6 Movies in One Week! (Part Three)

On my flight back from Singapore, I decided to go for Love Actually. In terms of star power, it's got Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Billy Bob Thornton, Rowan Atkinson, Alan Rickman, Kiera Knightly, et al. Plus Denise Richards. Need I say more? :-) I've been wanting to see this movie for quite some time, but unfortunately, it wasn't as good as I expected it to be. The movie is being billed as a romantic comedy, with different people and different situations showing the various facets of love. My only complaint is that there's just too many characters with multiple storylines crammed into a two-hour movie. The characters are under-developed, and the plots too easily resolved.

You've got the newly-elected British Prime Minister unable to concentrate on running the country because he is distracted by his cute assistant, so he had her transferred. On Christmas Eve, he tracks her down, joins the whole family in her brother's school Christmas pageant, and kissed her in front of the whole audience. Then, there's this guy who has this huge crush on his best friend's fiancee. What can he do? He kept his silence. Come Christmas eve, he visits their house, and pretends to be a caroller so that the guy won't be suspicious. Bearing placards, he explains to the girl that he loves her, but don't worry, he's saying it just this once (since it's Christmas) without hope or agenda, and from now on, they'll all be good friends. We also have this heartbroken author who fell in love with his Portuguese housekeeper after he sees her half-naked jumping into a freezing pond to retrieve his windblown manuscript pages. Again on Christmas Eve, he flies off to France searching for his former housekeeper, locates her at the restaurant where she's working as a waitress, and proposes to her in broken Protuguese. (He has been taking lessons.) This being Christmas, she accepts his proposal...in English. (She too has been taking lessons...just in case.) There's the secretary who's coming on strong on her married boss. The middle-aged guy felt flattered. He buys a necklace for his young persistent seducer. The wife discovered the necklace, but didn't get it as a Christmas gift, so she knows something's afoot. Later, she confronts her husband. The husband confesses his mistake. End of story.

The remaining stories are very simplistic and unbelievable, so I'll just mention them in passing:

• Boy has puppy-love-crush on girl who's going back to the US. With the blessings of his Dad, he breaks through several levels of airport security to say goodbye to his girl. (This is after 9/11.)
• Delusional English slacker thinks he's God's sexiest gift to American girls, so he flies off to Milwaukee. On his first bar stop, he was picked up by three girls who just loves Englishmen with a British accent, and wants him to sleep with them on a single bed - naked.
• Washed-up former rocker records lousy version of Christmas Is All Around. Surprisingly, it hits #1. Instead of attending the hot parties he's been invited to, he turns up at his lonely manager's flat to spend Christmas with him.
• Martyr-sister sacrifices her own promising lovelife to take care of her mentally-disturbed brother.

Ah, the crazy things people do during Christmas!

Being a sucker for cartoons and animated movies, I watched Shark's Tale next. Another star-studded event with Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renée Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Martin Scorsese, et al lending their voices to the characters. Coming after Finding Nemo, also with a story involving fish and vegetarian sharks, there tend to be comparisons. I liked the animation and the visuals of Finding Nemo, but Shark's Tale definitely has the better characters and funnier jokes. Having watched a few Renée movies, I'm surprised I wasn't able to spot her character earlier. Her pout later gave her away.