Or is half of Love Actually the most smug and self satisfied film ever?

[JakeBullet]

Just watching it again now......I mean it's 50% shite yet I feel compelled to watch.

All the rich Chelsea types
The impossible romance between the aide and the PM
That kid falling in love and re-enacting the scene from the Titanic
The smug surprise rendition of "all you need is love" at the wedding.

It's all so impossibly smug.....AND it has Keira Knightley doing her usual jaw jutting stuff. It DOES have some nice stuff in there which is why I watch but half the stories make me want to put my foot through then screen.

If it wasn't for the Emma Thompson, Colin Firth and the American woman story it would be unredeemable.

The rest are smug smug smug

Yep am being unreasonable but don't care.

In the interest of research I will have to watch it again

Love it sorry. Emma Thompson cannot run back in shouting "Are you shagging that bitch" at Alan Rickman as she has already said she is his "cold English wife". That part is brilliant. Love Colin Firth's bit, love Nick from Our Family. We watched it this year with DS(15) too and he loved it as well. Of course it is smug, unrealistic etc, but it is also warm and funny.

Dead wife bloke and Emma T are just very good friends me thinks.

Emma T and Hugh G are brother and sister

I thought that Emma T was best friends with Liam N's wife.

Smug yes but I still love it!

It is crap. But then a friend of mine who died earlier this year was in it and I watch it just for the memories of him.

Love the bit where bill nighy calls them ant or dec!

It's not a serious work is it? Think Emma t is actually brilliant in it. When she discovers her dh affair and doesn't act like a Blanche from eastenders its truly sad.

But again its just froth!

That's sad Pandemonia .

The chap that sang at the start of the film died very young too as I recall

There's a lot in it that's actually quite seedy: the office minx woman; the naked porn stand-in couple; the 'best friend' stalking Keira Knightly; the gurning creepy BT bloke shagging American sisters; the sexual predator US President...

Christmas doesn't really begin in our house till DD and I watch Love Actually. With all its flaws,it's one of the few things we agree on!

Totally agree BOF....and it's packaged as love apart front creepy president bloke.

That's why I rank it with pretty woman in the crap film stakes - nothing like a bit of seedy sexual power play dressed up as a romcom. Yuk.

Sorry haven't read thread so may be repeating.
Love Emma Thompson but why why why have the ow as a young predatory hussy? That's just such a lazy thing to do.

I always thought I quite liked it, until I watched it again recently, and yes, I found a lot of it quite seedy (good word).

The bit where the PA leans back in the office chair and opens her legs made me cringe.

I had the misfortune to watch The Boat That Rocked a while ago, also Richard Curtis. I'm sure there was some bit in it where they couriered in via rowing boat some young girls for the DJs to shag. It looks a bit grim in the wake of all this Jimmy Savile stuff.

The bit where Hugh Grant stands up to the President is cringworthy and Keira Knightly v annoying. That said, this thread has made me want to watch it! Which channel is it on please?

The bit with Lynden David hall singing at their wedding is so sad. He died from Hodgkin's lymphoma & came out of hospital to sing that part. He looks so skinny & is holding his stomach when he sings. That gets me

pretty woman in the crap film stakes ?!??!?!

I love it and watch it every Christmas, despite the odious Keira Knightley.ET and LN are friends. No connection between LN and HG.

Ohhh come on its a bit of cheesy Christmas fun.

And airily saying how DREADFULLY smug it is - kettle calling the pot black, no?

If it were a foreign subtitled film would it be less smug? L'Amour Realite?

Ah, I love it. Loads is cringeworthy, but still fab. Bill Nighy is gold.

The American girls are just friends/roommates/co-eds, not sisters, right? I only realised on this year's watching that one of them is January Jones/Betty Draper.

Love Colin Firth.

I've been in the same room as it, but I wouldn't say I've actually watched it.
Can firmly second Dead Man's Shoes.....twisted, visceral revenge story of Jacobean intensity.
Paddy Considine is ACE!

It is one of the most appalling films ever.
Curtis has a horrible view of women in all his films, dressed up as comedy but scratch the surface and he's either taking the piss out of mentally ill/alcoholic/pathetically goofy women, or setting them up as damaged harpies. That's why you all go nuts for Emma Thomson, because she doesn't fit either of his two stereotypes and she can act.

The men are all either hapless goofs or people 'who can't help themselves' and have their appalling behaviour explained away by being stupid, or charming enough in some way to fool us all.

I think Curtis is most probably a deeply unpleasant person.

(Emma Thomson and Laura Linney. I loved Laura Linney's bit in it.)