Love Actually

All of London is in love -- or longing to be -- in {|Four Weddings and a Funeral|} writer {|Richard Curtis|}' first directorial effort. Billed as "the ultimate romantic comedy", Love Actually involves more than a dozen main characters, each weaving his or her way into another's heart over the course of one particularly eventful Christmas. The seemingly perfect wedding of Juliet ({|Keira Knightley|}) and Peter ({|Chiwetel Ejiofor|}) brings many of the principals together, including heartsick best man Mark ({|Andrew Lincoln|}), who harbors a very unrequited crush on Juliet. There's also recent widower Daniel ({|Liam Neeson|}), trying to help his lonely stepson Sam ({|Thomas Sangster|}) express his true feelings to a classmate. Across town, devoted working mother Karen ({|Emma Thompson|}) tries to rekindle the passion of her husband, Harry ({|Alan Rickman|}), who secretly pines for a young colleague of his. In the same office, the lonely Sarah ({|Laura Linney|}) not-so-secretly pines for a man just a few desks away ({|Rodrigo Santoro|}), who returns her affections but may not be able to dissuade her neuroses. Providing the unofficial soundtrack for all of the couples is an aging rocker ({|Bill Nighy|}) who just wants to cash in and get laid -- but even he might find a meaningful relationship in the most unlikely of places. A working print of Love Actually premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival.