Love Actually

Went to see “Love Actually” today. After the last depressing film I wanted to go and see something cheerful. This one is quite funny in places, but a bit melancholy too. It is a bit too Christmassy, I guess, and not all the story lines are very good, but it was fun to watch anyway. What always amazes me is the number of talented English actors around, and even in this film with all these actors and all these story lines many wonderful actors never even got to appear.
I read some of the reviews, one of two good, but some pretty bad. I guess this isn’t great art, it is easy to criticize the film, and you can probably think of 100 reasons why it isn't great, but who cares. The last critically acclaimed film I went to left me depressed for two days, here I came out smiling. And Hugh Grant probably can do this standing on his head, no great challenges in there for him. Or for many of the others, and there is a lot of improbability in the story, but it has some very funny moments too. Hugh Grant is one dancer who can be very funny and sexy at the same time. So I just enjoyed it for what it is, a bit of fun in the run up to Christmas. Why do films these days always have to be great art, or just a lot of fighting anyway?

Next on my list is “The Return of the King”. Read the review today, and it should be worth seeing. Lots of fighting in there, though, I hear, not what I really like to watch.

Meanwhile, I’ve started reading Harriet Walters’ book on acting. It is a nice book, well-written and interesting. I’ve always enjoyed seeing her at work. But then again, I am also reading the autobiograpy of a Dutch woman writer, Hella Haasse, and I’ve just started “Pride and Prejudice” again.