“Love Actually” represents the cinematic equivalent of one of those elegant, charming Christmas confections, full of marzipan and spun sugar, gorgeous to the eye and sweet to the taste, but providing almost nothing in terms of substantive nourishment.

Richard Curtis, who previously wrote “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Notting Hill,” brings the same romantic sensibility to this, his self-assured and stylish directorial debut. He deploys a cast that includes nearly all A-list actors from the British Isles to tell a series of interlocking stories of lonely people looking for love at Christmastime in and around London. Hugh Grant plays a newly-elected bachelor Prime Minister who feels an inexplicable but irresistible attraction for the stocky girl (pop star Martine McCutcheon) who brings him tea. Colin Firth is a mystery writer who, after harsh treatment by his faithless girlfriend, leaps over a language barrier to fall head over heels for his Portuguese cleaning lady (Lucia Moniz) at a rented French villa. Liam Neeson turns up as a grieving widower advising his adorable son on how to handle puppy love for a comely classmate. Laura Linney’s a workaholic American expatriate pining in secret for a fellow worker, and encouraged by her boss, Alan Rickman. Rickman himself, meanwhile, fights the temptation to indulge in some extra-marital holiday cheer with a seductive secretary (Heike Makatsch), while his sensitive wife (Emma Thompson, in the movie’s most touching and significant performance) begins to notice his distraction. The lovely Keira Knightley (“Bend it Like Beckham”, “Pirates of the Caribbean”) is a coltish bride who slowly discovers that the best man at her wedding actually adores her more than her new husband.

And so it goes — in a seemingly endless succession of cleverly written and captivating scenes over the course of more than two hours. The salty adult language (recent British movies seem needlessly fascinated by four-letter Anglo-Saxonisms) and partial nudity in yet another subplot about innocent, fresh-faced stand-ins for a porno film, give the film an unnecessary R rating and make it very questionable fare for kids. The movie also feels much too glib for its own good, uncertain as to whether it means to offer nothing more than a series of comedy sketches, or attempts to touch deeper chords. The complicated, comfortably realistic relationship between Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson, playing a long-married but wary couple, suggests that this director and these stars (including, let’s face it, many of the finest actors in the business) could have delivered far richer satisfactions. Hugh Grant as Prime Minister, for instance, provides a delicious and persuasive characterization, but his sudden infatuation makes sense only if one assumes that this accomplished politician has never before met a nubile female

Two of the most amusing characters are rogues who seem anything but pure-hearted: Bill Nighy is hilarious as an aging, lecherous rock star, trying to make a comeback with a cheesy Christmas song, while Billy Bob Thornton nearly steals the movie as a pompous President of the United States who slyly combines elements of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Most moviegoers will leave the theater feeling satisfied with enough plot lines and characters to fill half-dozen separate movies, but the love the movie generates in its audience is fickle, fleeting and flimsy, rather than lasting and luminous. “Love Actually” isn’t the sort of Christmas gift that you’d want to return, but after opening the package you may feel tempted to place it on some high shelf and to forget about it. THREE STARS.

Michael Medved hosts a nationally syndicated daily radio show focusing on the intersection of politics and pop culture.  He's the author of eight non-fiction books, was co-host for 12 years on "Sneak Previews" on PBS, and is the former Chief Film Critic for the New York Post.