Love The Coopers and Love Actually syndrome

[author_by_night]

As promised, here is my review. It's a tad spoilery.

Comments

[ragnarok_08]

The thing with Love Actually is, it wasn't a bunch of half-stories. Everyone had a story, and the characters weren't so connected that you felt you were missing something. This was a bunch of half-stories leading up to a larger story that failed to deliver.

Yup, I thought as much.

[rhoda_rants]

Watching the trailer, it was making me think of The Family Stone, and not just because of Diane Keaton. You didn't get that impression from the actual movie? (Assuming you've seen The Family Stone?)

I do like Love Actually though. I keep forgetting it's Christmas-themed, rather than Valentine's.

[author_by_night]

Ugh, I HATED The Family Stone. This was a tad more optimistic, at least, and I liked that. But there are definitely similarities.

I also really like Love Actually. But I think so many movies try to pull off what Love Actually did without really considering what made it work.

[rhoda_rants]

HAHAHAHA--see, I actually liked that one a lot more than I thought I would. It had the same producer/director or something, didn't it?

[author_by_night]

It honestly wouldn't surprise me.

To be fair, cancer's a touchy issue for me, so I think that really ruined it, but at the same time wasn't the movie's fault. And I wasn't prepared for it to be a more serious "comedy," whereas now I've seen enough "comedies" that weren't remotely funny that I'm better prepared.

I will say that in hindsight, The Family Stone did do a much better job of capturing a family having a stressful, bittersweet Christmas where things aren't really where they should be, but somehow everyone manages to pull it together. This one... wanted to be that, but like I said, we barely saw more than two family members together at a time, so it would've worked better if they had done it more like Love Actually, where everyone was more thinly connected.