Page 5 | To enjoy watching Love Actually

Geminijust · 2023-12-10T16:09:59+00:00

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?

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 19:27

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 ❤️

Exactly. Some people are so serious.

hermioneee · 10/12/2023 19:28

Tracker1234 · 10/12/2023 19:07

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

Pompous lefty here not clutching any pearls. It's a good film with some silly story lines. I'm shocked anyone has ever taken it seriously or literally enough to care.

43ontherocksporfavor · 10/12/2023 19:28

@CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau i thought that was a joke. Like as if his fantasy would play out that way!

Torganer · 10/12/2023 19:29

I don’t think fat shaming is an issue with Martine’s character? Aurelia’s sister, yes (it’s not funny and makes Aurelia look horrible, I don’t know anyone who would be so cruel to their sibling). Hugh finds Martine attractive and his assistant makes the comment and comes off as mean - which I think would happen now.

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 10/12/2023 19:30

It doesn’t make it seriously offensive, it just makes it… a bit rubbish. There are problems with series I love which HAVE aged well - Monty Python is the easiest example - but when they parody it’s much more obvious, and they’re more groundbreaking than relying on really tired stereotypes that are also relied on in other films by this director - FWAAF and Notting Hill both had an American totally spellbound by a man whose main attraction was apparently extreme Britishness.

frogswimming · 10/12/2023 19:33

Aren't the comments about her being chubby to show that the president is a dick? I mean since when does everyone in a film have to be nice? Are films about serial killers problematic because people should know better than murdering twenty years later?

Albeit, the body double storyline is rubbish. They should swap in the lesbians for that.

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 10/12/2023 19:33

And it would be almost a compliment now. You forget that at the time, the skinnier you were, the better. I didn’t get anorexia because I wanted to be fashionable but as a sufferer it was and is almost impossible to fail to pick up on the constant digs at Natalie. Agree that it’s worse with Aurelia’s sister. But it wasn’t a compliment to Natalie. It almost feels like the narrative asks us to like Hugh Grant because despite the fact that she’s overweight he still finds a way in his heart to love Natalie.

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 19:43

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 10/12/2023 19:30

It doesn’t make it seriously offensive, it just makes it… a bit rubbish. There are problems with series I love which HAVE aged well - Monty Python is the easiest example - but when they parody it’s much more obvious, and they’re more groundbreaking than relying on really tired stereotypes that are also relied on in other films by this director - FWAAF and Notting Hill both had an American totally spellbound by a man whose main attraction was apparently extreme Britishness.

Why does it matter? Some English people love an Irish accent. Its just a thing.

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 19:44

What's FWAAF?

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 19:45

Four Weddings and A Funeral.

So what?

TomeTome · 10/12/2023 19:47

I love it. Silly and tear jerking. Perfect with a tub of icecream.

Missingmyusername · 10/12/2023 19:47

1975wasthebest · 10/12/2023 16:22

I don’t see anything problematic with it at all. Is murder offensive in a film? Paedophilia? Theft? Where do you draw the line about what’s offensive?

I don’t take Love Actually seriously and never have done, it’s just a very entertaining film.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻^ All of this.

SomethingFun · 10/12/2023 19:56

The reason it and the holiday are such terrible films is they are trying to sell women’s oppression back to them by hiding behind Christmas tweeness and a biggish budget. Yes! You too could get the grand prize of all women’s and any woman’s life - a mediocre man (maybe with a ready made family because the runner up life prize is being a mommy)! Who cares about your aspirations, your life, your dreams, your career when you could chosen by a man to be his woman! Imagine if you were fat or over forty or a career woman and a man still chose you! A Christmas miracle to be sure.

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 20:04

SomethingFun · 10/12/2023 19:56

The reason it and the holiday are such terrible films is they are trying to sell women’s oppression back to them by hiding behind Christmas tweeness and a biggish budget. Yes! You too could get the grand prize of all women’s and any woman’s life - a mediocre man (maybe with a ready made family because the runner up life prize is being a mommy)! Who cares about your aspirations, your life, your dreams, your career when you could chosen by a man to be his woman! Imagine if you were fat or over forty or a career woman and a man still chose you! A Christmas miracle to be sure.

I would say steer clear of these films and find something a bit more serious.

Whilst the rest of us enjoy a bit of light hearted viewing which we don't take to serious.

Jude Law's character was cute.

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 20:05

I think the women in The Holiday had careers.

NeelyOHara1 · 10/12/2023 20:07

It's possible to enjoy and still be aware that nowadays people see things differently.

SweetFemaleAttitude · 10/12/2023 20:08

I've watched it once and it gave me second hand embarrassment.

So cringey and absolute unfunny shite.

Bicorne · 10/12/2023 20:10

SomethingFun · 10/12/2023 19:56

The reason it and the holiday are such terrible films is they are trying to sell women’s oppression back to them by hiding behind Christmas tweeness and a biggish budget. Yes! You too could get the grand prize of all women’s and any woman’s life - a mediocre man (maybe with a ready made family because the runner up life prize is being a mommy)! Who cares about your aspirations, your life, your dreams, your career when you could chosen by a man to be his woman! Imagine if you were fat or over forty or a career woman and a man still chose you! A Christmas miracle to be sure.

Yes. It’s sugar-coated misogyny wrapped in twee Christmas trappings.

Actually, it’s the way in which posters on Mn appear to regard it with a type of reverence, at least the scene where Emma Thompson cries in her bedroom when she discovers Alan Rickman is a philandering rat, that has always disturbed me. It made me realise how many Mners are entirely disempowered, and economically vulnerable should their marriages fail. That scene is absolutely key to a certain type of Mners’ fears.

Original poster

Geminijust · 10/12/2023 20:12

Natalie's dad did call her plumpy, but I agree the joke was (I think) that she actually wasn't fat. Auriela's sister however was clearly fat and the jokes about her being sold to Colin Firth & her dad calling her Miss Dunking Donuts 2003 would be unlikely to be in a film made today and would probably cause an outrage if it were!

OP posts:

JenniferBooth · 10/12/2023 20:16

Exactly Rab C Nesbitt is in the film and not a word about his weight

Crunchymum · 10/12/2023 20:24

Saw it at the cinema circa Christmas 2003.

I remember coming out of the cinema on a crisp, cold December night, all the local Christmas lights were on and I just felt so warm and fuzzy and Christmassey.

Haven't watched it for several years now though. I just haven't enjoyed it as much on subsequent viewings (seen it 3 or 4 times since the cinema)

Much prefer other Christmas films - National Lampoons, Planes Trains, Home Alone, Gremlins, Die Hard, Elf - never tire of them and can watch them every year but I can only manage Love Actually every half a decade or so 😂

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 20:24

Bicorne · 10/12/2023 20:10

Yes. It’s sugar-coated misogyny wrapped in twee Christmas trappings.

Actually, it’s the way in which posters on Mn appear to regard it with a type of reverence, at least the scene where Emma Thompson cries in her bedroom when she discovers Alan Rickman is a philandering rat, that has always disturbed me. It made me realise how many Mners are entirely disempowered, and economically vulnerable should their marriages fail. That scene is absolutely key to a certain type of Mners’ fears.

Show quote history

Misogyny is the most over used word on Mumsnet.

It's not abnormal to cry if you have a bad time in your relationship. The same as you would cry if you were let down by a sibling or a child.

It doesn't mean women can't get over these things.

GonksAreNotJustForChristmas · 10/12/2023 20:27

@Bicorne There is a difference with people having emotions than being disempowered.

stomachameleon · 10/12/2023 20:30

@HairdryerMary @GonksAreNotJustForChristmas I agree.

Without pissing on anyone's Christmas chips I was allowed an hour a week when my son was locked up in a forensic inpatient unit two hundred miles away. My life froze for the three years he was there. Never missed a call.

Anyway I liked it: I watched 'it's a wonderful life' at the cinema last week. Now that's a problematic film ;)

Pickledprawn · 10/12/2023 20:34

I went to see it at the cinema when it first came out and I thought it was a load of crap then I can't imagine what it's like to watch now!