Stars: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley, Martine McCutcheon, Bill Nighy, Rowan Atkinson, Martin Freeman, Andrew Lincoln, Billy Bob Thornton, Heike Makatsch, Joanna Page, Lucia Moniz, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Director: Richard Curtis

Summary: Set in the weeks leading up to Christmas, this is the story of a group of people who find themselves surrounded by love... There's the new Prime Minister who falls for his personal assistant, the Prime Minister's sister Karan who realises that her husband is attracted to his secretary. Author Jamie who flees England to escape his unfaithful girlfriend and then falls for his housekeeper. Movie stand-ins, John and Judy, who become attracted to each other on the film set. Recently widowed Daniel who helps his stepson who is smitten with one of his class-mates and Billy Mack, an ageing rock star who discovers that love can be found in the most unlikely of places...

Written and directed by Richard Curtis and produced by Duncan Kenworthy (the team behind NOTTING HILL and FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL) this zingy Brit-com weaves a vivid crazy quilt of interlocking or unrelated vignettes all dealing with the subject of love over the Christmas holidays in London. The big name cast includes Hugh Grant as a prime minister who falls for a member of staff, Liam Neeson as a widower counseling his son in the ways of romance, Laura Linney as a shy woman working up the nerve to ask out a colleague, Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman as a couple faced with infidelity, and Colin Firth as a writer who falls for his Portuguese maid. Additionally, a pair of porn film stand-ins bond on the set, an artist fantasises about his friend's wife; and perhaps funniest of all, an ageing rock star (Bill Nighy) tries to make his comeback with a Christmas novelty song. The likes of Billy Bob Thornton, Rowan Atkinson and Denise Richards turn up in cameos, helping make this film a throwback to those all-star, multi-plotted comedies of the 1960s and '70s, such as IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD (1963), NASHVILLE (1975), and CALIFORNIA SUITE (1978). With Curtis' comedic credentials and the star wattage of pros like Grant, Neeson and Thompson, LOVE, ACTUALLY is a laugh-packed affair, with more than a few tears to be shed along the way, and a startling amount of bawdy raunchiness.

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With no fewer than eight couples vying for our attention, Love Actually is like the London Marathon of romantic comedies, and everybody wins. Having mastered the genre as the writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones's Diary, it appears that first-time director Richard Curtis is just like his screenplays: he just wants to be loved, and he'll go to absurdly appealing lengths to win our affection. With Love Actually, Curtis orchestrates a minor miracle of romantic choreography, guiding a brilliant cast of stars and newcomers as they careen toward love and holiday cheer in London, among them the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) who's smitten with his caterer (Martine McCutcheon); a widower (Liam Neeson) whose young son nurses the ultimate schoolboy crush; a writer (Colin Firth) who falls for his Portuguese housekeeper; a devoted wife and mother (Emma Thompson) coping with her potentially unfaithful husband (Alan Rickman); and a lovelorn American (Laura Linney) who's desperately attracted to a colleague. There's more--too much more--as Curtis wraps his Christmas gift with enough happy endings to sweeten a dozen other movies. That he pulls it off so entertainingly is undeniably impressive; that he does it so shamelessly suggests that his writing fares better with other, less ingratiating directors. --Jeff Shannon

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Commentary - Richard Curtis - Writer, Director, Deleted Scenes - With Introduction from Richard Curtis (with optional subtitles), Music Highlights (with optional subtitles), Music Video: CHRISTMAS IS ALL AROUND, Featurette - 1. THE STORYTELLERS (with optional
Year:	2003
Release Date:	November 8, 2004
Runtime:	129 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	823 030 4
Keywords:	Love, Christmas, Comedy, General, Edition, Romantic, Actually
Genre:	Comedy