In the hands of anyone else, the philandering Editor In Chief of Love Actuallys complex web of personal relationships would have been an irredeemable monster. His wife has just lost her best friend and is struggling with the behaviour of their children without so much as a shoulder to cry on from him, and she seems to be somewhat necessarily estranged from her beloved brother, the Prime Minister. And yet he still thinks it's absolutely fine to have an affair - suggested to be entirely physical - with the office floozy. Irredeemable behaviour, and yet Rickman's performance remains sympathetic in notes. He portrays Harry as a spider caught in a web, intoxicated by the attention, careless in the execution of the affair (which is actually one of his saving virtues) and immediately repentant. And in a film that presents itself as so simple, to have a character of that much depth is disarming and utterly effective.
