I happen to adore this movie for many reasons. Hugh Grant! The soundtrack is incredible! The multiple perspectives on something we all experience or hope to experience. The diversity of characters and lifestyles represented. It all makes for a movie that I could (and do) watch over and over again.
I am drawn to movies that have different characters whose lives are all entwined in some way or another, and we jump from story to story within the bigger story. In this movie, each character is looking for "love" in their own particular way. The opening scene is a favorite of mine; it shows all sorts of people at an airport greeting, hugging, loving one another. As we watch, Hugh Grant is talking about how people say the world is full of hate, but he sees it as being full of love. That is the first lesson I take from this film:
1. Love is all around us if we look for it.
2. Love is the source of the greatest joy and heartache in our lives.
3. It’s impossible to plan for love; it happens when it happens.
4. It seems as if true love always has an element of personal sacrifice; we are willing to give up something to meet someone else’s needs when we love them.
5. Many things can masquerade as love and we must be very careful how we deal with that.
P.S. For those of you that don't watch R rated movies, there is a clean version that plays on television quite often - year-round and it does a nice job of dodging the scenes and language that might be offensive to some.
