Synopsis:

Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

The Freak's Rating: A+ : Romantic comedies are notorious for being systematic, cliche and colossal wastes of time, especially for men. Though I would never suggest I have the normal cinematic taste buds of everyday men, I do sympathize with the complaint. Far too often we are treated to a half hour of "this couple shouldn't be together", a half hour of "maybe they could be together" and finally a half hour of "they MUST be together". The formula, sadly, works. most romantic comedies are put together quite affordably. They are spit out thematically timed to holidays and pushed to the top of the box office (at least for one weekend). Typically after the music fades, the word of mouth doesn't keep these films afloat more than a week or two, but that is enough to have made their money back. American filmgoers eat this genre up. Rarely does a film in the genre showcase anything original that merits a second viewing. Love Actually is an amazing exception.

A perfect rating on this site is quite difficult to obtain. There is but one flaw in this film and it comes in a single line of dialogue in the final 30 seconds of the feature. This is easily forgiveable when looking at the film as a whole. It takes eight different storylines of love and beautifully intermingles them, all set against a holiday backdrop. Love against age differences, love after loss, love with a coworker crush, love of a family member, love in a marriage, love you'll never have, love of a friend and pure 100% romantic love. All are showcased perfectly with a true mix of artistic talent.

There are few movies I do watch every Christmas and are true must-owns. This is one. I can't imagine anyone with a romantic bone in their body to not enjoy this film on some level.

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