elysium v.two.zero

ah...revenge of the cheeky romance-comedy. ever since the crazy ass-kicking of my sassy girl, i suppose ive been a sucker for romantic comedies. ones with really hot women in it too (keira knightley=yum) dont hurt their cases much either. and ones with happy happy stories also dont hurt their cases. so just in time for the holidays (a little early...shrug) comes love actually, from the cheeky mind of richard curtis, the man behind four weddings and a guneral, notting hill, etc. the difference this time tho is that this is a big ensemble piece...except its not. even tho theres a huge cast, they are a number of sub-stories that are tied together by associations and circumstance who all work towards their own conclusion. theres the new prime minister who has the hots for his assistant, the washed-up pop star billy mack whos trying to make a comeback, the widower who has to help his son with his crush, the recent divorcee who escapes to france, the nutter who heads to the u.s. to find some ass, etc etc. it goes on and on. it all takes place during the holidays and everybody is finding their own reasons to celebrate the holidays. and keira knightley walks around giggling and looking ridiculously gorgeous. woot!

so i have a predisposition towards romance comedies. intelligent ones anyway. so fine...im a sucker for this stuff and ill take it as it is. everybody gets their screen time (in keiras case, not enuf) and everybody has their story told. while the whole movie may feel quickened because there are so many stories, curtis deftly weaves between everybodys stories enuf to give them depth. theyre not overtly developed to the point that you know what kind of jelly they like on their toast, but their stories are portrayed and elaborated upon enuf that you actually want to see their stories brought to conclusion. and in the end, there are enough different stories and happy conclusions that everybody is obliged to smile at the very least once. or twice. maybe three times. but if theyre actually of the human species, theyd better smile a minimum four times.