“If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love, actually, is all around”. In fact, one of the best places to find it is on the movie screen. And since it’s almost the end of the year, it’s perfectly acceptable to return to the cold-setting, heart-warming Christmas classics – a title that can definitely be given to the iconic Love Actually (2003).
With its all-star cast and memorable subplots, the quintessential British rom-com remains as one of the most beloved holiday movies of all time. Yes, some of it didn’t age quite well – we will talk about it soon – but it’s undeniable that the writer and director Richard Curtis (the mind behind other gems like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary and About Time) crafted something really special.
So, let’s understand what is the magic within it.
The plot. Actually, the subplots
The movie’s initial montage uses the arrival gates of Heathrow Airport as an epitome of its main theme: love, obviously. Family members getting together for the holidays, long-distance lovers reuniting, friends seeing each other after many years. Love has many shapes, and that is why Love Actually is a collection of 10 different portraits of this emotion, that we eventually find out are connected – and, besides it being a romantic-comedy, not all of them are centered on couples.
One of my favorite things about this movie is that it’s completely unnecessary to know the characters name. There are so many of them and they are all “someone famous you have definitely seen somewhere”. So, let’s just take the actors’ names to briefly look through all of the storylines. It all starts in London, five weeks before Christmas day.
The Prime Minister and workplace ethics
Long before being an Oompa-loompa, Hugh Grant, the rom-com legend, was once the Prime Minister of the UK. The newly elected politician, however, finds out that the hardest part of his job is escaping from his attraction for a member of his household staff, Martine McCutcheon.
The writer who got lost in translation
After finding out his girlfriend is cheating on him with his brother, writer Colin Firth decides to take some time off in a cottage in France. There, he meets the housekeeper, a Portuguese woman played by Lúcia Moniz. Besides not speaking each other’s language, the two grow mutual feelings.
The cheating husband
Alan Rickman managed to ruin Christmas harder than when he kept hundreds of hostages at the Nakatomi Plaza. This time, he is accepting his secretary’s moves towards him, while his wife, Emma Thompson, starts acknowledging the situation, but has to keep it all together for the sake of their kids.
The grieving man and his step-son
In this tear-worthy subplot, Liam Neeson’s wife has just died, and he has to deal with his grief alongside his stepson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, a quiet pre-teen with whom he wasn’t really close. Their relationship immediately changes when the boy makes a revelation: he is in love with a classmate.
The best friends in a love triangle
The teenage rising star Keira Knightley – she was barely 18 at the time – gets married to Chiwetel Ejiofor. However, his best friend, Andrew Lincoln, is in love with her, which leads to a cute, but also controversial scene – come on, you were the best man in their wedding! Even Richard Curtis admitted in an interview to The Independent that it was “a bit weird”.
The work crush
I’m going to get patriotic now. Laura Linney is a graphic designer with a massive crush on her workmate, who happens to be our Brazilian icon Rodrigo Santoro. Unfortunately, her devotion to her brother, who suffers from a mental disease, makes it hard for her to get her love life together.
The stand-ins
Creating some uncomfortable minutes to watch with your family, Martin Freeman and Joanna Page are stand-ins in a film production, in which they have to simulate sex scenes. Although they share very intimate moments professionally, they are shy around each other off-set – so they surprisingly have one of the purest relationships in the movie.
The declining artist
Bill Nighy is a washed-up rock star who is trying to release a number-one single once again with a Christmas version of the song “Love Is All Around”. Besides his belief that the track is horrible, he and his long-time manager will spend the movie trying to promote it.
The trip to America
This is definitely the worst subplot in Love Actually and I couldn’t care less about it. To summarize it: a very misogynist man thinks there is a problem with every woman in England for not wanting him. That’s why he has to travel to the USA, where girls will find his accent hot. No comments.
The gift wrapper
Not a lot happens on this one, but Rowan Atkinson, a.k.a. Mr. Bean, is in this film. And he wraps gifts. Dramatically. That’s all.
The most iconic scenes
With so many stories developed through the film, Love Actually has enough material for a compilation of remarkable moments. After all, every subplot needs its big moment. These memorable scenes are one of the reasons the movie stayed in the public’s memory and created the desire to be seen over and over again.
Hugh Grant dancing
Hugh Grant being the Prime Minister of the UK is already an iconic thing by itself. He could definitely do it – but I don’t think Winston Churchill could star in a rom-com. And it leaves me with so many questions: what is his political ideology? Would he have approved Brexit? I don’t know, but what I know is that he has some smooth dance moves – which he hated doing, but whatever.
Colin Firth speaking portuguese
I’m not sure if this plot hits people from other countries as hard, but seeing Colin Firth learn Portuguese to connect with the woman he is in love with really touches me. It’s such a big act, and I find it so nice to understand everything he is saying without subtitles. Yes, he is proposing after knowing her for only a few weeks, but let’s just ignore that.
Emma Thompson crying to Joni Mitchell
After Emma Thompson mentions her love for the Canadian singer Joni Mitchell, Alan Rickman buys her a Both Sides Now CD as a Christmas gift. Which could have been very meaningful, if he hadn’t bought an expensive – yet very ugly – necklace to his secretary. This leads to a painfully emotional scene in which she has to contain her tears before returning to their kids. How dare he?!
Thomas Brodie-Sangster running through the airport
Not only does the film begin in Heathrow, it reaches its conclusion there too. After weeks of drum practice to impress his crush in their school’s Christmas pageant, Thomas Brodie-Sangster has to deal with the fact that she is moving to the USA. However, in a last shot to show his feelings, he slips through airport security to meet her before she leaves.
Andrew Lincoln’s cue cards
Even though he tried to hold his feelings after she marries his best friend, Andrew Lincoln shows up to Keira Knightley’s door holding a dozen cue cards with sayings that profess his love. Well, that is not a really nice thing to do, and some people even say he is kind of a stalker – I wonder what he would’ve done if Chiwetel Ejiofor answered the bell instead. Anyway, I can’t deny it’s cute and iconic.
How is it still relevant today?
After 21 years, Love Actually is still a holiday season must-watch, but it’s undeniable that some of it wouldn’t be acceptable if the movie was released today. For example, the guy traveling to America is a big no, and the Prime Minister’s secretary suffering from the 2000’s evil fatphobia – without even being fat – is an awful situation.
If we take a closer look, most of the early XXI century beloved rom-coms carry some problematic issues that are now very controversial to our eyes. One of them is the lack of a more diverse cast and storylines. In fact, Love Actually was meant to have two subplots that were cut from the film: a lesbian couple and a relationship set in Africa. Although these could contribute to expanding the possibilities of love, they were removed for being too stereotypical and for making the movie – that is already 2h15 long – too massive. They could have tried, at least.
However, something great about rom-coms at that time was the amazing actors in them. If we take a look, there is a long list of Oscar, Emmy and other prizes nominations and wins among the Love Actually cast. This is something that definitely makes a difference in allowing us to believe that all of the emotions felt by the characters were real. As for today, it seems that most of the A-list stars we have tend to downgrade these productions, which end up feeling dull and cheap with not-so-great thespians.
In addition to that, Love Actually also stands out for its very creative storylines. Not everything is about romantic relationships, and not only does that get the film closer to the audience, but it also fulfills its purpose of showing that love is, indeed, all around. It is beautiful to see the feelings shared between a boy and his stepfather, a woman and her brother. Even two straight men can have a platonic bond, like the musician and his manager.
Who cares if it’s not plausible that couples meet, fall in love and get engaged in just a few weeks? The fun thing about Love Actually is how unrealistic most of these stories are, but how powerful they are in making us believe that everything is possible in the name of love and holiday spirit. In real life, it may take years and way more conversations and discussions for two people to get together, but on the big screen, it’s all about the hope it creates in the audience.
Bonus: Red Nose Day Actually
Love Actually’s perennial success is as stable as Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” – which is also used in the movie, by the way. That engaged most of the actors to get back together, in 2017, to make a short film revival of it for charity, entitled Red Nose Day Actually. We love good fan service with purpose.
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The article above was edited by Malu Alcântara.
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