My Life In Movies Flashes Before My Eyes: Love Actually, 2003

You know how you see a movie with a lot of different storylines and at the end it just ends up being a pile of crap? This is the time that did not happen thanks to the skill of writer-director Richard Curtis. Love Actually is something of an epic romantic comedy, it has a stellar cast and more plotlines than I will even be able to go into here. It's structured to where you have just enough story for each plot: a beginning, a middle and an end. Let's go over some of the cast, representing most of the British Isles: Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy, Thomas Sangster, Rowan Atkinson, Laura Linney, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Keira Knightley, Kris Marshall, Colin Firth... The list goes on and on and on. We start the film out with this thesis...



Six weeks before Christmas in London, we meet our characters all in the midst of relationships of their own. Hugh Grant plays the new Prime Minister who finds himself attracted to his office assistant, Natalie, played by Martine McCutcheon. This is complicated by the arrival of Billy Bob Thornton doing just about the best American president ever written by a British writer. Now, this is a tangent, but every time I watch Doctor Who and they have an American president come on, it's just not right. I'm not saying you can't write the American president like an asshole, not at all, but let's make them realistic assholes! In no possible world does the President of the United States walk in and start lecturing the Prime Minister about the UN Protocol for alien first contact and then give a really bad speech to the world, I know it turned out to be Toclafanes, but in the real world the Master would have been shot because the Secret Service would never leave POTUS alone with bunch of miniature Death Stars! Yes, that was definitely a tangent. I am discussing The Sound of Drums in case you were wondering.

Okay, so back to Love Actually. The American president does the Bill Clinton sleazy thing and the PM thinks something happened between he and Natalie. He makes this wonderful speech which you have to click on the link for because I couldn't embed it. I know, I'm annoyed too. You can watch this, though.


Okay, there's also Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman as a married couple, confusing to anyone who clearly remembers Kate Winslet getting together with Colonel Brandon at the end of Sense & Sensibility. Anyway, Alan is struggling with the prospect of having an affair with his secretary. This is demonstrated comically with this scene with Rowan Atkinson, who is so effectively deployed in this film.


There's also Bill Nighy (who was in Vincent and The Doctor) as an aging rock star, who has remade one of his classics into a novelty Christmas track.

Richard Curtis surprises us here, because he tells us an unconventional love story, about a down and out superstar who realizes that the greatest love of his life is actually his manager.

I would be remiss if I didn't show you this scene with Mark and Juliet. Juliet thinks Mark doesn't like her, then discovers Mark likes her way too much. And we get this scene that just about tears your heart out and stomps on it because Richard Curtis is a freaking genius when it comes to using pop music in films, which he shows multiple times in this film.


Okay, Colin Firth. First scene we find out his brother is sleeping with his girlfriend and I'm all like, why? You already had Colin Firth. Then he goes to the south of France to write a book, falls in love with a Portuguese girl and comes home, learns Portuguese and then decides on Christmas Eve he must propose to her.


Also, we meet Liam Neeson who is stepfather to a boy played by Thomas Sangster (the kid from Human Nature/Family of Blood on Doctor Who) who is struggling with his wife's death and worries about his stepson. It turns out that his stepson is just in love with a girl at his school who doesn't seem to know he exists. He learns to play the drums to impress her resulting in the craziest Christmas Nativity ever and this...

It also results in a magnificent chase scene through Heathrow Airport.

There is so much good stuff in this film, discussing all sorts of love, amazing. There's also Kris Marshall who has figured out he can seduce American girls based entirely on his accent which is pretty much an accurate theory resulting in a great scene with Elisha Cuthbert, January Jones and Shannon Elizabeth. His best friend is played by Abdul Salis, who was also in the Doctor Who episode Fear Her with Nina Sosanya, who is also in this film playing the Prime Minister's assistant. Yes! I think I got every Doctor Who connection in this film!

And of course the magnificent ending, solidifying Richard Curtis' thesis. Those opening and closing scenes were actually filmed using real people at Heathrow Airport. Also, if you ever get to listen to the commentary track for this it is hilarious and you can listen to Hugh Grant kvetch about Colin Firth every time he shows up onscreen. So, any comments on Love Actually? The genius of Richard Curtis who actually writes watchable romantic comedies? Did I miss a Doctor Who connection? Let me know.

My Life In Movies Flashes Before My Eyes: Primary Colors, 1998

Primary Colors is quite possibly one of the greatest political films of all time, it typifies politics in the 1990s. It was based on a novel by Anonymous but I think they finally figured out who wrote it. It was directed by Mike Nichols and scripted by Elaine May. The film follows Adrian Lester as Henry Burton, an idealistic young political operative as he works on the primary campaign of Democratic Governor Jack Stanton from a state that's last in everything and has a problem with women. Sound familiar? Know anyone like that?

Well, there's also his wife, Susan, played by Emma Thompson, the power behind the scenes who struggles to turn a blind eye to her husband's infidelities in order to make history. Billy Bob Thornton plays a political operative, along with Maura Tierney and Kathy Bates just about steals the show as an idealistic old friend of Jack and Susan's. Oh, and Larry Hagman as Jack's opponent who may be the "real thing".

The film follows Henry as he slides further and further into a moral vacuum, deciding what he can sanction in order to make history and have an impact on people's lives. Travolta is great in this, so is Emma Thompson. The film is a little episodic as we follow each of Stanton's sex scandals in the primary race, but it features great character moments filled with the mood of the south. I especially like this clip because it exemplifies the world Henry has gotten into.



Also, this is the only film I have ever known to have a Krispy Kreme tie in. They had a Primary Colors doughnut with red, white and blue sprinkles. My brother claims it is his favorite Krispy Kreme of all time. I'm a purist, I like the glazed while they are HOT. There is no damn point in getting them if they are not HOT. There's a scene in the movie that takes place at a Krispy Kreme which really makes you want to forgive Jack for all of his son of a bitch-ness. And of course, there's Kathy Bates, her ending is so great and so emotional it breaks your heart, but here she is earlier in the film. I love how Nichols and May never waste a moment in this film.



So, questions, comments, concerns? Anyone else think of a Krispy Kreme tie in for a film?