With no fewer than eight couples vying for our attention; Love Actually is like the Boston Marathon of romantic comedies; and everybody wins. Having mastered the genre as the writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral; Notting Hill; and Bridget Jones's Diary; it appears that first-time director Richard Curtis is just like his screenplays: He just wants to be loved; and he'll go to absurdly appealing lengths to win our affection. With Love Actually; Curtis orchestrates a minor miracle of romantic choreography; guiding a brilliant cast of stars and newcomers as they careen toward love and holiday cheer in London; among them the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) who's smitten with his caterer; a widower (Liam Neeson) whose young son nurses the ultimate schoolboy crush; a writer (Colin Firth) who falls for his Portuguese housekeeper; a devoted wife and mother (Emma Thompson) coping with her potentially unfaithful husband (Alan Rickman); and a lovelorn American (Laura Linney) who's desperately attracted to a colleague. There's more--too much more--as Curtis wraps his Christmas gift with enough happy endings to sweeten a dozen other movies. That he pulls it off so entertainingly is undeniably impressive; that he does it so shamelessly suggests that his writing fares better with other; less ingratiating directors. --Jeff Shannon