Genre Guesstimation – Love Actually (2003)

The idea behind this new feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of holiday themed movies…

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around. ” – Prime Minister

Number of Times Seen – 3 (Theater in 2003, DVD and 25 Dec 2014)

Brief Synopsis – Numerous interweaving stories of people at different stages of their lives seeking love in the days before Christmas.

My Take on it – I saw this movie in the theater with my ex-wife back when we were dating more than a decade ago and part of me has blotted this movie out due to this reasoning.

The premise here is a great idea and it works in nearly half of the vignettes, but it falls quite flat in the rest.

That is actually this movie’s largest weakness. Because the idea is based on so many characters and their sitiations, we dont ever get enough development of the characters to care and that’s a shame because some of the stories could be amazing on their own.

The cast is a who’s who of Young British actors and it’s great seeing them all even for short snippets every now and again.

The soundtrack is great and can get anyone in the holiday spirit during any time of the year.

Bottom Line – Thankfully better than my warped opinionated mind thought it was, but more of the vignettes dont work than those that do. Excellent cast with a great soundtrack. Recommended!

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Nope. Better than I recalled but still far from being among my favorites

Rating – Globe Worthy

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