Love Actually (R)
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This came out in 2003, but I didn't see it until 2025. I kind of expected it to be more Christmas-y than it turned out to be, but at the same time, I guess I never really expected it to be super Christmas-y. I feel like for the most part, it could have worked at any time of year, but it just happens to be set during the weeks leading up to Christmas. That being said, I do think the timing was a good choice. Anyway, before I watched it, I thought I'd put my review in my holiday movies section, with a secondary link in either rom-coms or romantic dramas. (The movie is more of a comedy-drama than entirely comedy, but it's comedic enough that I went with rom-coms as my primary category, with holiday movies as my secondary.) It has a stellar cast, full of very familiar faces, as well as faces that looked familiar, even if I couldn't think where I might have seen them before. Everyone in the film is pretty great. And ultimately, it's just a really fun celebration of love. (Most of the stories end happily, but not all of them.) It's still not one of my favorite rom-coms ever, but I guess it's better than most. The film is made up of a bunch of small stories that are somewhat interconnected, but mostly stand on their own. It's mostly set in London, but there are some scenes set elsewhere.

There's an aging rock star named Billy Mack (Bill Nighy), who is hoping to make a comeback by releasing a Christmas song, even though he thinks the song is rubbish. And in interviews, he trashes the song, much to the chagrin of his manager, Joe. I thought this whole plot was fairly amusing, though love doesn't come into it until the end... and even then, I couldn't decipher whether the love was meant to be romantic or simply friendly.

There's a couple named Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor, who we don't see much of in the film) and Juliet (Keira Knightley), who get married early in the film. Peter's best man is Mark, who Juliet thinks doesn't like her, but is actually in love with her. In the end, they have what I think is one of the film's most iconic scenes, in which he confesses his love using a series of cue cards. Before watching the film, I had no idea of the context of this scene, and I'm not sure how to feel about it now. But it was still a decent story.

There's a writer named Jamie (Colin Firth), who discovers his girlfriend cheating on him. He goes to France to work on his latest novel, and gets a Portuguese housekeeper named Aurélia. Despite not speaking the same language, the two of them develop romantic feelings for each other, but are unable to express those feelings. I'm not a big believer in the possibility of falling in love with someone you can't even converse with, but somehow the story still worked, and had one of the film's most romantic endings.

A man named Harry (Alan Rickman) is married to Karen (Emma Thompson), but has a secretary named Mia, who makes obvious sexual advances toward him at work. For much of the film, I thought Harry seemed more embarrassed by these advances than any other response, but he didn't say anything about it. I kept hoping he'd eventually flat out turn her down and tell her to cut it out, but that's not what ends up happening. In one rather amusing scene, Harry tries to buy a necklace for Mia, from a salesman named Rufus (Rowan Atkinson). Karen eventually finds out what's going on, and is devastated. But to be honest, I couldn't really tell how this story ends; the movie's epilog seemed unclear to me, about this.

The newly-elected Prime Minister, David (Hugh Grant), who happens to be Karen's brother, starts his new job and meets his staff. This includes a woman named Natalie, and it's fairly obviously love at first sight between her and David, though they do their best to hide their feelings from each other, considering it inappropriate. At one point, David has to deal with a visit from the US President (played by Billy Bob Thornton), who he walks in on apparently making a pass at Natalie. Later in the film, Natalie apologizes to David for that incident, which I thought was ridiculous. She had nothing to apologize for, and if anything, I thought it was David who should have apologized for not speaking up in her defense at the time. I really thought he should have called out the President for his behavior (especially considering that the President is married, though we never see his wife). Anyway, despite my disbelief in love at first sight, and the fact that David and Natalie seem to have very few interactions in the film, I found their story mostly rather charming. And it has another really romantic ending.

A man named Daniel mourns the recent death of his wife. He's left to take care of his stepson, Sam, who is "in love" with a popular girl at school named Joanna (who we don't see until much later in the film). Sam is concerned that Joanna has no idea who he even is, and Daniel does his best to encourage Sam to talk to her. Sam decides to learn the play drums, so he can take part in the upcoming school Christmas play, and hopefully impress Joanna (who sings in the production). I want to mention that despite there being several children in the movie, Sam is the only one we really get to know at all, even though some of the others also have parts in the rather odd play, which seems to have little to do actually with Christmas. Anyway, Sam's story has a relatively happy ending. And Daniel meets a woman named Carol, who may become a love interest, later on. (And coincidentally, there's a 2025 Waitrose ad that I had seen like a few weeks before I watched this movie, which I think was inspired by this rather brief plot point in the movie.)

There's an American woman named Sarah (Laura Linney), whose boss, Harry, encourages her to ask out a coworker named Karl, who apparently everyone at work knows she's in love with, even though she's tried to hide her feelings. They do eventually make a connection, but it is interrupted by a phone call from Sarah's brother. And... it seems unclear whether any more will happen between them, or not.

There's a guy named Colin, who has no luck with women. So he decides to go to America, believing his British accent will help him get lucky. His friend Tony tries to convince him that this won't work. But Colin makes the trip, anyway, and... I won't spoil how it works out, but I will say I thought it was one of the funniest (and most improbable) parts of the movie.

A man named John (Martin Freeman) acts in a porn film with a woman named Judy. Even though they're both quite comfortable simulating sex, they are shy in real life, so it takes quite awhile for John to ask her out on a date. But their story ends well.

So, all these stories alternate throughout the film, mostly with rather tenuous connections to one another, though most of them do come together in the climax. And there's an epilog set a month later, which shows us how things are going for some of the film's characters. But as I said before, not everything in the epilog was clear to me. In any event, the whole movie was pretty good, and I'm glad I've finally seen it. I thought it was genuinely funny and romantic, with a bunch of good characters. And I guess I don't know what else to say.