It just might be the best movie I have seen this year. It's Love Actually and it's a cheese ball on a stick--combining every soppy love story you've ever seen with the action of E.R. and credibility of a Soap Opera. The film follows eight romances, give or take a heartbeat.

        There's Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister of England who is attracted to the woman who brings him his tea. The Prime Minister's sister, the delightful Emma Thompson, is enmeshed in her marriage, which she assumes to be happy. She doesn't know that her husband, Alan Rickman, is victim to the wiles of his new Administrative Assistant. Meanwhile, also in his office, is Laura Linney, mooning over another employee. And so it goes, from one to other, each character with a heart that is either full or broken by the end of the two-hour ten-minute movie.

        There are more stars in this movie than I care to number. I loved Billy Bob Thornton as the President of the United States. Thornton has been taking cameos in interesting movies lately, such that we might refer to him as Bit Part Billy Bob. His role in Love Actually is small, but they're all small, rather intensive microcosms of life and love, actually.

        The movie begins with a voice-over, where Hugh Grant explains the premise. It's all about love. Take the arrivals gate at Heathrow, for example. People arrive and hug and kiss and feel happy.

        This film is not quite G rated, be warned. Two of the characters are stand-ins for porn stars and carry out their courtship while disrobed and in somewhat compromising positions. It's funny, a little poignant, and likely not what parents would want their youngsters to see.

        Other than that caution, Love Actually is probably the perfect movie to head us into the holiday season. Love, after all, is all you need, and this movie demonstrates all kinds of love, painful, beautiful, and unconventional.

        First-time director Richard Curtis, who wrote the screenplay for Bridget Jones and Mr. Bean among others, times the movie to perfection. It's constant motion as the various romances play out and yet the pace seems comfortable. We have neither too little nor too much of each character. And while we might not ever believe any of the stories, we certainly understand the emotion.

        I loved Love Actually without going overboard about it. I came away just feeling good about life in general and this movie in particular.

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