Christmas has the ability to make things that may seem a touch tacky feel infinitely more special. At a time where peace and love is everything, certain ornaments or T-shirts feel incredibly special and likeable even though they have a groaner catchphrase on it or a bombardment of color, because it screams of the season and warms the heart with its cheapness. Movies are similar around this time; where a bunch are made just to soak in the merriment and let people laugh at the absurdity and stupidity of what they’re watching, which led to these film’s coining the term, ‘’Christmas B-Movies’’. An incredibly popular one in the early 2000s is actually one that doesn’t have a lot to do with christmas: Love, Actually. Set around Christmas time (obviously), the movie is structured as an anthology following various different people around the build-up to the big day. Without going too heavily into each individual one, each one is focused around a certain person’s lose or lack of love in a commitment or from an individual. Hijinks ensue, errors are made, lips are met, and it all wraps itself neatly together by having all these people conveniently know each other and end on a Christmas pageant and at an airport, like a nice little Christmas gift wrapped in awkward romance. From a set-up like that, the people who are drawn to that kind of trope will obviously get a kick out of this movie and in some regards, its makes sense; the movie has some great actors in it, it’s all sappy and romantic and it tries its best to compile this gigantic list of storylines into this simple rom-com for people to watch it without getting too confused. This movie is the perfectly harmless fluff that can waste some time for parents and romance lovers, but ironically the film’s lack of silliness and acceptable format is what keeps it from being any better.

When people think of most Christmas romances, they never go in thinking that they’re serious. Outside of the cast who usually do good regardless, the stories are often hilariously stupid, the characters are insane in a normal world, the writing is complete fluffy trash in the best way possible, and the actions are extreme and obviously unrealistic but are treated like it’s perfectly fine. What usually makes one of these movies fail is when they try to elevate themselves above that level and pretend they are more meaningful than these examples, this movie has a bit of that problem. While it doesn’t feel pompously higher than thou, it tries to balance the narratives and essence of a rom com, with a more grounded comforting comedy romance, which isn’t nearly as fun or memorable. The stories, though serviceably told and surprisingly coherent, can’t go extreme enough because it wants to be realistic, the characters, though portrayed by great actors, are pretty bland, the writing isn’t funny which severely hurts this movie, and the fact that it’s competently made ironically keeps it from being memorable, it just falls into the background of other rom-coms. Some of the situations that are focused on are legitimately touching and effective; two in particular are the one about a stepfather helping his son get a girlfriend after losing his mother, and the one about a husband who may be cheating on his wife with his secretary. Though the movie paces most of the different narratives out quite way where those that have more screen time usually deserve it and those that don’t aren’t mentioned much, but most of the romance stories are pretty traditional and don’t work as either a comedy or a legit romance. The movie tried to be both a silly comedy and a serious romance, and it would have worked a lot better if it just decided to focus on one or the other.

The cast for this movie is incredibly big and full of famous names; Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman, Rowan Atkinson, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Martin Freeman, Hugh Grant. These are good actors and all of them have the talent to be funny people, but the material they’re given isn’t that good and their roles are written pretty flat, so it never feels like characters, it feels like the actors themselves just living their lives. Thankfully, these actors are so good that all of them give their all into whatever they can muster together, and all of them give at the least decent performances. The standouts are usually the ones connected to the storylines that work and are usually the ones where something a little bit funny is added in. The stuff with Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson works pretty well as the cheating husband and suspicious wife (some of the moments feel genuinely sad), same to be said with Liam Neeson as the grieving husband trying to help out his son (played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster) where it feels like the most put-together story. Some of the stories are small enough that they work okay, like the one between Keira Knightley and Andrew Lincoln is simple but effective enough and it ends on a legitimately nice scene. Sadly most of the others are either incredibly predictable or just throwaway ideas; Colin Firth is connected to a pretty boring romance with his housekeeper (played by Lucia Moniz), Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon have good chemistry but nothing much else, Martin Freeman and Joanna Page have a funny set-up but without any strong laughs involved, and Bill Nighy is just left out to dry with scenes that seem to only repeat the same jokes over and over again. Even if the performers are giving actual good performances, the writing isn’t giving them anything to stick too.

The writer of the movie, Richard Curtis, is also the director of the movie so he clearly has a big impact on the film. He’s been attached to other rom coms like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Yesterday, but he also helped write the story for Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again so he can have a slip up every once and awhile. The humor in this doesn’t even feel like punchlines are delivered, instead just saying random things that will hopefully deliver something humorous, which for the most part it doesn’t. Like previously mentioned, the idea of making it a Christmas B-movie would have helped give this movie a stronger identity and would have allowed the writing to go full-force crazy, but it wasn’t silly enough to be that, but it also wasn’t memorable or serious enough to be a legit romance or comedy, instead in the horrible in-between that isn’t horrible, but isn’t good either. Some of the sets needed to add a little bit more Christmas flair as a way of showing what time of year it is as the movie itself so poorly conveys that it’s Christmas during the movie, most of the time it wouldn’t be surprising if the audience forgot it was a Christmas movie. Sometimes the streets covered in christmas lights in the snow look quite nice and an occasional christmas tree is always great, but not enough to leave an impression.

Love, Actually is Actually pretty safe and kinda bland for a Christmas rom com, but for fans of romances or even anthology movies as a whole, this movie will work fine. It has a fine enough message as well as a nice enough ending to make the whole film feel like it came to a serviceable conclusion, but there lies the key problem, SERVICEABLE. This movie could have been so much funnier, cleverer and more memorable if it chose a side and stuck with it. It’s too ‘hallmark Christmas card’ like to be taken seriously, but the writing is so bland and most of the stories are so generic that it can’t be an off-the-walls Christmas B-movie either. If the actors weren’t great and the directing wasn’t competent, this movie could have easily been swept under the rug as another rom com, but as it is, it’s perfectly fine. With at least two scenes sticking in people’s heads involving cue-cards and dancing to the pointer sisters, this Christmas gift could have used a lot more thought.