| I have never seen anything written by Richard Curtis that I didn't like. Four Weddings and a Funeral was great, except for the fact that many of Andie McDowell's lines sounded wrong unless I repeated them to myself in a British accent. By Notting Hill, however, he'd learned to write lines that an American woman would actually say (either that, or Julia Roberts gave the script a big fat edit!).
It was Bridget Jones's Diary that really impressed me, because the title character seemed to be right out of those Cathy comics, which are often funny but more often simply annoy me because I hate to think women are actually like that. However, I loved every bit of it.
Only after I'd seen those three films did I get a taste of Black Adder. The third episode of the first series ("The Archbishop") hooked me, and I went out and bought the whole set on DVD. Curtis himself says that in each series (6 episodes each), there are two great episodes, two mediocre ones, and two not-so-good. While I definitely have my favorites, particularly in the third and fourth series, I just can't think which ones he thinks are bad!
His latest film, and also the first one he directed, is Love Actually. The fact that a new director could handle that huge emsemble cast is rather mind-boggling. The film follows several different yet interwoven sets of people through the last five weeks before Christmas, showcasing different forms and aspects of love. Halfway through the movie, my husband leaned toward me and said, "The rest of this movie could involve all of them being eaten by aliens, and I'd still want to buy it as soon as it comes out!" My favorite character was Billy Mack (Bill Nighy), the singer, but the story that had me in tears was that of Harry (Alan Rickman) and Karen (Emma Thompson), the married couple who didn't really communicate anymore, a problem brought to a head by his midlife crisis and disgusting tart of a secretary. Rowan Atkinson was given high billing, but his part was actually quite small (two scenes). I'd really love to see him interact with Alan Rickman for more than just the gift wrap scene!
From now on, anything I run across that Richard Curtis wrote will be on my Must Watch list. | 
