The Christmas lights are on in the shops, you’re feeling romantic. It must be time for Love Actually! Here are 12 reasons (one for each day of Christmas) to watch it again this festive season:
12 Reasons to Watch Love Actually
#1: Super-cute, super-young Thomas Brodie-Sangster
Because look at his adorable little face. Aww!
#2: Hugh Grant dancing around 10 Downing Street!
Because wouldn’t you want to do the same if you were Prime Minister (President/Premier/Chancellor/please insert your country’s equivalent)?
#3: Colin Firth’s Portuguese proposal
“I am here to ask your daughter for her hands in marriage.” I love how the subtitles reveal Colin Firth’s character, Jamie, stumbling through the proposal in bad Portuguese. Also, how the entire village ends up following him and the ever-increasing rumour, that goes from Aurelia’s father selling her as a slave to Jamie having come to kill Aurelia. And the very sweet moment when it turns out Aurelia has been learning English.
#4: The tragic tale of Karl and Sarah
“No, honey, I’m not busy.” For me, this is the most heartbreaking of the sad love stories in the film. Karl and Sarah’s love remains frustratingly unconsummated due to her devotion to her mentally ill brother.
#5: Sea creatures in the Nativity
“There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?” I love how this is never explained.
#6: Rowan Atkinson’s gift-wrapping skills
Alan Rickman becomes increasingly impatient, but the layers of festive wrapping go on. And on.
#7: “Thanks, Ant or Dec”
I appreciate that an international audience may not be familiar with the British TV phenomenon that is Ant and Dec. But honestly, it took me years before someone pointed out that Ant always stands on the left and Dec on the right so you can remember which one is which.
#8: “My wasted heart will love you”
It’s all there, isn’t it? The cue cards. Silent Night on the ghetto blaster. And a Christmas kiss of sympathy for the best man in unrequited love with his best friend’s bride.
#9: Martin Freeman’s staircase leap
One of the film’s funniest ironies is that characters John and “Just Judy” meet while doing naked stand-ins for movie actors’ – shall we say? – intimate scenes, but are terribly shy about asking each other on a date. When Judy says, “All I want for Christmas is you,” John’s whoop and leap down the front steps says it all.
#10: Kris Marshall’s “cute British accent”
“You don’t have a cute British accent.” In real life, Kris Marshall’s character, Colin’s, fantasy that, by simply going to America, he will become a magnet for beautiful women, would remain just that. A fantasy. The irony is that it becomes true. In spectacular fashion.
#11: Joni Mitchell
Another of the heartbreaking moments. Many women can relate to Emma Thompson’s restrained tears when she realises her husband has given a gold pendant to another woman, as Joni Mitchell sings soulfully in the background.
#12:. Door-to-door Prime Minister
Because shouldn’t this happen in real life? I don’t know which I like more, Hugh Grant’s rendition of Good King Wenceslas (accompanied by a vocally splendid chauffeur) or the part where he says, “Sorry about all the ****-ups. We hope to do better next year.”
Content Warning: This is Rated R and contains some strong language and scenes of a sexual nature. However, you can try and catch an edited version on TV if this bothers you (it sometimes airs in America at this time of year)!
Will you be watching Love Actually again this year? Sound off below and also check out what the script editor says would have happened to a couple of the characters!
Photos: Universal Pictures
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