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Tuesday, May 03, 2005
DVD Review: Love Actually
Okay, just a little explanation as this is the first entry in this blog of its kind.
When I say DVD Review, I don't really mean that I'm reviewing the DVD--it's contents, special features, etc. I may mention it at one point or another, but really, what I mean is that the movie I'm reviewing isn't playing in theaters anymore, but that I just recently saw it, on DVD.
Okay, so with that out of the way, here now is my review for
Love Actually
I guess if you're the kind of person who likes Notting Hill and Bridget Jones' Diary then you're also the kind of person who'd like this film. But I didn't like Notting Hill all that much and I hated Bridget Jones to the last detail, so I guess it's not surprising that I did not like this film at all.
I get why it's popular. It's got an all-star cast. Practically every famous British actor is in this film. And, it's about love. But, much like its fictitious rock star character's Christmas song that went no.1 in the charts, the only reason why this was a hit was because it's about a popular topic, with popular people involved. And, okay, the message was able to tie up all the stories together, which is good because that's usually what's difficult with those kinds of stories--involving many stories in one film, but then, the message wasn't really all that hard to think about, and if you don't mind my saying, it seemed a bit like, well, stating the obvious.
"Love actually is all around." Yeah, did it really have to take 2 hours to tell the audience that?
Another thing that I think was over the top was how some characters were related to each other while the others were not. I honestly think that despite being able to cut back on the budget for building sets as you can put several characters in just one location, there really was no point in having the Prime Minister be the brother of a wife with a two-timing husband who's also the boss of a dreamy girl with a mentally ill brother. It's not as if the mentally ill brother contributed to how the Prime Minister and his secretary got together. So, why the need for the characters to be related? Maybe it would've been more convincing if none of the characters knew each other, then it's really all around, and not just involving a certain group of people. But I guess they did need those relationships to be able to switch from one scene to another without having to cut too much.
Now, the film did have some redeeming moments. I loved the line, "Worse than the agony of being in love?" and having it said by a kid just made it more convincing--even kids know that falling in love is an agony. And the whole speech at the beginning, about how seeing that love is everywhere, from looking at the Arrivals in the airport. But then, I can't help but think that the 'Arrivals' is only one part of the airport, and the Departures part is a whole different story, that just cannot be ignored.
Anyway, another good thing was that it was not so pro-America, like most films (even if that's predictable as it's a British production). But I didn't like either how they portrayed American girls (at the part with Colin in the bar). I mean, sure, maybe some girls are that skanky, but come on. What Colin said to the cab driver just made it worse; "Take me to any bar." As if any bar in America would have those kinds of girls. I'm not a feminist or anything, but I do hate it when women are portrayed as such tramps.
I don't know, maybe it's because I'm a girl and that's why this next opinion may be considered biased, but honestly, sometimes men should just stop attempting to write romances. Because somehow, they always make it out to be this crude thing.
The only remotely interesting story I found was the one of Colin Firth's character and the Portugese girl. But even that, I found some stuff that I think if changed, could've made the story work better. Like, Jamie (Firth) didn't need to have a girlfriend who was cheating on him at the beginning. I mean, if he's a writer, then he shouldn't need any conflict in life to bring him to live alone in a rest house on the country side. And he needn't have left his family at Christmas to go to the girl to propose marriage. I mean, if he was flying to get to his family in England anyway, then he could've made a detour at the airport, and went to Portugal first instead. And then, after the girl says "Yes," they still go to his family in England, with him bringing a date this time. The family still would've been shocked, and there wouldn't be any kids shouting "I hate Uncle Jamie." Now, wouldn't that have been so much happier?
What really bugs me about this films is that despite its theme being "love", my favorite subject, there were no new realizations, observations, tidbits of information, about the topic. Except that, it's everywhere, and no one gets away from it. But with all the other movies, books, poems, songs, artworks and a bunch of other things about it, I thought that would've been obvious enough.
I just don't get why people would prefer this film over something like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Meet Joe Black or Before Sunset. I mean, I get why. I just don't understand why things have to be that way. Why is it that the stuff that become mainstream are always the ones that are cliche and commercialized, and not the genuinely good ones? And I know, everyone's entitled to their own opinion and blah, blah, it just, it bugs me how when I say I like something people don't normally like, people think I have bad taste. Because they think they've got good ones because more people agree with them.
This is probably what I hate most about mainstream. Majority wins, but that doesn't always mean they're right. Especially when it comes to opinions where there's no right or wrong. People should form their own opinions, not just follow the majority.
Posted at 11:24 pm by miriyammqx
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