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It's not easy to craft romantic comedies with ensemble casts, and few filmmakers have done so as well as screenwriter Richard Curtis, whose credits include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones's Diary. For Love Actually, his directorial debut, he has composed a comedy of symphonic proportions, a surprisingly sprightly romp that boasts a dizzying array of characters connected in unpredictable ways. The story is set in London during Christmas, as the newly elected prime minister (Hugh Grant) takes office and immediately falls for a working-class staffer (Martine McCutcheon). Meanwhile, his middle-aged sister (Emma Thompson) is beginning to worry that her husband (Alan Rickman) might succumb to the blandishments of a sexually aggressive coworker, while elsewhere in the office Laura Linney pines for hunky Rodrigo Santoro. On other fronts, a recently minted widower (Liam Neeson) struggles to raise his adolescent stepson, and Colin Firth rebounds from heartbreak by falling for his non-English-speaking assistant. Stringing the whole thing together is the film's best story line, which involves an aging, dissipated rocker (Bill Nighy) who records a corny Christmas song that becomes an unexpected holiday hit. As one expects with Curtis, the script is fairly literate and refreshingly free of tacky humor. Which is not to say that Love Actually doesn't have its ribald moments; in fact, it's probably the lustiest picture Curtis has done to date. Still the characters are generally likable and the movie brims with wonderful bits: Rowan Atkinson, for instance, contributes a quietly hysterical turn as a prissy department-store clerk. In the vast rough of romantic comedies, Love Actually is a genuinely witty and enchanting diamond. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

All of London is in love -- or longing to be -- in Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis' first directorial effort. Billed as "the ultimate romantic comedy", Love Actually involves more than a dozen main characters, each weaving his or her way into another's heart over the course of one particularly eventful Christmas. The seemingly perfect wedding of Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) brings many of the principals together, including heartsick best man Mark (Andrew Lincoln), who harbors a very unrequited crush on Juliet. There's also recent widower Daniel (Liam Neeson), trying to help his lonely stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) express his true feelings to a classmate. Across town, devoted working mother Karen (Emma Thompson) tries to rekindle the passion of her husband, Harry (Alan Rickman), who secretly pines for a young colleague of his. In the same office, the lonely Sarah (Laura Linney) not-so-secretly pines for a man just a few desks away (Rodrigo Santoro), who returns her affections but may not be able to dissuade her neuroses. Providing the unofficial soundtrack for all of the couples is an aging rocker (Bill Nighy) who just wants to cash in and get laid -- but even he might find a meaningful relationship in the most unlikely of places. A working print of Love Actually premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. Michael Hastings

Product Details

• UPC: 025192055201
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Editions: Subtitled, Dubbed, Special Packaging
• Time: 2:15:00
• Sales Rank: 6,023

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Romantic Favorites Collection