Love Actually - Review

So I was snapping my girlfriend and she asked me what I was going to give Love Actually out of 5 for my review. I said 3. She wasn't so pleased. However, after thinking about it for a while longer, I do really like this movie. While almost all the characters have no depth to them and the storylines they encompass are paper thin, it's an entertaining, funny and... somehow both whimsical and depressing Christmas movie. It's cute on one hand seeing Hugh Grant flirt with his secretary Natalie and it's adorable seeing Liam Neeson's son learn the drums to impress the girl of his dreams however some of the storylines end in disaster. Without giving too much away, you see someone who has loved someone forever and just when you think it's going to work, it doesn't. It also deals with the death of family members and adultery. I thought this was supposed to be a pleasant Christmas movie? The first scene of the movie is Hugh Grant talking about how "love actually is all around." Yeah, quite a few sad moments for a film preaching the message of love. However, life isn't always perfect and this film shows that. So I'll give it credit for making things somewhat realistic, but I don't want to watch a movie to remind me how miserable real life can be, ESPECIALLY a Christmas movie. Luckily, there are enough funny moments and cute moments to make this an enjoyable movie. Great idea for date night this holiday season and the next, and the next, and the next, you see where I am going with this.