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Friday, February 27, 2004
"love actually" - a review of a british romcom*
 as u can see from the pic, the movie is filled with the well-known british actors who obviously have their own class. first experience as a director, richard curtis knows well the first rule of directing: 99 of it is casting. so he hired ONLY the best.
love actually explores many different types of love -- love between siblings, love between parents & children, love between spouses, unrequited love, & (of course) sexual/romantic love. from an 11-year-old boy to the prime minister of england, everyone needs & wants love.
i looove the opening of the movie with hugh grant's voice over. the scene is the arrival hall in airport where u can see that love actually is all around. grant says how he goes to heathrow arrival hall whenever he gets low.
this film is made up of multiple stories concerning several couples, most of whom are in some way intertwined - be it by blood, romantic love, work, marriage, friendship, or just obligation. some relationships are painful to watch, some are extremely touching. and love works mysteriously as to transcend even language barriers. colin firth speaks only english and his brazillian housemaid speaks only portuguese. yet they turns out speaking about the same thing only with different language. he says, "the happiest time of my day was to drive u home" and the girl says in portuguese, "the saddest time of my day is at the end of the day, leaving u." soo sweet...
curtis cuts between scenes frequently. there r lots of stories for anyone to enjoy so that we never have time to get bored for a second, but there r too many for so little time that character development is bad in some parts. after all, how much can a writer do when he has an average of about 7 minutes to work with for each individual? *therefore i'm looking forward to seeing the dvd version of "deleted scenes" and some "censored parts" as well*
*still with me?* :) for me, the true scene-stealer is bill nighy as an aging rocker. his part is a consistent source of laughs. one example is during a tv appearance when the interviewer tells him that there r kids watching that program... he turns to the camera & tells the kids: "don't buy drugs!" then adds, "become a pop star & they'll give them to u for free". ;D
as a writer-to-be (my deepest dream), i can learn from curtis the formula for success: introduce yr characters, put them in complicated situations, add a little drama, throw in a chase scene at the end, then a proposal, & there u have the pleasing readers...
*romcom=romantic comedy
stelly @ 9:55 AM
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