Actually quite good

Love, Actually is certainly predictable. However, I found it to be surprisingly lovely and more than a little bit enchanting, as far as witty British romantic comedies go.

It seemed to be simply about a lot of human relationships. And, although there were many occasions where easy laughs were sought, the whole thing was peppered with some real and difficult insights about love and fidelity to which only an emotionally stunted buffoon could not relate, at least in small part. The very best thing about it is Emma Thompson, who played a very nice woman indeed who knew that her (also very nice) husband was being unfaithful but was trying to keep it all together for her kids for Christmas. Second best is the always excellent Laura Linney, whose sense of responsibility to her high-maintenance brother very sadly denied her the possibility of any kind of relationship with a preposterously attractive and possibly Spanish man.

Which is, it must be said, the sort of thing that Lars Von Trier would turn into a film that my mother would describe as 'hard work'. Laura Linney has also dyed her hair an appealing reddish colour!


I cannot be quite as enthusiastic, though, about 21 Grams.

What is excellent about it is the acting. All of the performances were flawless. And it looks really good too. However, I found these things to be intensely irritating:
* The STUPID non-linear narrative! Pointless and pretentious!
* The IDIOTIC story! Completely melodramatic and over the top, it did not marry at all well with the earnest cinema verite style of director Alejandro González Iñárritu.
* The CORK-SHAPED erect nipples of Naomi Watts. Is this normal Please put these away.