Love actually is all around you.

It's rare that a movie has a thesis statement. But there it is, in the first opening voiceover of Love Actually. And it really follows through, keeping this as the effective theme of the film. It follows a whole lot of people (at least 10 main characters, I lost track) through a few weeks of being in love or looking for love. There are some stories where bad things happen, and some stories where good things happen. But even when the bad things are going on the characters pull out of it by their love for eachother (not neccesarily love for their partner, sometimes love for other supporting characters.)

The movie is too complex and a bit jumbled. But it was also a joy to watch. There's reality in there that you don't always see in a romantic comedy, but there's plenty of unreal moments too - most notably the side trip to Wisconsin. In the end it's acted well, and there are lots of funny moments. These things help it get over the feeling that someone took a bunch of short stories and mixed them all up and called it a movie.

I never saw Hulk when it was in the theater. Given my positive feelings towards superhero movies this was a bit suprising. But everyone said it sucked, and I've heard a lot of that over the last few months. So I guess my expectations had been lowered quite a bit. That said I had a great time watching it on DVD yesterday. It's not really your typical superhero movie, maybe that's what threw everyone off. But the cinematography and visual design was amazing. The music was gripping and well themed, the acting was all solid, and the story was good. I think the problem may be that director Ang Lee focused a whole lot on the characters as real people with real problems and real lives. Lets just say that's not exactly standard fare in comic book movies and the crowd that often enjoys them didn't react too well.

I'm not saying it's a great film or anything. But it's been getting an unfair rap among the peope I've talked to who saw it. Although I am more forgiving of the poor parts of a film as long as there's good other stuff in it. And I was continually impressed with the visual style in this one.

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