Theatrical Review: Mary Poppins Returns

Date: Saturday, December 22 2018
Location: Cinemark Theater in Stroud Mall
Time: 11am
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)

Director: Rob Marshall (of Pirates of the Carribean and Into the Woods fame)
Writers: David Magee, Rob Marshall and John DeLuca (screenplay), P.L. Travers (for Mary Poppins book series)
Composer: Marc Shaiman

Notable Cast:
Mary Poppins- Emily Blunt
Jack the Leery- Lin-Manuel Miranda
Michael Banks- Ben Whishaw (Q in the latest Bond films and the voice of Paddington)
Jane Banks- Emily Mortimer (I know her best as the voice of the heroine in "Howl's Moving Castle)
Ellen- Julie Walters (Mrs. Weasley is back!)
Cousin Topsy- Meryl Streep
Wilkins- Colin Firth

Write-up:

Opening Remarks

This is one of those movies we'd been looking forward to all year and for me at least it was worth the wait. My sister says she really liked it, but she wasn't speaking as enthuastically about it as I did afterwards. And my mom thought it was a little too depressing and dragged in places. 
The theater was mostly empty when we got there and by the time it started, at least a dozen other people showed up. But it wasn't a terribly enthusiastic audience. The two of me (my sister and I) wanted to cheer and clap after a bunch of the musical numbers, but it was so silent in the theater we were only comfortable softly clapping to ourselves. Nobody even cheered at the end and I felt like this movie warranted that. 
Was it as good as the original? No. The original is such a classic and Julie Andrews is so adored in this role that it's hard for anyone to do it that same level of justice. But I thought it was a nice homage to the original film and will help introduce a new generation to it. Hopefully those who hadn't seen the original will do and those who hadn't seen it in years will become more inclined to revisit. I know I will have to... I think the last time I saw it was on TV a couple years ago... they tend to show it this time of year on ABC, which is one of the many apparatuses owned by Disney these days... 

Trailers: 
...and we're back to the stand-by 7 trailers...

Breakthrough- this movie brought me in immediately on the fact the mom is being played by Kate from "This is Us"- it's based on a true story where a teenage boy is playing with his friends and falls through the ice and faith alone is helping to keep him alive. Looks like a bit of a tearjerker (well, obviously) but it looks like it'll be a good movie overall

Detective Pikachu- the first time my sister is seeing the trailer and I'm not even sure what she thinks of it. I know she asked for (and got) the game for Christmas and has watched the walkthrough on YouTube a number of times already. 

A Dog's Way Home- my sister run out of the theater so she didn't have to see the trailer again... we love dogs, but we hate dog movies because they're ALWAYS tearjerkers. And the dog almost always dies at the end.

The Secret Life of Pets 2- I still hadn't seen the first one and it's been on TV a bit over the last week (let's just say we have other plans so we keep missing it). This one is another teaser, this time about the cat trying to wake up its owner and the one thing that does is her hacking up a hairball. Then after the title, she's on the sofa dealing with catnip and talking to the little white dog

Where'd You Go, Bernadette?- I'm not quite sure where this movie is even going, honestly... it's about a mom who suddenly has this urge to do something and just disappears and I guess it's about finding her... I really can't make heads or tails of it.

Dumbo- after a bunch of teasers, I think this is the first proper trailer we've gotten of this movie. I'd seen the original maybe once and it was years ago. And it's a pretty rough movie to get through... I still don't quite like the fact that this movie revolves around the people trying to take care of Dumbo and make him a star to help save the circus, when in the animated version the humans are the bad guys that took away Dumbo's mom because she was hurting people (they started it- stupid kids teasing poor Dumbo)... it looks like in this version Danny Devito is the ringmaster and there is some homage to the pink elephants scene, although I don't know if it'll be a full song and dance number... I remember Nostaglia Critic naming that scene one of his top 11 nostaglic mindf**ks cuz it's one of those things that doesn't make sense when you're a kid and there's usually drugs involved. 

The Lion King- omg, cannot wait for this one... and also can't wait to get more than just a teaser trailer of this cuz it looks like it's gonna be AMAZING. The one thing they've got right for sure is James Earl Jones as Mufasa. Nobody can top that. 

So I made a note on my phone, where I record all these trailers for these posts...there are 7 and I don't write the post for a couple days after... it'll be too easy to forget if I don't write them down... this was 17 minutes of previews... and the movie time is slated for 11... the movie itself should START at 11, not the trailers and millions of commercials... if I wanted to see commercials, I would have stayed home :sigh:

Ok, moving on...

The Main Event

One thing before the movie starts, we get a greeting from Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda to thank us for seeing the movie, to enjoy it and have a good holiday. I thought that was kind of a nice touch.
The opening is pretty nice where we see a lot of paintings of scenes from the movie as the overture plays with all the songs to come in the movie. 
It should be noted that all of the songs are brand new, no encores from the first movie, but certainly a bunch of references to the original. 

The bad news first- the movie starts with a bit of a double-whammy... the second generation of Banks children (Michael's children) lost their mom a year ago and now the bank is threatening to repossess their house unless they can play the loan in full. And for the adults, grown-up Jane and Michael (the kids from the original movie), their quest is to find the certificate that their father owned shares in the bank. And the three children, Anabel, John and Georgie want to help as well. But then Mary Poppins shows up and her job is to help them to remember how to be kids... because they'd done so much growing up after their mom passed away.

It's a Disney tradition that we've all gotten pretty sick of at this point... the moms are always dead or die in these movies... seriously, what the hell... but on the other hand, if they were going to do the widower angle, they did play it right. The big issue with the house is that Michael's wife took care of all the finances and he's not sure how to take over. Now, had they gone the other way and said it was Jane's children and her husband had passed away, it'd be more typical... the husband doing the finances and the wife not knowing what to do about them... this kinda paints the deceased Mrs. Banks in a strong female role and it certainly shows how times have changed. 

The songs weren't quite as memorable as "A Spoon Full of Sugar," "Feed the Birds" or "Let's Go Fly a Kite"... but they had that same sense of fun and feel like they come from the same songbook. A number of the scenes do harken back to the original. And of course the characters do as well.
Best place to start is the Leeries- the people in London who light the streetlamps at night and snuff them out in the morning. They fulfill the role the chimney sweeps do in the original movie. Their song about tripping the "Light Fantastic" may not be "Chim-Chim-erie" but it lends itself to the Leeries doing an outrageously fun dance number including bike tricks and parkour. 
Of course a lot of people complained back in the day about how bad a Cockney accent Dick Van Dyke did for Bert the Chimney Sweep and the accent Lin-Manuel Miranda does is sorta in line with that. Then again, I've never been to that part of London so I can't judge what is or isn't a good Cockney accent. (Being a part of "My Fair Lady" in high school certainly doesn't make me an expert.. even if I had been cast as Eliza or even had a line or two). But the man behind "Hamilton" was brilliant in every scene he was in. He made this movie fun and he always lit up the screen when he came on. Of course I know of "Hamilton" but had never seen it and I really hadn't gotten to experience him outside of him writing songs for "Moana"... but the dude is brilliant. 

Emily Blunt may not be Julie Andrews and nobody can really touch her in this role (or any she had done over the years for that matter), but the important thing in the end is that she fulfills the role these kids need in this trying time. I just thought to myself how crazy it is how far she'd come as an actress. I first saw her as Emily in "The Devil Wears Prada" and I'd since seen her in a bunch of other roles. She proved she had a flair for musicals in "Into the Woods" and this is just more of that. 

Another homage to the original, of course, is everyone being transported into an animated world. Instead of a painting on the street, it's the paint job on a priceless vase that the children cracked in a fight. The penguins make a comeback, but they're comic relief more than anything else. Among the musical scenes, they had a Vaudeville performance where Mary Poppins and Jack talk about how "The Cover Is Not the Book"... and it's kind of about not judging a book by its cover.
A message that does wind up coming back into reality... one thing I will say about this movie was how every detail is important and if you pay attention, you can see what's coming before it arrives. That's always a fun touch. 

Meryl Streep is mentioned among the cast... because she's bloody Meryl Streep. Even if she only has five minutes of screen time, she always gets billed on the first page of the cast list. Not to say she isn't great in this movie- her character is fun and memorable. (Not to mention Rob Marshall did the same trick with Johnny Depp in "Into the Woods"- putting on the first page of the cast list even though he doesn't last more than 10 minutes on screen). They take the vase to her to fix because she can fix anything, but she says she cannot because it's the second Wednesday of the month and on that day for 3 hours, the world "turns turtle"... flips upside down. To me, this felt like a homage to that scene in the movie where two men are floating on the ceiling because they're laughing so much. But then they get depresssed and manage to right themselves. They do the reverse here where she realizes that she loves "turning turtle" and it's all about looking from another perspective. 

Not sure how more I can say without giving too much away about the movie... it's definitely worth a watch, though.
I'll also say that another good homage they did to the original... the tuppence Michael wanted to give to the bird lady in the original movie do wind up going to good use... I thought that was particularly important because "Feed the Birds" was a scene Walt Disney himself REALLY wanted to stay in the movie because it was his favorite. 
For me, it was the one scene in Mary Poppins I really didn't like... it was dank and depressing and as a kid, I didn't really understand the point of it. I think because it was one time in the movie where it stopped being a kid friendly movie and became more adult. But as a kid, I also did not watch a lot of live action media whether it was on TV or in movies. I always preferred animation, which is probably why I didn't really like Mary Poppins all that much. But as I've gotten older, I'm gotten to appreciate it a lot more. I also really need to see the rest of "Saving Mr. Banks"... I really liked however much I saw of that movie and I still need to see how it all ends. 

At some point, I'll have to see both movies- Mr. Banks and the original Mary Poppins and write about both of them...

One more thing... it's a trite random comment... the Banks' use a lot of the same names as they did Peter Pan... the Darling children are Wendy, John and Michael. The Banks children are Jane and Michael... and in the sequel, they use the name John as one of the children... were there not a lot of names around back then in London? 
I would understand if Peter Pan (the J.M. Barrie story) predated Mary Poppins by a lot of years, but... I don't know if that commonality annoys me or not... 
Jane was the name of Wendy's daughter in "Return to Neverland" but that came out LONG after any of these movies (or the books they were based from) came from... 

Reading the trivia, Julie Andrews did turn down a cameo (there were some others, I'll say that much) and she also gave her blessing to Emily Blunt to succeed her... that's so great to hear, especially after Angela Lansbury said she didn't approve of them remaking "Beauty & The Beast"... it's not as good as the original, but I liked it a lot. Also Emily Blunt played the character, purposely, much closer to how she appeared in the books, so I thought that was a nice touch.

And also forgot... it was great seeing Julie Walters on screen again, it's been a while... she was so lovable as the Banks' housekeeper.

Grade: A
(not practically perfect... but it came pretty dang close, at least I thought it did... whether or not it's Best Picture material like the original, not quite... I'd rather "A Star is Born" sweep all the awards)

Broadway vs. Hollywood- Mamma Mia!

Exposition

I'm all about lists, yet I never got around to making one about the best days of my life :P But if I ever did, this particular day I'm about to go into is top 3 easily...
"Mamma Mia!" is one of those musicals that's really family-oriented. It focuses on the bond between mother and daughter and as well as fathers and daughters. That particular day, my dad took my sister and I to New York to see it... that Saturday in June 2006 per that moment was probably "the best day ever"... the quintessential best day ever... we saw a musical we really enjoyed, my dad surprised us afterwards when he gave us the CD's he bought during intermission [or maybe before it started, not sure], and we went to a restaurant for one of my favorite dinners ever [Salmon Imperial... my mouth still waters thinking about it. Sadly, this restaurant closed just recently.

Whenever I listen to the soundtrack, it takes me back to that day instantly. I remember the overture and the excitement billowing in me. The musical numbers and how they were set up, I still remember really well.
There was also a time when I was in college where I almost couldn't listen to the soundtrack. Certain songs ("Lay your love on me" and "Under attack") were too poignant given what I was going through at the time... or they just made me miss home too much.

A couple years later, they adapted the movie to film, so my mom, sister and I went to the theaters to see it. We weren't quite dancing in the aisles, but enjoyed ourselves... but the movie isn't without its flaws.

At the present moment, I'm inclined to believe that Broadway wins [again] by a landslide, but I'll break my discussion into a couple categories to figure out how true that is.

Casting

First the positives...
Amanda Seyfried was the perfect Sophie. I think this was her first big role since "Mean Girls" and it was a great performance. Probably my favorite of hers still... not that I've ever been disappointed.
The duo of Christine Baranski and Julie Walters as the other Dynamos, Tanya and Rosie, rocked it... other than the "Does your mother know?" number and one particular line ("You're supposed to blow, not suck"- it was regarding an air mattress but nonetheless got a lot of laughs), Tanya wasn't memorable in the Broadway version. The same goes for Rosie and "Take a Chance on Me"... but even that number was better in the movie.
Of the three guys, Colin Firth was the best casting choice. A perfect Harry Bright.

:sigh:
I can have my nitpicks about the choice of songs, how the arrangement differed from Broadway... but my biggest grievances lie with the two leads...
For the record, I quite like Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Julie & Julia"... the issue I have in general is that she's nominated for an Oscar nearly EVERY year...

To this day, I maintain that casting her and Pierce Brosnan as Donna and Sam was NOT because they were the best people for the job...they were cast because Hollywood wanted big names for this movie... as if they weren't confident enough in the huge following this musical has...

Firstly, Meryl Streep was shy of 60 when she was cast for "Mamma Mia!"... Donna is supposed to be a middle-aged woman in her mid 40's, assuming that she met Sam, Bill and Harry when she was in college... therefore too old...
Secondly... :sigh: "The Winner Takes it All" is supposed to be this big triumphant number breaming with feminine energy. Her vocal range didn't allow for that big finishing note, so when it finally came and didn't happen... the bottom fell out of my stomach, I was so disappointed. [As for my biggest disappointment of the movie, see the soundtrack section]

Meanwhile, Pierce Brosnan... I don't care that he was freaking James Bond for 4 movies... I think I only saw "Die another day" and he was quite good... I'm even willing to give him the age thing... only 55 when "Mamma Mia!" was cast...
HE CAN'T SING!
"S.O.S." was painful, his voice was so bad. I'm sure there are dozens of actors in the right age range with a much better singing voice...

This movie also introduced me to Dominic Cooper, who I may forever associate with the character of Howard Stark (aka Tony Stark's father)... as great as he was, I fell out of love with him during his overreaction scene- where he accuses Sophie of using their wedding as an excuse to find who her dad is... that's kinda harsh... also kind of a silly nitpick considering my opposition to the above casting choices.

I also understand that they changed Bill Austin to Bill Anderson for the movie because Stellan Skarsgard wouldn't have matched with the whole "Indiana Jones travel writer" thing Bill Austin had going on... having that said, I sometimes wish they didn't change the character and cast Keith Urban instead :P even if the age range is off by quite a few years

Soundtrack

I suppose the best way to address this is going through the soundtrack song by song and saying who did the better version.

1. I have a dream (tie)
Both version are still very clear in my head

2. Honey, Honey (tie)
Both versions were memorable, but the dialogue where Sophie and her friends were reading "dot dot dot" in Donna's diary was much funnier on Broadway

3. Money, Money, Money (Broadway)
-Broadway- I still remember the set-up well... Donna is on one side of the stage and during the company interjections, they shift the spotlight to them... vocally superior and funner
-Hollywood- includes daydreams of what Donna, Tanya and Rosie would do with the extra money... vocals are good, but aesthetically I prefer the former.

4. Thank you for the music (Broadway)
-Broadway- vocals is shared by Sophie, Sam, Bill and Harry, and introduced early on
-Hollywood-song was deferred to the end credits

5. Mamma Mia! (tie)
Both versions handled it well. The staging was more hilarious in the movie, but Donna's dialogue on the Broadway soundtrack is funnier ("I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to clean out my handbag... or something")

6. Chiquita (Hollywood)
-Broadway- I don't remember this number quite as well, but it was a sentimental pep talk
-Hollywood- lots of hilarious moments that made me fall in love with Tanya and Rosie in this version

7. Dancing Queen (Hollywood)
-Broadway- great vocals
-Hollywood- great vocals, great humor,  great use of the set and company

8. Lay all your love on me (Broadway)
-Broadway- vocally superior and I personally prefer their aesthetic to the movie
-Hollywood- great humor with Sky's friends marching in their masks and fins

9. Super Trooper (tie)Both versions were great with the movie being more on the sentimental side

10. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (Broadway)
-Both versions did it really well, but again, I prefer the vocals and the dialogue of the Broadway version to the movie

11. The name of the game (Broadway)
-vocally, Amanda Seyfried sang this really well for the movie... but the producers, for whatever reason, decided to cut this scene and include it among the DVD extras... so I had no choice but to give the point to Broadway
-personally, this number is another sentimental one for me because it makes me think of my dad... after all, this is the point in the story where Sophie confronts Bill about whether he's her father.

12. Voulez Vous (tie)
-prefer the Broadway dialogue, but both versions did this really well

-Tally so far:
Broadway (5), tie (5), Hollywood (2)

13. Under Attack (Broadway)-obviously because this number was omitted from the movie entirely... one of my favorite songs... this dream sequence was one of the most memorable moments... Sophie's in a bed that's being moved back and forth across the stage by Sky's friends wearing snorkeling gear

14. One of Us (Hollywood)-technically, this song was omitted from the movie, but they made the smart choice by limiting its involvement to dialogue... the song is so short, I completely forgot about it

15. S.O.S. (BROADWAY)
-Broadway- remember this number really well too... they had spotlights on Donna and Sam depending on who was singing
-Hollywood- bad singing aside, this number felt kinda phony because it had one singing while the other was doing some random activity without hearing them singing... as if it was something from "Glee" (and I'm a huge Gleek, btw)

16. Does your mother know? (Hollywood)
-the Hollywood version was more hilarious (thanks to Christine Baranski's performance) and memorable... don't remember much about the Broadway version

17.  Knowing me, knowing you (Broadway)
-my biggest disappointment from the movie was cutting this, my favorite song from the musical... I agree it would have been repetitive in the movie (since we already had that impressive "S.O.S." number) and Pierce Brosnan's voice would have ruined it, but I almost wanted to cry because they didn't include it
-the man who played Sam... both on the soundtrack and on stage, I loved their vocals on the final note leading to the chorus... "...Goodbye" and "...say"... one of my favorite vocal numbers in the musical

18. Our Last Summer (Broadway)
-Broadway- a duet between Donna and Harry, revisiting their "hippie summer" in Paris
-Hollywood- took the place of "Thank you for the music," much earlier in the script and instead featured Sophie with the three men... I just didn't buy into that interpretation of it :(

19. Slipping Through My Fingers (Hollywood)-Hollywood handled the sentimentality of this number really well... I don't remember it nearly as well on Broadway

20. The Winner Takes it All (Broadway)
-in the movie, this number felt very long and drawn out...
-Broadway- had this been a concert, this would have been the penultimate standing ovation number... that big note at the end is just... WOW... the movie missed a huge opportunity here

21. Take a Chance on Me (Hollywood)
-Broadway- still remember how Rosie was chasing Bill through the empty church before the wedding :P
-Hollywood- the 2nd to last song with lots of hilarious turns and we also get to see Harry's other half (they also clarified in the church scene that Donna was the first [and last] woman he ever loved... which kinda makes sense when you really think about it]

22. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do (Hollywood)
-I don't really remember it in the Broadway version... it was kinda funny in the movie where Sam flashes the ring at Donna and she stammers through the titular lyrics :P nice touch

23. I Have a Dream (Reprise)... (tie)
-Broadway- I don't remember the scene all that well, but the ending of the song gave me chills... and made me so sad this thing was ending... that's a great feeling to have at the end of a show, hating to see it end
-Hollywood- it was a pleasant send-off and great ending... hated to see it end, but it didn't elicit an "ugly cry" response...

The great part with both versions is that they had the encore at the very end... in the Broadway musical, after being sad it was ending, the cast came out and sang a couple more songs for us.
It's great they kept this in the movie for the ending credits, including everyone wearing the  ABBA-style costumes :D

Tally-
Broadway (5), Hollywood (5), tie (1)

So by my math, the musical numbers give Broadway the upper hand...

Another difference between the two was the inclusion of two new songs in the movie...
"Waterloo" was in the ending credits, and we also getting another excellent Pierce Brosnan vocal for "When all is said and done"... which takes place before "Take a Chance on Me"..
Even if the vocal was decent, I felt like this song added absolutely nothing to the movie... painfully forgettable...

So there you have it... over the three times I've done this, Broadway has won against Hollywood... I'd do one on "Phantom of the Opera," but my memory of the Broadway show is basically nonexistent at this point...
I don't remember much about the Broadway show beyond the following...

1) the first scene where Christine and Raoul meet each other for the first time since they were kids
2) where the Phantom has the road around Raoul's neck in the catacombs and I was freaking out that he was going to kill him (even though I freaking knew the ending!!)
3) been a hot mess for a good 15 minutes after the show ending because of #2

It just wouldn't be fair to compare the two when I don't remember enough about one side of the argument. And I've grown far too fond of the 2004 movie with Gerard Butler that I probably won't accept any other version anyway :P 

42. Love Actually (2003)

Code-name: Brit X-mas

Writer/Director: Richard Curtis
Type: British Christmas rom-com
Music: Craig Armstrong

Notable Nominations:
Golden Globe- Best Film (Comedy/Musical)
Golden Globe- Best Original Screenplay- Richard Curtis

Cast:
[The Music Circuit]
Billy Mack- Bill Nighy
Billy Mack's manager, Joe- Gregor Fisher

[Parliament]
David, the Prime Minister- Hugh Grant
Natalie- Martine McCutcheon
U.S. President- Billy Bob Thorton

[The Office]
Harry- Alan Rickman
Mia, Harry's secretary- Heike Makatsch
Sarah- Laura Linney
Karl- Rodrigo Santoro

[The Cabin in the Woods]
Jamie- Colin Firth
Aurelia- Lucia Moniz

[The Porn-Film Shoot]
John- Martin Freeman
Just Judy- Joanna Page

[The Wedding]
Juliet- Keira Knightley
Mark- Andrew Lincoln
Peter- Chiwetel Ejiofor

[The Funeral and the Christmas Show]
Daniel- Liam Neeson
Sam- Thomas Sangster
Karen- Emma Thompson
Joanna- Olivia Olson
Carol- Claudia Schiffer

[Coming to America]
Colin Frissel- Kris Marshall
Tony- Abdul Salis
Stacey "American Dreamgirl"- Ivana Milicevic
Jeanine "American Angel"- January Jones
Carol-Anne "American Goddess"- Elisha Cuthbert
Harriet ("She's the 'sexy' one")- Shannon Elizabeth
Carla ("She's real friendly")- Denise Richards

Rufus, the Jeweler- Rowan Atkinson

Write-up:

Caution: Spoilers ahead

In the introduction of the "Glee"ksmas episode, "Glee, Actually," Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) hinted that the show would pay homage to "Love Actually" with its plot structure. She then added it's "a movie that I don't think anyone cares for but is constantly on cable"
http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/Glee,_Actually

Yes, the fact this movie is in my top 101 says it all, but I just wanted to take this moment tos say: "Yes, Sue Sylvester, people do care about this movie. Particularly me, my mom and her side of the family."

It's not so much that we live and breathe this movie as it's become a Christmas tradition in recent years. Simply cannot go a season without seeing it at least once.
It doesn't just have a great cast, but they play characters all of us can see ourselves in. Throughout the movie, no matter what's going on, you find yourselves pulling for them to get their happy ending. However realistic some of them are... who cares, really? That's what movies are for. Making impossibilities, like Colin's American dream coming true or Sam reaching the gate to tell Joanna that he loves her, possible because they make us warm and fuzzy. Heck, those are rom-coms in a nutshell, really.

If I remember right, this was one of many movies my mom talked me into... not that I needed much convincing. I already loved Hugh Grant. Plus the chance to see Alan Rickman, Professor Snape himself, play a normal person... hard to resist.
As it usually happens, I find more to love about certain movies with time either because I can understand the circumstances better with my own experiences or, in this case, the names have become more familiar.

I didn't recognize Bill Nighy until he appeared as Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgour in the 7th Harry Potter movie. Or Rodrigo Santono until I saw him in "Post-Grad" alongside Alexis Biedel.
But the most notable connection I made, roughly an hour ago, Chiwetel Ejiofor (yeah, the guy who's up for an Oscar for "12 years a slave") was the guy who married Keira Knightley in this movie... my mind's still picking up the pieces from that explosion.

Another cool tidbit I found out a couple years ago, in the heat of my newfound crazy love for this movie, the actors who play Sam and Joanna went on to do voiceover work in the Disney Channel series "Phineas & Ferb."
Sam plays Ferb, Phineas's "man of few words" step-brother and Joanna plays Vanessa, the daughter of Perry the Platypus's nemesis Dr. Doofenshmirtz. They even wrote a story arc where Ferb has a crush on Vanessa.


Say what you will... "Phineas & Ferb" was the last great show Disney Channel put out (coming from someone who grew up with "LIzzie McGuire" and "That's So Raven"... well, I grew up with them as soon as our cable provider carried the Disney Channel).

Zooey Deschanel's website HelloGiggles.com had a great article someone wrote the other month, ranking the relationships featured throughout "Love Actually" from least to most romantic.
http://hellogiggles.com/ranking-the-love-actually-couples-from-least-to-most-romantic
I love how Santina Muhi broke each relationship down, what made them work, what didn't and being blunt where bluntness was absolutely needed. The rest of this entry will be my 2 cents on each relationship, but I recommend giving this article a read 8-) especially if you love this movie as much as we do.

One storyline that falls by the wayside, particularly on cable but also in conversation, is John and Just Judy. I didn't even know until I saw the Extras on the DVD that they weren't porn stars, but STAND-INS. What they were doing all over the art studio, being the naïve person I am, I didn't understand it. I thought it was part of this odd infatuation some British filmmakers have with commonplace nudity. As if there had to be a story arc with notable nudity because they're not as uptight about it as Americans are.
(Strangely enough, writer/director Richard Curtis isn't British, but a Kiwi [New Zealander]).
Ultimately, the two of them do hit it off and decide to go out, come the end of the shoot, to see what happens.

I'm not following Santini's rankings exactly, but I plan on getting the awkward, blunt and negative moments out of the way before getting to the really good stuff.

Sarah is probably the character I can relate to the most. She's been suffering from the pangs of unrequited love for two years, pining for the office hottie, Karl. There's one notable scene where she's racking up the courage to talk to him, waiting until the end of the day with her face all dolled-up, only to let the moment slip through her fingers out of shyness.
Been there, done that...
Thanks to the magic of movies. she does get her chance with him. Then it goes to hell and never comes back.

Throughout the movie, you see Sarah's phone ring off the hook. Only at this pivotal, the most awkward of all, moments do they reveal the caller is her brother who is less than well. I don't know if he's mentally ill or he's schizophrenic (because it's mentioned he hears voices in his head), but I cringe whenever I get to this part.
I really want to say I wish that problem didn't exist for her, that she just put herself first for a change and stop picking up the goddam phone, but deep down, I know I would have made the same choices. You're compelled by blood to be there for your family, however bad their timing may be.

Another cringe-worthy storyline is Alan Rickman's flirtation with his secretary. I don't care if the dude could hex me to death with the Avada Kedavra curse or that she was practically asking for it like the office skank she is. He was being a jerk and should have known better.
Which makes his scene with Rowan Atkinson even sweeter. He picks out a necklace for his would-be "mistress" (they never officially get together) and Rowan Atkinson takes forever, putting all kinds of flourishes in the gift-wrapping process. Couldn't have cast that part better.

Supposedly, Rufus the Jeweler was meant to be a Christmas angel, explaining his intervention at the airport scene... taking that into account, his scene at the jewelry counter has a secondary purpose as well. By taking so long with the gift-wrapping, it allowed time for Emma Thompson to see her husband by the jewelry, gave her the idea to sneak a peak at her gift and allowed her to experience the residual disappointment. Ultimately, this allows her to catch onto his cheating and brings their martial problems to the forefront, something they obviously needed.
They never did explain what happened to their marriage after that. Did they spend time apart to take a break? Or did they end up divorcing?

On a different note, we have the unconventional relationship between fading rock star Billy Mack and his "fat manager," Joe. The movie begins with his cockamamie Christmas song where they simply changed the lyric "love is all around" to "Christmas is all around"... cannot hear the original without bursting out laughing :-P
Billy Mack knows how stupid it is, yet the song somehow gains enough steam throughout December to become the #1 song of the season... go figure, right?
But even after getting back on top, getting invites from Elton John to party, he goes back to his "fat manager" and declares his love for him. An interesting twist for sure, but I guess it makes sense we had to have one sprinkle of "same love" here.

Interestingly, one of the people at the wedding reception (I think it was Sarah) mistakenly deduces that Mark is sad because he was in love with his newly married friend Peter... when, in fact, it was Juliet. In the time they've known one another, Juliet had been under the impression that Mark didn't like her because he never talked to her. But it was the opposite. I don't know which scene makes me tear up more: when Juliet sees her face at the focus of her wedding video (one of many examples of Craig Armstrong's beautiful score) or when Mark tells her the truth with cue cards and "Silent Night" playing in the background.

So sweet... :-P

Probably my favorite storyline is the one with Colin. It's a shame that Kris Marshall hasn't done any mainstream movies since this one because he's a good looking guy. A bit of a dork, yeah, but cute.
He has this grand scheme to go to America to find love since American girls go crazy for guys with British accents. Well... duh, of course. And like I said, only in the movies would that prove to be true.
The main criticism about this part is that all the American girls that he "hooks up with" at the bar are played by models... funny how January Jones and Elisha Cuthbert became big names far after this movie came out.

As a whole, this movie has one of the best soundtracks. Lots of great artists sprinkled throughout the album. In addition to "Christmas is all around," we have

• "The Trouble with Love is" by Kelly Clarkson
• "Bye Bye Baby" by Bay City Roller (which I will always associate with the funeral scene... a great way to remember a loved one)
• "All you need is love" (before the "Forever (on the dance floor)" wedding went viral on YouTube, this was the first pop culture instant of a marriage ceremony with a twist... word is that puppeteers did it for Jim Henson when he passed)
• a couple selections from Joni Mitchell (whom Emma Thompson had said was her emotional education... I first heard about her in a Prince song but nowadays, "River" and "A Case of You" jump to mind automatically)

Colin's storyline has my favorite soundtrack selections because they were current. "Sweetest Goodbye" by Maroon 5, "Smooth" by Rob Thomas & Santana and "Wherever you will go" by The Calling.

Of course, the one part of the soundtrack everyone who's seen this movie remembers coincides with the storyline everyone who's seen this movie remembers...

Daniel was married to Sam's mom, who'd just passed away. He's been distant so he asks him if something is troubling him. Apparently the trouble is that he's in love with a girl in his class.
I take it back. THIS is my favorite storyline because Liam Neeson goes on to prove he's the coolest stepdad ever. I have my own reservations about "Titanic," but I always love how they used it in this movie.

When the two of them are moping, Daniel says "we need Kate and Leo and we need them now" and they go on to reenact the "King of the World" scene... they talk about Jack and Rose as if they were soulmates, how they knew they were the only one for each other. Sam is absolutely positive that Joanna was "the one".
He then gets the idea to get good at the drums because girls like musicians. This translates to the play the kids are putting on at school, which includes an unorthodox Nativity scene (with Barney as the baby Jesus, a whale, an octopus and some lobsters) and Joanna singing Mariah Carey's synonymous Christmas anthem "All I Want for Christmas is You."

My dad's almost never into rom-coms, but that caught his attention enough where he had to look up Olivia Olson. And when it plays at Christmastime, he refers to it as "that Mariah Carey song"... definitely a candidate for the most current Christmas classic we have.
(Ironically, not a single Christmas album we own includes it)

Granted, the scene where Sam rushes through the airport to catch up with Joanna (who's going back with her family to America) wouldn't have happened in this day and age with all the 9/11 precautions... and this movie does take place post-9/11. Chalk it up to movie magic or paying homage to "The Graduate"... either way, Sam does what he set out to do. Joanna does know his name and she likes him back.

It's a tough call... who I'd rather end up with, Colin Firth or Hugh Grant in this movie. And this is discounting the fact Hugh Grant is the freaking Prime Minister :-P

Hugh Grant's the better looking one, but I feel a kinship with Colin Firth because he's playing a struggling writer.

His storyline starts rather horribly... he finds out his girlfriend had been cheating on him with his brother. So he retreats to a cabin in France for relaxation and to get some writing done. There, he slowly falls for his Portuguese housekeeper Aurelia. Despite their language barrier, they get along famously. Even more romantic, both of them learn each other's language and the season ends with him proposing to her.

I don't know if that's romantic or the fact Hugh Grant literally went door to door to declare his feelings for Natalie, a new member of his household staff.
One scene I can never get over is seeing his dance throughout his headquarters to "Jump (For My Love)" by the Pointer Sisters... if you haven't seen it, you gotta YouTube it. It's super cute, if not extremely hilarious. Either way, great for a smile.

Their love story hits a brick wall when the American President comes to town.
First of all, Billy Bob Thorton is our president? In addition to the models playing the American girls Colin gets together with, what does this guy playing our president say about us?
That the office of U.S. President is a joke to the Brits?

I'll let the politically inclined folks debate about that one.
But because of this newfound friction with our President, with Natalie caught in the middle, Hugh Grant decides to "redistribute" her so they don't have to see each other again.

Her Christmas card ultimately gives him enough incentive to look her up where she lives. "At the dodgy end." Only in the movies would a Prime Minister go door to door to find the girl of his dreams... not to mention Hugh Grant, probably one of the best looking British actors, actually getting elected to such a prestigious station.
Aside from getting to the end, the coolest highlight is when a couple girls ask him to sing carols and he does "Ol' King Wenceslas" with his chauffer.

Just great fun, this movie. I discovered "The Holiday" as the perfect holiday movie to cozy up with with a hot beverage. "Love Actually" is even better... kinda like a soapy TV Show you and your girlfriends would watch together and enjoy with ample drinks and sweets.