Love Actually
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Love_Actually_movie.jpg
Love Actually is a romantic comedy film first released in cinemas in October and November 2003. The film was directorial debut of successful British screenwriter Richard Curtis and features an ensemble cast including Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy and Emma Thompson.
The film received a British premiere in Leicester Square in London on 16 November 2003. There Curtis described his film as a "roaring rampage of romance" - a reference to the Quentin Tarantino movie Kill Bill released around the same time with the tagline a "roaring rampage of revenge". The film, released two weeks earlier in the United States, had received a mixed bag of reviews including a particularly poor review from A. O. Scott of The New York Times. Defending the film at the premiere, Curtis said "I'd rather make a film that most of the audience liked and some critics didn't rather than a film that critics loved and nobody wanted to watch."
As of May 2004, Love Actually had achieved a US gross box office of over $59 million and a world box office of just under $212 million.
Taglines: It's all about love...actually and Love actually is all around.
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Plot
The movie tells the tale of ten loosely related love stories set in London in the five weeks leading up to Christmas. The strands range from the fanciful - such as the nerdy Colin (played by Kris Marshall) heading to America to find love and immediately meeting three beautiful girls in a Milwaukee bar and sleeping naked in the same bed as them that same evening - to the more serious tale of housewife and mother of two Karen (Emma Thompson) coping with near-infidelity of her husband (Rickman) in the throes of a midlife crisis. Grant plays the British Prime Minister who falls for his tea lady (Martine McCutcheon).
Awards
Bill Nighy won a BAFTA Award as "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role" in 2004 and the film received a couple of nominations in other categories. The film was also nominated for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film and Emma Thompson was nominated for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role".
Love Actually was nominated in the 2004 Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture - Comedy and Musical and Richard Curtis was nominated for Best Screenplay.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack album for Love Actually has achieved some success in the charts reaching the top 40 of the US Billboard 200 in 2004 and number 2 of the soundtrack album. It also has achieved gold record status in Australia.
The track listing for the soundtrack is:
- The Trouble With Love Is - Kelly Clarkson
- Here With Me - Dido
- Sweetest Goodbye/Sunday Morning - Maroon 5
- Turn Me On - Norah Jones
- Take Me As I Am - Wyclef Jean & Sharissa
- Songbird - Eva Cassidy
- Wherever You Will Go - The Calling
- Jump (For My Love) - Girls Aloud (cover of Pointer Sisters)
- Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell
- All You Need Is Love - Lynden David Hall
- God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
- I'll See It Through - Texas
- Too Lost In You - Sugababes
- Glasgow Love Theme - Craig Armstong
- White Christmas* - Otis Redding
- Christmas is All Around* - Billy Mack
- All I Want For Christmas Is You* - Olivia Olson
* Bonus track.
Christmas is All Around, a Christmas-themed cover of The Troggs' (and later Wet Wet Wet's) Love is All Around, is one of the main aspects of the story for Billy Mack (Bill Nighy). The song is publicised during interviews with Mack as being "crap", yet in the film it still receives a great deal of airplay and reaches the Christmas number one. The song was also released as a single in the real world and, while not getting to number one, was still a success. Previously Richard Curtis had used the Wet Wet Wet version for Four Weddings and a Funeral.
External links
- Official website (http://www.loveactually.com/)
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- New York Times' critical review of the film (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E2DB1439F934A35752C1A9659C8B63)
- BBC News report on the premiere (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3275283.stm)
- All Music Guide (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70311071654390588&sql=A0ik0ikbsbb69/)
- Actually box office (http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2003/LVACT.php/Love)de:Tatsächlich Liebe