Love Actually

General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed - but I don't see that - seems to me that love is everywhere.

Igniting laughter, wreaking havoc, breaking hearts, daring commitments, forcing choices, catapulting spirits, forging inroads, creating risks - ecstatic, exciting, unexpected, unwelcome, inconvenient, inexplicable, inelegant, unequalled.

Love actually is all around.

From the new bachelor Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) instantly falling in love with a refreshingly real member of the staff (Martine McCutcheon) moments after entering 10 Downing Street...

To a writer (Colin Firth) escaping to the south of France to nurse his re-broken heart who find love in a take...

From a comfortably married woman (Emma Thompson) suspecting that her husband (Alan Rickman) is slipping away...

To a new bride (Keira Knightley) mistaking the distance of her husband's best griend for something it's not...

From a schoolboy seeking to win the attention of the most unattainable girl in school...

To a widowed stepfather (Liam Neeson) trying to connect with a son he suddenly barely knows...

From a lovelorn junior manager (Laura Linney) seizing a chance with her long-tended, unspoken office crush...

To an aging 'seen it all, remember very little of it' rock star (Bill Nighy) pushing for an end-of-career comeback in his own uncompromising way...

Love, the equal-opportunity mischief-maker, is causing chaos for all.

These London lives and loves collide, mingle and climax on Christmas Eve - again and again and again - with romantic, hilarious and bittersweet consequences for anyone lucky (or unlucky) enough to be under love's spell.

What the critics are saying:

"You can almost see Curtis pressing the emotional buttons, but he does it so well you won't care. Warm, bittersweet and hilarious, this is lovely, actually. Prepare to be smitten."
- Nev Pierce, BBCi

"...pushes so many buttons at once, just in case, that he's perpetually jamming the movie up."
- Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

"The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs, until at times Curtis seems to be working from a checklist of obligatory movie love situations..."
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times