All of London is in love — or longing to be — in Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis ' first directorial effort. Billed as "the ultimate romantic comedy," Love Actually involves more than a dozen main characters, each weaving his or her way into another's heart over the course of one particularly eventful Christmas. The seemingly perfect wedding of Juliet ( Keira Knightley ) and Peter ( Chiwetel Ejiofor ) brings many of the principals together, including heartsick best man Mark ( Andrew Lincoln ), who harbors a very unrequited crush on Juliet. There's also recent widower Daniel ( Liam Neeson ), trying to help his lonely stepson Sam ( Thomas Sangster ) express his true feelings to a classmate. Across town, devoted working mother Karen ( Emma Thompson ) tries to rekindle the passion of her husband, Harry ( Alan Rickman ), who secretly pines for a young colleague of his. In the same office, the lonely Sarah ( Laura Linney ) not-so-secretly pines for a man just a few desks away ( Rodrigo Santoro ), who returns her affections but may not be able to dissuade her neuroses. Providing the unofficial soundtrack for all of the couples is an aging rocker ( Bill Nighy ) who just wants to cash in and get laid — but even he might find a meaningful relationship in the most unlikely of places. A working print of Love Actually premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival . — Michael Hastings