Love Actually

Love Actually

After watching "It's a Wonderful Life", having a good cry and getting totally into the Christmas spirit, we watched "Love Actually" ... a movie second only to "It's a Wondeful Life" and "Elf" for getting me into the merriment of the season.

Love Actually has a knock out cast:   Hugh Grant, Keira Knightly, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Rowan Atkinson, etc, etc. (Yes!  The list truly does go on).  See the link for more detail.

The premise is that love actually is all around.  The movie begins in an airport.  At the arrivals gate.  As people arrive there are hugs and kisses and laughter and smiles and general goodwill.  The narrator points out that he loves to visit the arrivals gate of an airport and witness the generosity of love.   And that as far as he knows, when the two planes crashed into the twin towers, not one of the outgoing calls was a call of hatred.  They were all calls of love.  Love actually is all around.

At this point in the film, no matter how many times I've seen it, I get choked up.  And this is only the opening scene!  And then the film brilliantly launches into Bill Nighy (yes, it's a super stellar cast) singing "I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes, Christmas is all around us, come on and let it snow..."  The scene is set.  We are in London, England, 5 weeks to Christmas.  The film deftly and delightfully weaves together the stories of 8 couples and their experiences of love.  It is so lovely.  And charming.  And romantic. And funny!  Peals of laugther every time:  Rowan Atkinson delivers, "Ready in the flashiest of flashes".  Emma Thompson delivers, "There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus Christ?" and Hugh Grant dancing his way down the steps stops dead in his tracks and says to his staffer, "Right, could we change the Japanese Prime Minister to 4:00?".

Love Actually?
Actually Lovely.  Must see it.