Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Liam Neeson in “Love Actually” 2003. IMDb photo

The 2003 Richard Curtis film “Love Actually” never won an Oscar and even got a few complaints, but that movie just made more than a few folks happy.

MOVIE INFO

“LOVE ACTUALLY”
Holiday comedy, romance, drama
Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
Length: 135 minutes
Rating: Moderate sex, nudity and profanity, with mild alcohol, drugs and smoking with
Director: Richard Curtis
Writer: Richard Curtis
Stars: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson

That’s why I chose to put it here again in 2024 as my choice to run after Christmas when the lights are still bright.

“Love Actually” gave director Curtis one headache after another. He kept reshooting, recasting and making changes, but somewhere, he and the cast fell in love with each other and with the story, as most of America did, and put it in the ranks of one of Movieland’s favorite Christmas films.

For your time, you get the always lovable Laura Linney, and the sadly late great Alan Rickman winning us over as the flirting husband of Dame Emma Thompson, who keeps working today.

The real central love story that fuels all the others involves the still unmarried David (Hugh Grant), who nevertheless got himself elected Prime Minister of England, and wouldn’t you know it, falls in love with his household servant Natalie (Martine McCutcheon).

The big surprise to be prepared for is watching Billy Bob Thornton as the visiting horny President of the U.S. who hits on Natalie. Thornton seems to be giving us Bill Clinton, but with a little bit of the “Donald” as we look at it today.

“Love Actually,” filled with mostly studio set scenes, was filmed in about 12 different locations in and around London, but Jamie’s (Colin Firth) writer’s cottage in Marseille, France, adds a sweet minor love story that critics favored.

“Love” won a lot of hearts and wound up winning 10 awards, but got hit with smirks from many critics.

The film’s softer love affair features Firth as Jamie, a writer who catches his best friend and wife between the sheets, but then bounces back to fall in love with the sweet, charming Aurelia (a masterpiece of casting by Curtis, Lucia Moniz), his housekeeper who only speaks Portuguese and really steals our hearts.

The best casting move by Curtis was Bill Nighy as the aging rock star Billy Mack, repeating once again his Christmas hit (The Troggs’ hit “Love Is All Around Us”) even though he hates it and keeps blowing the lines. Nighy is still England’s best all around.

Actually, Curtis told his casting director to just find someone offbeat for a “small part,” and Nighy walked away with it and stole half of the picture.

The saddest casting was Daniel (Liam Neeson), whose wife has just died, leaving him to raise his adolescent stepson Sam (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) by himself.

Sadly enough, Neeson’s wife, Natasha Richardson, died in 2009 from a head injury after a skiing accident in Quebec.

So here it is again, and maybe on future lists when I’ll bet we’ll need it again, Curtis’s wonderful, funny and lovable “Love Actually,” which this year streams on Amazon Prime Video.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.