should I care for the most?

For me, I always prefer the traditional style of sticking to one main character and then have the other characters either be secondary, supportive, or minor. That’s it. The movie has too many characters as evidenced by the end credits. Fortunately, there wasn’t a single character I hated, but it would have served the film well if it had a more cohesive focus on at least two or three characters, not six or nine.

The other thing I didn’t enjoy as much was the corny dialogue from half the scenes of the movie. I get that this is from the early 2000s, but it didn’t have to be that cheesy.

Those are the only flaws that grind the movie to a halt, in my opinion. Other than that, this is a worthy Christmas treat to relish.

I mean, the acting is amazing from start to finish. Even though all the characters were moderately written, the ones that stood out to me more were the late Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, and Martin Freeman. Their respective characters were very enjoyable to watch, and I wish the other protagonists were just as entertaining as they were. Again, I hate none of them, but they weren’t exactly as awesome as the previous ones I just mentioned.

The music, soundtrack, and the cinematography were likewise composed and produced well. It made me feel like I’m watching a uniquely wholesome Christmas-themed movie.

If there is one thing I can remember from this, it’s that love always wins. Christmas is the time in which we spend quality time with our family, friends, and all those we love; not only should we remember to care more for the people we love than the gifts but also keep in mind that your loved one is the greater gift than a material thing. Love is actually the greatest gift of all, and it binds us together for eternity.

Overall, this was a great film. But keep in mind, that this is not suitable for children/younger audiences, so I can only mildly recommend this to my adult friends reading this. Anyway, I will rate this an 8/10! Oh, and the movie needed more Rowan Atkinson. He’s very underrated.

Peace!