Love actually…problematic how?

[Cantwejustenjoythings]

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

I loath that film. Thought I was the only one! Yes, the andrew Lincoln kiera knightly scene makes me cringe. Exactly what was she supposed to do with the best friends unwanted love?? Creepy! And the rest is schmultz. Richard Curtis gave us Blackadder, which got me through my lousy teenage years, but his movies? Nah!

I like it too. And I find it really annoying when people take pot shots at the past, as if the present is so wonderful.

I think there are themes and attitudes that have not aged well. The fat jokes about Martine Macutcheon are very off. The Andrew Lincoln cue cards bit is a bit off. Some things look bad in retrospect but aren’t necessarily - apparently Keira Knightly was signif younger than her on screen husband; is it obvs ?? Well no.

Re the boss worker relationship between Alan Rickman and Heike Makatsch is very very clear that she’s more predatory than he is. However sorry we feel for the Emma Thompson character, he was - at most - easily led

Not meaning to derail, but I saw Grease recently and have decided it's a load of misogynist tosh. I used to LOVE Grease.

Love Actually was boring the first time I saw it. It was only interesting when Hugh Grant did his dancing number.

Times change. Some things we tolerated, are no longer tolerable.

Cinema therapy on YouTube explain it well

Mumsnet is one of the only places I’ve seen it picked apart so much. I was 22 when it came out and I loved it then and I love it now. Sure - like any older film - attitudes to things have changed but does that mean we should cancel everything unless it meets our new views on things? What absolute nonsense. It’s okay to watch older things and appreciate they’re of their time and that’s fine. People seem to have lost all ability to enjoy anything without finding fault.

Those weren’t magically okay in 2005! Neither was falling for a woman with whom you didn’t share a language, 0urely because you’d seen her in wet underwear, or America happening to be populated by beautiful nymphomaniacs dying to seduce Kris Marshall’s annoying perv and to be brought back as a quaint, Stetson-wearing souvenir for his friend.

This didn’t suddenly become gross in about 2020. It was always grotesque.

Absolutely

Grease is so yuk on so many levels and just gets away with it by being set in a retro setting and being ‘cult’

@KnitOnePurlTwo But he didn’t fall in love with her purely because he’d seen her in wet underwear?? Surely you can see more to it than that?

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.

See, I agree that it shone a light on shitty situations, but I have always thought the moral this film tried to sell was that it's all alright because it's all being done out of love. It seems to try to excuse the boss snagging his secretary as long as he buys her an expensive necklace because that proves he is accidentallyin love with her, the Stockholm syndrome type of romance that happened when a young woman who didn't speak a word of English lived in some kind of service role (can't remember) with a much older man who was married (but it's okay everybody it's not problematic because he's Colin Firth !). The power differential between PM and secretary. The absolute fucking injustice to the poor wife who stays with a man who she has found out is shagging somebody else. That stalker/obsessive behaviour is benign really if it's because he is in love with you.

@PickledMuffin
Depends on your outlook on life.

its funny, ..
it's heart warming.
It's sad

I like it

I loved it when it first came out.

I think it aged VERY quickly - like within about 2 years the scales fell from our eyes that this was not a cutesy film but actually quite problematic in that it romanticised some really shit behaviour.

@Coolhwip thanks so much for sharing that article- it's hilarious! I do love the film, but it IS problematic, and that article is fantastic!

For Petes sake it's not meant to be an instruction manual for life 🙄

Gross isn't it.
I do like how the disgust at this film now shows how much we've progressed as a society.

Does it, though? And have we?
Because fat-shaming still exists. Cheating in relationships is rife. Relationships with power imbalances are still happening. Women are still objectified and thought of as fantasy-dispensers. People are still putting up with shitty relationships for the sake of the children. People still sacrifice themselves and put their lives on hold to perform caring roles for others.
The film highlights all those situations that existed in the real world in 2003 and still exist today and probably will always exist. It reflects reality, not the sanitised perfect ‘progressed’ world in which people like to think we live.

@sammylady37 I think more our opinions about it all have changed, we just accepted it as normal before and now people are vocal about not accepting it