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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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ElfontheShelfIsWATCHINGYOUTOO · 10/12/2023 18:53

I find it so hard depressing.

SheIsStuck23 · 10/12/2023 18:53

Ibizabar · 10/12/2023 18:50

Just in cases.

Show quote history

❤️❤️❤️

“Yes, is being my answer”

❤️❤️❤️

It makes me want to cry 😂😂

TempestTost · 10/12/2023 18:54

I think it's weird to call it problematic. People in it do all kinds of very human things. That doesn't make it "problematic".

Some of the stories are stronger than others, or lighter, maybe, but it's a nice little collection of reflections on different experiences of of love, some positive, and some less so.

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 10/12/2023 18:55

@GonksAreNotJustForChristmas agree with you on this - I have a friend who will reply to me or her own mentally troubled brother at any time of the day or night even though she’s ridiculously busy (and I don’t take advantage that often). The different with the Laura Linney character? Her brother is in a hospital. Realistically his phone contact should be limited in the first place and he should have a member of staff sitting with him during calls or visits if he’s actually as disturbed as depicted.

damnable · 10/12/2023 18:56

"Sometimes things are so transparency, they don't need evidential proof."

Willow12345 · 10/12/2023 18:56

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.

This. Worst Xmas film. Ever.

Bicorne · 10/12/2023 18:57

bartbert235 · 10/12/2023 18:34

I always think the "fat shaming" is supposed to be a joke. Some people call her fat when she obviously isn't t.

It seems to be a weird thread throughout some other plot lines, too. Aurelia refuses a cake when she’s offered one by Colin Firth and says in Portuguese ‘If you saw my sister, you’d know why’ and tells him he is getting chubbier by the day, and then of course we meet the comedy fat sister who gets fat-shamed by her father. And Bill Nighy’s character seems mildly obsessed by his manager’s fatness.

43ontherocksporfavor · 10/12/2023 19:01

DD now 19 and I was heavily pregnant with her when I watched it at the cinema . I bawled as obviously hormonal. DH thought it was mediocre. Hate the porn double scene, spoils a family watch.

wereonthemarket · 10/12/2023 19:02

I HATE it 😂

Worst bit of Xmas!

The cheating husband, the guy in love with his best friends wife, the following of a young girl to the airport by a grieving minor encouraged by his step father, the unprofessionalism of the prime minister........ yes yes yes I know it's just a film but I despise it!

sprigatito · 10/12/2023 19:03

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.

I can't bear American Christmas movies, they're enough to give you diabetes. Full of cookie-cutter characters with no depth and no real humour to cut through all the schmalz. Like being force fed cheap chocolate.

the80sweregreat · 10/12/2023 19:05

The porn couple jars a lot more so than the nerdy one in America ( which I thought would be a fantasy until he shows up with one of them at the airport!)
Rowan Atkinson as an Angel is also sweet
He knows Alan Rickman's game !

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 19:05

sprigatito · 10/12/2023 19:03

I can't bear American Christmas movies, they're enough to give you diabetes. Full of cookie-cutter characters with no depth and no real humour to cut through all the schmalz. Like being force fed cheap chocolate.

Show quote history

I do watch them but I prefer British films.

JenniferBooth · 10/12/2023 19:07

Oh God yes i hate those Hallmark films They are awful

Tracker1234 · 10/12/2023 19:07

God there are some pompous lefties out today clutching their pearls . It’s a film..

Coolhwip · 10/12/2023 19:08

sprigatito · 10/12/2023 19:03

I can't bear American Christmas movies, they're enough to give you diabetes. Full of cookie-cutter characters with no depth and no real humour to cut through all the schmalz. Like being force fed cheap chocolate.

Show quote history

Look at this list, most of the top Xmas movies are American.

Can you name some good British Xmas films?

https://ew.com/movies/20-top-christmas-movies-ever/

Gymmum82 · 10/12/2023 19:09

I love it. That and the holiday are my 2 must watch every year

43ontherocksporfavor · 10/12/2023 19:09

@sprigatito what about Uncle Buck? Love that.

YouBelongWithMe · 10/12/2023 19:10

I still love it too.

the80sweregreat · 10/12/2023 19:14

I like uncle Buck too
Never been keen on the Home alone films as I cannot believe they just left him there.

Plus what does dad do to be able to pay for all that and that huge house ! Lol
I know people love them though

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 10/12/2023 19:16

The America storyline jars for me because it’s not a fantasy. Three really sexy girls are immediately infatuated with him because he’s British, go to bed with him in the most soft-porny way, then he basically hands one off to his friend after his girl drops everything in her life within weeks to be with him. If you can’t tell I think the character is an idiotic wanker and it doesn’t really work as a parody because he gets affirmed in his beliefs and gets to keep using girls for sex. Now I think about it, it also props up one of the key Richard Curtis fallacies which is that things are sexy/desirable pretty much just because they’re British - I have got tired of that sort of association.

Clawdy · 10/12/2023 19:18

It's one of the few things DD and I both agree on - we watch it together every Christmas. Certain bits annoy me - "Where the fuck is my fucking coat?" when there are kids standing there in the hall! But I love so many other moments.

Tilllly · 10/12/2023 19:25

It's a film for adults
Who should be able to avoid being influenced by the problematic bits

It's odd that films such as It's a Wonderful Life and Brief Encounter have arguably aged better

Sluj · 10/12/2023 19:26

Haha, it's a film about love and relationships - in real life things don't always happen in straightforward ways. People get things wrong and unkind things are said and happen.

I cant imagine what kind of lives some of you lead where you only come across people and situations which are not perfect, people don't ever insult others and no-one dares to take a chance on declaring their love ❤️

43ontherocksporfavor · 10/12/2023 19:26

Yeah I hate sweary Martine too@classy . Same with Bridget Jones and Four Weddings . All Brits say Fuck several times a minute apparently.

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 19:27

I think the British guy in America is just thrown in for comedy. I can't get upset. Most comedy is silly. You could get offended by all sorts of comedy.

Love Actually is not to be taken that seriously.

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