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Original poster

Love actually…problematic how?

43 replies

Cantwejustenjoythings · 23/12/2023 22:02

Keep seeing this written everywhere, can people explain the reasons why?

OP posts:
StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 23/12/2023 23:12

Keira Knightley was apparently only 17 when she filmed. The best friend being obsessed with her, and only filming her, then showing up on the doorstep, telling her to lie to her dh because HIS feelings are more important - is a bit stalkery.

BabyofMine · 23/12/2023 22:55

What I don’t get is it always seemed to me whilst watching that the film was SUPPOSED to be critical of the things it was portraying. It’s fucking shit that women get left looking after their relatives and their own lives get put on the backburner. It’s shit that shitty men with positions of authority go after the younger women and leave their loyal older wives feeling like dirt. It’s all crap.

So yes it’s problematic, but that’s sort of the point?! Wasn’t it supposed to be shedding a light on shitty situations that are now, and were then, ‘problematic’. We aren’t supposed to think these are great situations. It’s just making a point that love holds us together despite these less than ideal happenings.

That’s how I always read it.

(Oh, and the American girl fantasy, I always thought it was supposed to be a criticism of all those films floating about at the time like American Pie and Cruel Intentions etc. it’s a parody, surely?)

Original poster
Cantwejustenjoythings · 23/12/2023 22:52

I just like watching it, I honestly didn’t see any issues with it, I was 26 when it came out and it feels like it wasn’t that long ago…maybe it’s just me 🙈

OP posts:
PickledMuffin · 23/12/2023 22:45

I have never watched it, but judging by the comments, I've not missed out.

plantpotsandbugs · 23/12/2023 22:34

Everything is "problematic" these days.

It's a catch-all, lazy word people use to indicate that they have taken offensive to something but can't be arsed to actually examine or articulate what.

In saying that, yes, there are some bits of Love Actually that haven't aged well. But it's a 20 year old film. People need to be able to view things as being from a different era to the here and now. Things evolve. Things change. That's life. Stop applying 2023 values to things from decades before.

Friedtofuandbeans · 23/12/2023 22:30

I could never get past the first bit with the lady from Gavin and Stacey with her top off - totally gratuitous and pointless. Made me feel really uncomfortable and slightly horrified that this was ok in a mainstream and seemingly popular film - never watched it again for that reason.

SilentSoubriquet · 23/12/2023 22:28

The only thing I like about it, is the present wrapping scene with Roman Atkinson. It gets me amazing ASMR feels

motleymop · 23/12/2023 22:27

MidnightMeltdown · 23/12/2023 22:15

Haven't seen it in years, but I remember thinking that it was astonishingly boring when it came out. Never saw the appeal.

Same. It's utter utter drivel.

Pelham678 · 23/12/2023 22:26

Someone explained one issue (a bloke actually) being that only young women are allowed a happy ending. Emma Thompson and Laura Linney had to put up with unhappy ever after while the younger women and the older men, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth ended up with their (in the men's case, much younger) partners.

The storyline about Kris Marshall character going to the US and all those women just dropping their knickers for him was just nauseating.

JubileeJumps · 23/12/2023 22:16

It’s just an awful film.

MidnightMeltdown · 23/12/2023 22:15

Haven't seen it in years, but I remember thinking that it was astonishingly boring when it came out. Never saw the appeal.

Winnipeggy · 23/12/2023 22:13

Watch this

www.instagram.com/reel/C0yFDtoMrZg/?igsh=MXR1aXBtbHEwcTFsMQ==

ClottedCreamScone · 23/12/2023 22:12

Fat jokes, several predatory relationships between older men and young women they employ, husband and son getting over the death of their wife / mother in the space of about six weeks, every story being about men pursuing / winning women with the women having basically no agency or motives of their own, American women being portrayed as stupid and promiscuous.

I confess to loving it when it came out but it has aged like milk!

Coolhwip · 23/12/2023 22:10

Cantwejustenjoythings · 23/12/2023 22:02

Keep seeing this written everywhere, can people explain the reasons why?

Read this

https://jezebel.com/i-rewatched-love-actually-and-am-here-to-ruin-it-for-al-1485136388

mynameiscalypso · 23/12/2023 22:09

Richard Curtis himself has explained (some of) the reasons.

Tiddingtonplace · 23/12/2023 22:07

Have you googled it? All the reasons are there...

jc12689 · 23/12/2023 22:06

Maybe you could read through one of the other dozens of threads on exactly the same subject.

Violetparis · 23/12/2023 22:06

Watched the first 20 mins tonight and seen Joanna Page topless then naked while Martin Freeman is clothed or his body is hidden, yuk ! Hated it when it first came out but thought I would try it again but can see why I didn't like it the first time round.