Christmas is Here with LOVE ACTUALLY

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to 4K Ultra HD, Bluray and Digital from writer/director Richard Curtis and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment celebrating its 20^th Anniversary comes the beloved new classic for the holidays with LOVE ACTUALLY.

English Rock n’ Roller Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) is making a statement for Christmas bringing his own unique version of the song Love Is All Around. He promotes it but makes it very clear that it is horrible and he doesn’t mind in the slightest. Rather than party the night away, he joins his bff Joe (Gregor Fisher) for a night of drinking.

Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is the camera man on the day of friend Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his love Juliet (Keira Knightley). Peter wonders why Mark seems to dislike his chosen bride but Mark is keeping a heartfelt and longing secret. Jamie (Colin Firth) discovers that his relationship is over, gets away to a cottage to write and meets Aurelia (Lucia Moniz). She doesn’t speak English which gives Jamie some relief except for one thing, words aren’t always necessary.

Harry (Alan Rickman) runs an agency with Mia (Heike Makatsch) as his secretary. Wife Karen (Emma Thompson) is a stay-at-home Mom who makes sure the ship runs smoothly with their two children Bernard and Daisy (Lulu Popplewell). Harry seems to have become caught in a web that Mia is spinning and Karen is the one that gets caught in it surprised by a Christmas morning present. Also at the agency is Sarah (Laura Linney) who happens to be crushing on Karl (Rodrigo Santoro) but is dealing with the issues of her brother.

David (Hugh Grant) just happens to be Prime Minister and Karen’s brother. At 10 Downing Street there are a lot of people and Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) is one of them. Together they work well until David begins to wonder if there is more and doesn’t want to be accused of any impropriety. Sometimes the heart wins.

Colin (Kris Marshall) decides he is only going to find love in America and ends up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. John (Martin Freeman) works as a film stand-in and meets Judy (Joanna Page) while doing love scenes. Both seem comfortable with one another and John discovers he can say how he feels.

Daniel (Liam Neeson) is taking care of his young stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) after the passing of his wife. Sam is going through his own heart story with the very cute school girl Joanna (Olivia Olson). Speaking with Daniel about it all, Sam wonders how best to get her attention, especially since she is moving away soon.

Neeson, Rickman, Firth, Nighy, Grant and Lincoln, Freeman, Marshall, Santoro, Ejiofor, and Fischer what can I say boys? Your storylines are wonderful and I couldn’t get enough of the wisdom from a step-father toward a boy who he sees as no step but just a wonderful son, to a PM who can shuffle with the best, to a man who will speak the language of love, to an aged rock star, to a man who should know better than to flirt with trouble and a man who knows when to hide his heart – you are all perfectly flawed human beings and we wouldn’t have you any other way.

Thompson, Page, Olson, McCutcheon, Knightley, Makatsch and Linney – ladies, just brilliant. You carry the light of family and see the frailty of husbands, to not being afraid of a powerful man, to discovering that a quiet love is closer than you think, to understanding that even though you may find love that other obligations can get in the way of the heart, to trying to take what isn’t yours, you are all women who make sacrifices in the name of dedication to love in all its forms and sometimes to the detriment.

Shout out to Rowan Atkinson as Rufus who kept me laughing the first time I saw the film and keeps me laughing still. I have never received a gift so well thought out and packaged and I’m not sure how I would react if I did however, if its Atkinson doing it – I’m all in!

Other cast include Julia Davis as Nancy, Ruby Turner as Jean, Adam Godley as Mr. Trench, Michael Fitzgerald as Michael AbdulSalis as Tony, Claudia Schiffer as Carol, Nina Sosanya as Annie, January Jones as Jeannie, Elisabeth Margoni as Eleonore, Meg Owen as Mary, Colin Coull as Gavin, Elisha Cuthbert as Carol-Anne, Ivana Milicevic as Stacey, Shannon Elizabeth as Harriet, Denise Richards as Carla, Marcus Brigstocke as Mikey, and Billy Bob Thornton as the U.S. President.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us to all experience and re-experience in our own home theaters. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

Bonus Features include Making LOVE ACTUALLY – Join writer/director Richard Curtis along with the cast and crew as they reflect on the making of the film and its legacy twenty years later, Deleted Scenes with Introductions by Richard Curtis, The Music of LOVE ACTUALLY with Introductions by Richard Curtis, The Storytellers – A featurette exploring the film’s main storylines, featuring interviews with the cast discussing their characters and the major elements within each on-screen relationship.

Also included is Kelly Clarkson “The Trouble with Love is” Music Video, Bill Mack “Christmas is All Around” Music Video and Feature Commentary with Director Richard Curtis and Actors Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy and Thomas Sangsters.

This film stole my holiday heart when I first saw it in 2003, yes it started out because Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman were in it but man, the entire cast just gave me Christmas tingles. The story is so heartfelt and sticky sweet which I usually barf over but I couldn’t help myself, I fell in ornament hook, lights line and full stocking sinker. The cast is absolutely brilliant and each character having a story of their very own is stunning still.

Look, I love me a good rom-com but LOVE ACTUALLY is so much more than that. Yes, it is on my Christmas stack of must-watch holiday movies after DIE HARD (get over it – think of it as an Alan Rickman double feature if you must). This film is about relationships, love, messiness of being a human being, whacky emotions trying to find the right places to settle, pushing the limits of the heart into places they/we are scared to go, and, of course the joy of Christmas that give us the extra push to say those three little words ‘I love you’ to someone who needs to hear it.

There is nothing, and I mean nothing that writer/director Curtis left out of this film. If anything was ever to be changed, I think I might have to throw a huge fit and Santa wouldn’t like that. It is a film of joy, love, celebration and by the end of the film, no matter how many times you watch it, the heart is just giggling with joy.

So, Happy Anniversary LOVE ACTUALLY, you have not aged a day and the world still loves you and isn’t that what it’s all about?

 

In the end – love is actually all around!