Curtis essentially took the climactic moment from every romantic comedy and distilled it into one delectable stew and somehow came up with a product that works. In a way, by focusing solely on the crowd-pleasing moments it almost becomes experimental. Not every story hits but enough does to ensure that I felt warm and gooey from literally the first frame to the last.
From our own Chad Hartigan’s on-going list of the 100 best films of the decade, re: “Love Actually.” I thought it would be a nice festive mention, to say nothing of the fact that I agree with every word.
Incidentally (and belated), my list of the top 10 perennial must-watch Christmas movies, originally posted last year.
Comments
15 responses to “Well said”
See, I’m not such a curmudgeon after all.
and here i was thinking i was the only one who had the brown bunny on his best-of-the-decade list.
Loving the list Chad.
What is it with Americans loving this film so much? In England it’s almost seen as a bit of an embarassment…but you guys love it up!
I personally think it’s a load of old dross, bar a few well-acted moments. Not a patch on Four Weddings & a Funeral, as far as this British rom-com-y fare goes.
Yes, I guess us Americans love ‘Love Actually’. It was one of my Top 10 films of 2003. Loved every single freaking gooey, sentimental moment of it.
Chad Hartigan, you have made it okay to praise Pootie Tang. I didn’t think there were others out there.
Chad and I are from the same town and are the same age…small world.
Freaking love “Love Actually”. A great, truthful uplifting movie with more great moments than I can count.
Makes for a great double feature with “Bad Santa”.
Why doesn’t he post it on here? His list is way more interesting than the ones that have been put up so far.
I second Aleksis.
My wife and I watch “Love, Actually” every year a couple of times. It’s become “our movie.” We find it inspiring, hilarious, sentimental, and even wicked too. And it’s got so many delightful performances from Bill Nighy (“Let’s get pissed and watch porn.”) to Alan Rickman (“No! No bloody holly!”) to Hugh Grant (“David Beckham’s left foot, come to that.”) to Emma Thompson (“There was more than one lobster at the birth of the baby Jesus?”) to Keira Knightley (“They’re all of me.”) to Kris Marshall (“Look out, America! Here comes Colin Frissell! And he’s got a big knob!”) All the performers register strongly. Even Rowen Atkinson in his droll role as the store clerk – he makes so much out of that gift bag! And the dual conclusion with Thomas Sangster running to saw goodbye to the love of his life crosscut with Colin Firth marching to his proposal leaves us crying every time. Love, actually, isn’t a strong enough word for our feelings about the movie. Worship. That’s more like it!
I offered Chad the opportunity to post the list here, he said he didn’t want to bombard readers with it, so the less “interesting” ones you get here are what you get. You’ll survive.
I do enjoy Love Actually. I don’t think it’s one of the 100 greatest of the decade, it probably wasn’t even one of the 20 best of its year, but when I’m in the mood it certainly hits the mark for the most part.
Indeed, Kris did ask if I wanted to post here but I thought it was better suited for my personal blog since it’s such a large endeavor. I hope to do a 2009 wrap up on this site just after the new year though if the boss allows it.
In the meantime, #60-41 are up on my blog now and the rest will be posted by tomorrow. Thanks for checking it out.
So true about the film! And I never knew you were a Moulin Rouge! fan Chad! How delightful.