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AIBU?

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To enjoy watching Love Actually

270 replies

Geminijust · 10/12/2023 16:09

Just watched Love Actually for the umpteenth time. Thoroughly enjoyed it as usual and got me in the festive spirit.

Yes, the plot(s) is full of holes and mostly ridiculous! However, there are some great moments such as the Emma Thompson scene when she gets the CD instead of the necklace and lots of funny moments (Rowen Atkinson, Bill Nighy etc). My teen DD watching for the first time pointed out the sexism and the fat shaming (but still quite enjoyed it). She's not wrong, but meh! AIBU?

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BeingATwatItsABingThing · 10/12/2023 16:40

One of my favourite Christmas films.

ThisIsNotThePostYourLookingFor · 10/12/2023 16:42

I love it and watch it every year without fail. Yes it has its issues but so what? It’s almost 20 years old.

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 10/12/2023 16:49

@1975wasthebest there is one character who is constantly made fun of for being what is a completely normal weight and probably would be considered even more sexy now. There is a stalker-ish person who instead of getting his own life keeps his obsession about his best friend’s wife and ends up basically emotionally blackmailing her into a kiss. There’s an entire storyline which is just “British men are so sexy to American women that they just can’t resist them and will happily have a foursome at a moment’s notice before the British man hands one of them off to his mate because he has also brought them all home”. I don’t know what the Karl/Laura Linney storyline is supposed to prove except that you should always drop everything in your life to go and look after your unwell relatives who are already inpatient in a purpose-designed facility. I could go on.

Pigeonqueen · 10/12/2023 16:55

It will always be my favourite Christmas film. I absolutely love it and always howl at / with Emma Thompson 😆❤️ can’t listen to that song without crying.

It is right up there with He’s Just Not That Into You and The Notebook in terms of cringe fest but I love them all.

Pigeonqueen · 10/12/2023 16:56

ThisIsNotThePostYourLookingFor · 10/12/2023 16:42

I love it and watch it every year without fail. Yes it has its issues but so what? It’s almost 20 years old.

Exactly. Should we just cancel everything because - shock horror - people thought differently in a different time? 🤦🏼‍♀️🤷‍♀️

roarrfeckingroar · 10/12/2023 17:00

I love it. The relationships are a bit problematic but they are in life. It's a gorgeous signifier of Christmas to me.

TomatoSandwiches · 10/12/2023 17:00

I don't like it.

roarrfeckingroar · 10/12/2023 17:02

"Fat shaming" my arse. Hugh Grant actually says he doesn't think she's fat. It's a gorgeous film,

Coolhwip · 10/12/2023 17:04

I think it’s a shit film. Brits can’t do Christmas movies like the Americans. Love Actually is cringeworthy.

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 17:05

TheCadoganArms · 10/12/2023 16:21

The Andrew Lincoln stalking Kiera Knightly story line has aged as well as a five day old festival toilet.

The first time I saw it I thought it was weird. Nobody would do that in the real world.

I do love the rest of the film.

cakeorwine · 10/12/2023 17:06

There's an analysis of how many of the stories in it would be much more difficult under post Brexit, migration rules.

JollyJolene · 10/12/2023 17:09

Wasn’t he at their wedding and his gf didn’t go as she wasn’t feeling well? I don’t think they are related as such, just friends.

JenniferBooth · 10/12/2023 17:11

IMO they should put back the deleted scene(s) featuring Anne Reid and Frances de la Tour Would be a good way to celebrate the films 20th anniversary.
They scapped these scenes in favour of the storyline with Kris Marshalls character going to America.

The former is about love while the latter is just about sex someones secret sexual fantasy put on celluloid and the film is called LOVE Actually

They should put the deleted scene back in.

JollyJolene · 10/12/2023 17:12

I love, love, love this film. I watch it on Christmas Eve whilst drinking Baileys and wrapping presents.

SiobhanSharpe · 10/12/2023 17:14

I remember it was panned by the critics when it came out, mostly for being not half as funny as Four Weddings.... But a Christmas film will always have fans, IMO.
(I rather like it although I wasn't impressed at first.)

feelingalittlehorse · 10/12/2023 17:14

Well, I love Love Actually. One of my favourite Christmas films and I think people will try and be offended by many things.

I mean, it’s a comedy- not a documentary.

shivawn · 10/12/2023 17:15

Love it. Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman's story is my favourite, two incredible actors.

Roselilly36 · 10/12/2023 17:17

We watch that film every year at Christmas, total classic.

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 17:17

shivawn · 10/12/2023 17:15

Love it. Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman's story is my favourite, two incredible actors.

I agree. I always cry at the present scene.

LordEmsworth · 10/12/2023 17:18

Yes, men treating women like shit will never be anything other than a light hearted comedy romp.

ClaireEclair · 10/12/2023 17:19

I rage watch it but still enjoy it. I hate the body double couple so I forward past those parts (can’t stand Martin Freeman and I hate when Stacey from Gavin and Stacey says “all I want for Christmas is you”.Arghhhh).

Dislike how Martine Mcuteon is supposed to be fat (I can imagine the actress talking about her “sizeable thighs” hated those lines).

Hate Laure Linney’s story (stop picking up the damn phone. He’s being looked after. You’ve got plenty of time to boff the hotty). And why didn’t we get a resolution for that story?

In what world would that Portuguese women not know any English? I’ve been to Portugal many times and even the children know English.

Loved Emma and Alan of course. And Hugh and Martine. I don’t mind Keira but since I found out she was 17 at the time I feel a bit meh about her storyline. Also, only filming someone’s face on their wedding day is beyond an obsession.

But yes, along with The Holiday, another film that gives me the rage, I will still watch it and love it while I hate it.

Dazedandcovidconfused · 10/12/2023 17:19

Hated it then, hated it just as much now, apart from that one scene with Emma Thompson it’s garbage, every storyline is eye-rollingly ridiculous. Genuinely don’t understand how people can watch it without cringing at nearly all of it.

Bicorne · 10/12/2023 17:21

ThisIsNotThePostYourLookingFor · 10/12/2023 16:42

I love it and watch it every year without fail. Yes it has its issues but so what? It’s almost 20 years old.

Fat-shaming, misogyny, stalking, depicting women as the preferably non-speaking prize for ghastly men, presenting America as full of drawling sirens only too happy to collectively seduce a repulsive twit brfore he’s put down his rucksack etc etc weren’t just dandy in 2003 either.

Love Avtually was as crass and muddle-headed when it first came out.

And even in 2003, writers didn’t sit in their gardens on breezy days typing out their MS on manual typewriters, with the only copy of the book piled under a stone on the table beside them. It’s pretty much like depicting someone using a quill and ink.

the80sweregreat · 10/12/2023 17:45

The porn film couple are cringy as is the American trip , but that was probably put in for the American audience.
I do like Hugh Grant especially when his out trying to track down Martine down the dodgy end of the Ballspond Road and his minder starts singing ! ' all part of the service '
The Emma Thompson part is so sad with Joni's voice in the background

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