Love Actually (DVD, 2004, Widescreen Edition)

Written and directed by Richard Curtis and produced by Duncan Kenworthy (the team behind NOTTING HILL and FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL) this zingy British comedy weaves a vivid crazy quilt of interlocking or unrelated vignettes all dealing with the subject of love over the Christmas holidays in London. The big name cast includes Hugh Grant as a prime minister who falls for a staff member Liam Neeson as a widower counseling his son in the ways of romance Laura Linney as a shy woman working up the nerve to ask out a coworker Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman as a couple faced with infidelity and Colin Firth as a writer who falls for his Portuguese maid. Additionally a pair of porn film stand-ins bond on the set an artist fantasizes about his friend's wife; and perhaps funniest of all an aging rock star (Bill Nighy) tries for his comeback with a Christmas novelty song. The likes of Billy Bob Thornton Rowan Atkinson and Denise Richards turn in cameos helping making this film a throwback to those all-star multi-plotted comedies of the 1960s and '70s such as IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD (1963) NASHVILLE (1975) and CALIFORNIA SUITE (1978). With Curtis' comedic credentials and the star wattage of pros like Grant Neeson and Thompson LOVE ACTUALLY is a laugh-packed affair with more than a few tears to be shed along the way and a startling amount of bawdy raunchiness.