12.21.2009

My Case For: Love Actually

Every network has one or two ubiquitous, go-to, fill-the-void movies.

AMC = Rambo

BET = Beauty Shop, Belly

MTV = Scream

Comedy Central = How High, Orange County

TBS = Anything with Jim Carrey

For USA, that movie is Love Actually. I had never seen this movie (or even heard of it, maybe?) until a few years ago when I saw it on the aforementioned USA. It only made $59 million in the United States and Canada, and $239 million worldwide, ranking it behind such box office juggernauts as Crocodile Dundee II, Wild Hogs, and Cliffhanger.

So I gave it a shot. And I bawled like an eighth grade girl.

For the uninitiated, Love Actually is a series of interconnected stories about love (duh) and its effects on the characters.

There’s the newlyweds, the stand-in porn stars, the British-Portuguese couple, and a bunch more I can’t remember right now. Oh, and it’s set the five weeks before Christmas, so it’s full of caroling, gift buying, and holiday parties.

Anyway, yeah, I cried the first time, and I almost always cry a little when I see it. It’s a dumb movie, but one with a whole lot of heart.

Try watching it and not crying when Sam runs through the airport. It’s impossible.

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Posted by Bradford Pearson at 3:35 AM

3 comments:

  1. Sam and Joanna = worst couple
    Colin Firth and Portuguese girl = best couple

    ReplyDelete

  2. Brad, I've long been a fan of your blog. But this "My case for" may signal the end of our relationship as blogger and loyal reader. It's going to be a struggle to contain my vehemence, but the point is this-- Love Actually is the second most overrated movie of all time (behind Raging Bull). It sucks. It's just a bunch of contrived vignettes with absolutely no plot of character development. These characters are endearing at best, but have no complexity or deeper level worth an audience's investment. The conflicts are minimal and the situations are simply designed to make you think, "hmm that would be kind of cute" but nothing more. These writers try to make up for lack of quality with quantity as they flood audiences with a series of potentially romantic situations and hope no one notices that nothing is accomplished. Sorry Brad, you've been had. I really thought you were better than this.

    ReplyDelete

  3. I don't know why, but Hugh Grant has always been entertaining to me.

    ReplyDelete

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