’’...There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known. Nothing you can see that isn’t shown. Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be. It’s easy. All you need is love, all you need is love, All you need is love, love, love is all you need....’’ - The Beatles - This film epitomizes adult comedy... the vagaries of love...and finally SCREENPLAY. The story or rather multiple stories revolve around a set of 10 characters and their love life. Hugh Grant plays the role of the British Prime Minister who falls in love with his secretary(McCutcheon). His sister (Emma Thompson) is married to a senior executive in a company(Rickman) and falls for the guiles of his secretary(Heike Makatsch).A member of his firm is hopelessly in love with another employee (Rodrigo Santoro). Theres also a newlywed, a porn-star-couple, a novelist and his french maid, a widower and his adolescent son, an ageing rock star and of course a yankee-babe-seeking-commie-boy who face up to their love life.
There are two aspects to the movie - the storyline is just one of them. Richard Curtis is the screenwriter and the director (debut). The screenplay is simply unbelievable - the stories are introduced in an interweaved fashion and the audience moves from one thread to another with clarity and amazing timing.
What grabs you in the end however is the director’s innovation and maturity - and not the individual storylines. Somehow, amidst all the medlee, Curtis succeeds in tying the loose ends to display a fabulous fabric of ingenuity. Its difficult to fathom that this is his directoral debut. Of course being the screenwriter surely helped - backed up by some solid performances (notably Liam Neeson, Thomas Sangster, Andrew Lincoln and Lúcia Moniz) and attractive and intelligent soundtrack.
Guaranteed to be one of the feel-good-and-squishy movies of the year.A definite must-see.
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