To always cry at the Emma Thompson bits in Love Actually?

[summerbreezer]

Against my will, I've been forced to watch LA this evening. I find this film to be cheesy and irritating..apart from her part.

The bit where she is standing in her room after discovering that her husband has another woman. OMG. Wonderful film making.

It is a good 30 - 40 seconds of watching a woman do nothing, and yet it so beautifully charged with emotion. She blinks back her tears so her children don't see her cry. She goes to straighten the duvet as if it is a reflex action.

Then later on she tells Alan Rickman he has made "the life I lead seem foolish too". So lovely, so dignified. I also like the fact he doesn't get as far as having a physical affair, but that doesn't matter. The damage is done.

Gives me goosebumps.

Oh and......

yes, I think he slept with the slapper :(

and if it wasnt for her being a professional parent, he wouldnt have been able to run his successful business. Yes she was A lines and flats, but he was the male equivalent, would that have given her the right to mess around?

Wow, the bitchiness of some women to other (even imaginary) women never ceases to amaze me.

He definitely slept with his secretary. She gets out of bed and puts on the necklace.

ET's scenes are lovely.

I actually like the whole film - it always reminds me why I love London.

I know Bogey, it was a bit of a bum note on an otherwise rather nice, affirming thread wasn't it ?

"Yeah, like she's such a fucking frump she deserved it when her husband shagged around"

nice

(even if it is imaginary)

I love that bit too and Joni Mitchell song .... Perfection apart from the fact that gorgeous Alan Rickman has forgotten how glorious his wife is and shagged a woman who looks like a serial killer - my DH loves the film but thinks this woman looks weird and like a serial killer ! Bless him ..... Btw I don't like the necklace much that he chooses ... Fussy cow that I am but as for Laura linneys bf in film .... I would not be constantly answering my mobile deranged brother or not !

Emma Thomson's character always seemed such a sexless, joyless, NCT frump, I could never really judge sexy Alan for playing away - I thought I was the only one that felt that way.

Seriously, A-line tweed, flat shoes & obsessing over your child's part in the school play? Alan was well out of it, if you ask me.

This was what did it for me....

I love Love Actually. The whole film. Even that godawful BT ad bloke getting unrealistically lucky in America. Cried my eyes out at the opening sequence when Hugh Grant starts talking about 9/11.

But although I acknowledge Emma Thompson's general wondrousness in everything, she didn't move me in that until I rewatched it after having DD. Then it all made so much more sense.

Interestingly enough she had pretty much that scene with Jeff Goldblum in another Richard Curtis film, The Tall Guy - he shags another woman, she finds out, dumps him, he wails "but it meant nothing" - she gives him that look and says "yes, and when you were with her, I meant nothing." Magnificent.

Anyone similarly affected by the opening/closing airport sequences of people greeting one another should (or shouldn't if they want to avoid dissolving) check out Mark Wallinger's Threshold To The Kingdom - I saw it with a friend and he had to walk out crying at the bit where the old ladies meet each other - it made him think of his nan meeting up with all her friends in Heaven when she died...

Yy Bealola, she wasn't a conventional beauty - that scene where she's sitting on the swivel chair and puts her legs wide apart suddenly - DH nudged me in the cinema and said "is that meant to be sexy? It's terrifying!" :o

One rather hopes that the author of that post never gets bunions, bad hips (cant get trousers on you see), helps out at the school fete or mentions how disappointed she is that Jacintha didnt get Mary in the nativity play. If she does then surely she will wave her OH off with smile after tucking a packet of three into his top pocket.

The bit with her legs apart was horrible. It has been discussed many times in my circle and we have all (men and women) agreed that whatever it was supposed to be, it wasnt sexy.

Actually, thinking about it... AR's character is a bit wet isnt he? Relationships wise I mean. Happy to drift along with the wife in charge at home, the PA in charge at work and him doing what he is best at. I cant see a character that emotionally lazy being "seduced" by someone so hardfaced and obvious. He would probably run a mile, and arrange a transfer to another department for her and give the PA job to nice quiet unassuming Laura Linney!

Definitely - I was surprised to see that she'd been given the necklace, I thought he'd wimp out when it came down to it. Although we were given to understand she was offering him herself on a plate, so possibly his laziness was what carried him onward, as in it was easier for him to go along with it than to develop a spine and say no.

Poor Laura Linney. That was heartbreaking.

OP, YANBU.

I enjoyed most of the film actually - KK's grim role/acting, notwithstanding.

I loved BT bloke's scenes. So cheesily, unrealistically, OTT. Plus, one of his adoring women is none other than Betty Draper.

The less said about ithaka's post, the better...

I love Emma Thompson

YANBU

i unashamedly love this film as it is the only one apart from miss congeniality that my moodswingy DD will deign to watch with me cuddled up at xmas on the sofa. schmalz and choccies and hugs.

if i have an argument with DH about a ridiculous situation i always tell him he has made me ridiculous too and i often slap myself (rather than the hand thing) just to get a grip and keep on going... so for me she does indeed act it beautifully.

the only bugbear are all the references to Martine's weight - as she wasnt a typical hollywood casting and deemed fat by their standards - she isn't fat for crying out loud!

the mistress btw is played by Heike Makatsch - v popular in Germany - i think she is stunning but i first saw her in the channel 4 indie film Late Night Shopping. Horrible necklace though

l

Ahhhhh I forgot Laura Linney- that scene where she goes from the sheer joy of finally getting together with whatshisname, through their happy awkwardness in bed together, and then she ends up sat on the floor all sad :(

and I love Keira in this film too, and Hugh Grant's dancing, hush up you spoilsports

I also watched Last Chance Harvey' the other night. I was delighted to have switched channels about forty m8inutes into the film and see two terrific actors. The part when Emma Thompson is sat on the bench and she tells Dustin Hoffman she is sort of angry at him for taking her out of her constant disappointment evoked a empathic reaction. I hope to see the film in its entirety soon.

YANBU

I myself do not cry every time as I have watched the movie so often. I agree with all the positive comments written here of her performance. I would watch any movie with her in it.

I love everything ET does. She was SUPERB as Eleanor in Sense and Sensibility. In fact she's a modern day Jane Austen heroine come to life. Intelligent, restrained, funny, kind. I'd like to marry her, except Im not gay and I'm already married to DH.

She has a very handsome husband in real life.

YANBU, I love that bit, I weep unashamedly.

She's also magnificent in 'much ado about nothing'. And in 'peters friends'.

I love the whole film too and I'm not ashamed to say it

Last Chance Harvey is still on iPlayer if anyone wants to see it.

YANBU- the bedroom scene is very poignant. ET represents the classic capable woman whose life now
Revolves around nativity costumes and coffee mornings, and suddenly she feels everything crumbling around her. Agree that the rest of the film is daft but that moment is superb

If you have the DVD with the excerpts of other story lines which ended up being cut from the film, there's an equally superb one about two partners, elderly women one of whom is dying. Cannot believe that was cut- it would have matched ETs story line easily

makes me cry too. ET did a wonderful job

YANBU. Can't do anything but completely agree with you - that scene is like a masterclass in acting! Love ET.

Not a popular viewpoint I know but I also think Keira is great in this, really natural. Also what was Martine McCutcheon doing there?! I often wonder why her career didn't go any further. She got a part in a Hollywood film so she obviously had the contacts. Weird.