Love Actually

Funny, smart, witty, charming and packed with an absolutely stellar cast. This is a romantic comedy that even the guys can honestly enjoy. Second half leans way more on romance than comedy but there's still enough comedy in there if romance isn't really your thing.

Not entirely successful in weaving its various strands together and resolving them, but the likeable cast generates plenty of goodwill. If it feels a bit thin and scattershot, it compensates by making each little segment quite fun. It needed more Gregor Fisher, and I'm not convinced that the Kris Marshall segment wasn't a bizarre fever dream. Funny, enjoyable, and a wee bit heart-warming. I'm slightly disappointed I didn't loathe this; dunno why.

What a load of cobblers. Some otherwise intelligent people seem to like this film; I have a team of scientists (who don't as it happens) working on finding out why this is. Probably something to do with brainrape.

And a 52 is generous for this trite, borderline misogynistic pile of Christmas cow pie. The only worthwhile part is Bill Nighy's performance (as the ONLY realistic story line in the movie). Firth flits off to France and falls in love with the woman who cleans up (and speaks no English); Prime Minister Grant falls for the woman who fetches his tea and then, naturally, knocks door to door to find her; Neeson's wife dies and he magically upgrades to CLAUDIA SCHIFFER. More like "Puke Definitely".

Not bad, not great. It was pretty cute. Surprisingly manages to juggle about 9 different storylines without ever making the viewer feel lost. But a couple of the stories could have been lost and a couple needed more fleshing out. I thought the Hugh Grant story got more time than it needed, in particular.