Love Actually Score
Love Actually Score
Love Actually is a 2003 British romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress. The ensemble cast is composed predominantly of British actors.
The film begins five weeks before Christmas and is played out in a week by week countdown until the holiday with an epilogue that takes place one month later.
Plot
The film begins with a voiceover from David (Hugh Grant) commenting that whenever he gets gloomy with the state of the world he thinks about the arrivals terminal at Heathrow Airport, and the pure uncomplicated love felt as friends and families welcome their arriving loved ones. David's voiceover also relates that all the known messages left by the people who died on the 9/11 planes were messages of love and not hate. The film then tells the 'love stories' of many people:
Billy Mack and Joe
With the help of his longtime manager Joe (Gregor Fisher), aging rock and roll legend Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) records a Christmas variation of The Troggs' classic hit "Love Is All Around." Despite his honest admission that it is a "festering turd of a record," the singer promotes the release in the hope it will become the Christmas number one single. During his publicity tour, Billy repeatedly causes Joe grief by pulling stunts such as defacing a poster of rival musicians Blue with a speech bubble reading, "We've got little pricks." He also promises to perform his song naked on television should it hit the top spot. Mack keeps his word-albeit while wearing boots and holding a strategically placed guitar. After briefly celebrating his victory at a party hosted by Sir Elton John, Billy unexpectedly arrives at Joe's flat and explains that Christmas is a time to be with the people you love, and that he had just realized that "the people I love... is you", despite simultaneously hitting Joe with insulting comments about his weight. He reminds Joe that "We have had a wonderful ride" touring around the world together over the years. He suggests that the two celebrate Christmas by getting drunk and watching porn.
Juliet, Peter and Mark
Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are wed in a lovely ceremony orchestrated and videotaped by Mark (Andrew Lincoln), Peter's best friend and best man. Mark has always been cold and unfriendly to Juliet and tries to avoid her, despite her relationship with Peter. When the professional wedding video turns out to be dreadful, Juliet shows up at Mark's door in hopes of getting a copy of his footage and tells him she wants to be friends with him. The video he recorded turns out to consist entirely of close-ups of her, and she realises that he secretly has feelings for her. Mortified, Mark creates an excuse to leave and informs Juliet that his prior cold attitude towards her was "a self-preservation thing". On Christmas Eve, Mark shows up at Juliet and Peter's door posing as a carol singer with a portable CD player, and uses a series of cardboard signs to silently tell her that "at Christmas you tell the truth," and, "without hope or agenda... to me, you are perfect". As he leaves, Juliet runs after him and kisses him, before returning to Peter. Mark tells himself, "Enough, enough now," perhaps acknowledging that he's found closure and can move on with his life.
Jamie and Aurélia
Writer Jamie (Colin Firth) first appears preparing to attend Juliet and Peter's wedding. His girlfriend (Sienna Guillory) misses the ceremony allegedly due to illness, but when Jamie unexpectedly returns home before the reception, he discovers her engaging in sexual relations with his brother. Heartbroken, Jamie retires to the solitude of his French cottage to immerse himself in his writing. Here he meets Portuguese housekeeper Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz), who speaks only her native tongue Portuguese. Despite the language barrier they manage to communicate with each other.
Jamie returns to London, where he takes a course in Portuguese. On Christmas Eve, he decides to ditch celebrations with his family (including his aforementioned brother) to fly to Marseille. In the crowded restaurant where Aurelia works her second job as a waitress, he proposes to her in broken Portuguese, and she accepts in broken English -- which she had been studying just in case he came back.
Harry, Karen, and Mia
Harry (Alan Rickman) is the managing director of a design agency. Mia (Heike Makatsch), his new secretary, clearly has sexual feelings for him. His nascent mid-life crisis allows him tentatively to welcome her attention, and for Christmas he buys her an expensive necklace from jewelery salesman Rufus (Rowan Atkinson), who takes a very long time adding ever more elaborate wrapping while Harry becomes increasingly nervous with the fear of detection. Meanwhile, Harry's wife Karen (Emma Thompson) is busy dealing with their children, Daisy (Lulu Popplewell) and Bernard (William Wadham), who are appearing in the school Nativity, her brother David, a politician who just became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and her friend Daniel, who has just lost his wife. Karen discovers the necklace in Harry's coat pocket and assumes it is a gift for her, only to be given the CD Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now to "continue emotional education", as Harry puts it, instead. She then believes Harry is having an affair with Mia (having earlier noticed how closely they were dancing together at their office party), and briefly breaks down alone in her bedroom before composing herself to attend the children's play with her husband. Following the play, Karen confronts Harry over the necklace, who admits, "I am so in the wrong - a classic fool", to which Karen replies: "Yes, but you've also made a fool out of me - you've made the life I lead foolish too", before blinking back tears and enthusiastically congratulating their children. As for Mia, she is shown smiling while trying on the necklace.
David and Natalie
Karen's brother, the recently elected British Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant), is young, handsome, and single. Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) is a new junior member of the household staff at 10 Downing Street and regularly serves his tea and biscuits. Something seems to click between them, but with the exception of some mild flirting, neither pursues the attraction. When the President of the United States (Billy Bob Thornton) pays a visit, his conservative attitude and flat refusal to relax any joint-policies which might leave Britain at a disadvantage leave his advisors stymied. It is only after David walks in to find the President attempting to seduce Natalie that he stands up for the UK at a nationally televised press conference, saying Britain is a great country for things like William Shakespeare, Harry Potter, the Beatles and David Beckham's right foot ("David Beckham's left foot, come to that"), and openly chides the President by saying that "a friend who bullies us is no longer a friend." Concerned that his affections for Natalie are affecting his political judgment, David asks for her to be "redistributed." Later, while looking through a sampling of Christmas cards, David comes across a card signed "I'm actually yours. With Love, Your Natalie." Encouraged by this he sets out to find her. However, he knows only the name of her street not her full address. After much doorbell ringing, including a ring at Mia's house, David eventually finds Natalie at her family's home. Hoping to have some time with Natalie, David offers to drive everyone to the local school for the play, the same one in which his niece and nephew are appearing (as he realises only when his sister, Karen - still unsteady from her recent discovery of her husband's suspected affair - spots him and thanks him for finally managing to come to a family function). The two watch the show from backstage, and their budding relationship is exposed to the audience when a curtain at the rear of the stage is raised during the big finale and David and Natalie are caught in a passionate kiss. Undeterred, they smile and wave.
Daniel and Carol; Sam and Joanna
Daniel (Liam Neeson), Karen's friend, is introduced in the film during a funeral for his wife, Joanna. Her death, caused by an unspecified long-term illness, has left Daniel and his stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) to fend for themselves. Daniel must deal with his sudden responsibility, as well as the perceived end of his love life. ("That was a done deal long ago," he says to Sam, "unless, of course, Claudia Schiffer calls, in which case I want you out of the house straight away, you wee motherless mongrel.") Sam, too, is especially forlorn about something, eventually revealing that he is in love with an American girl from his school, also named Joanna (Olivia Olson), who he assumes does not know he exists. After seeing Billy Mack's new video in a store window, he comes up with a plan, based on the premise that "girls love musicians. Even the really weird ones get girlfriends." With Daniel's encouragement, Sam teaches himself to play the drums, eventually acting as top for Joanna's performance of "All I Want for Christmas Is You" at the aforementioned Nativity Festival. Unfortunately, Sam's drumming fails to secure Joanna's attention the way he had hoped. After the play, Daniel consoles Sam, who is also heartbroken over recent news of Joanna's return to the United States, and convinces him to go catch Joanna at the airport.
While Sam dashes
Craig Armstrong • Love Actually
Information on the score to the film Love Actually by Craig Armstrong
Love Actually, film score: Information from Answers.com
Love Actually, film score Composer: Craig Armstrong Period: Contemporary (1950- ) Albums with Excerpt Performances of the Work Title Date Classic
Widescreen Review Webzine | Blu-ray Review | Love ...
Love Actually Genre: Romantic Comedy Reviewed In ... that really pleases and quite honestly represents what love could actually sound like. Besides the musical score ...
Love Actually Blu-ray (2003)
When Love Actually 's music kicks in, absolutely. Both the film's orchestral score and pop-infused soundtrack sound wonderful, filling every speaker with rewarding tones and ...
Filmtracks: Love Actually (Craig Armstrong)
It's also the best known track from the score, the only one to appear on all of the commercial song compilations for Love Actually. Joining it is the Portuguese theme representing ...
2/23/04: CD Reviews Love Actually and Tomb Raider 2
Love Actually ** CRAIG ARMSTRONG, SUGABABES, DIDO, ET AL Island XCD8138/981403-2 20 tracks - 72:20 It's been a frustrating 12 months for Craig Armstrong fans.
YouTube - Portuguese Love Theme - Love Actually
The song Portuguese Love Theme from the Love Actually soundtrack made by Craig Armstrong. Just beautiful. x3 EDIT: I've uploaded the song onto MediaFire because so many people ...
Apollo Movie Guide's Review of Love Actually
Apollo Score: Readers' Rating: 85/100 (17 votes - Click here to give your score) ... Links to other web sites about Love Actually. Apollo Guide's poster store.
Filmtracks: Love Actually
The score for Love Actually was really spectacular (at least in the film)... I'd love to hear a full CD release of the score... the soundtrack which was released has some fun songs ...
YouTube - Glasgow Love Theme - Love Actually ...
I'm not really a big fan of rom-coms, but Love Actually is one of the best I've seen. Craig Armstrong's score for the film is also really, really cool, particularly the ...
