Things wrong about Love Actually

[TheAverageJoanne]

Liam Neeson copping off less than five weeks after burying his wife.

Andrew Lincoln being a dreadful best friend.

Laura Linney putting her life on hold when she really can't help her brother. And Karl being a wimp.

Natalie swears too much.

Love the film though. I'm watching it this evening a little bit late.

I also don't agree with the assertion it's not diverse enough for its time. Mixed marriages, mental health, death, divorce, possible bromance going a bit further, mix of affluent and working class characters - what more could you want?

YABU for the millionth thread about this in the past 2 weeks.

I also don't agree with the assertion it's not diverse enough for its time.

Well, it’s not really diverse is it. It’s mostly white people.

again another post🙄

Plus it’s 20 years old - who cares?

We've had several threads over the part couple of weeks

Check them out OP, lots of interesting discussions

I've not read any other posts. I'm sure the mods can delete if inappropriate.

@Coolhwip reflection of the country surely? What about Peter, Tony, Joanna and her mum (who I met at a funeral) the choir, etc?

@doyouknowabout Richard Curtis seems to care as he was talking about it recently.

Think I may need to watch it again, it's been that long.

I have a theory that time runs differently in Love Actually universe and five weeks is actually more like five years. Would explain how Colin Firth becomes so fluent in Portuguese, how Liam Neeson gets over his grief etc.

Mia, surprised at answering the door to the PM. Mistress of PM’s brother in law. Oh and not at all chubby Natalie, who used to work for him, lives right next door to said mistress? Okey doke.

Watched it again the other day and the only bit I can say I really liked was the bit at the end in the airport which always makes me cry - found out recently that it is not actors but actually filmed in an airport.

Hate the fat shaming of Natalie, who is not even remotely fat. This film really hasn’t aged well.

The bit where Emma Thompson finds out about a gift that is not for her makes me cry as the same thing happened to me .

Isn't mistress the mistress of Emma Thompson's husband. Emma is also sister of Liam Nielsen. Not prime minister.

I think!

Emma Thompson and Hugh grant are siblings. Emma’s husband Alan is cheating with his PA, who lives next door to Martine and her huge family.
I never know the character names, sorry.
I was bothered by the fat references when Martine is not at all fat. The Portuguese restaurant scene bothers me for the same reason, the young lady is not a skinny idiot, she’s lovely looking. But in the end it’s a film, now 20 years old. I’ve seen worse.

@burnoutbabe yes, I probably could have written that better. @Cryingbutstilltrying has explained it best!

Isn't widowed Liam also a sibling of Emma?

Googled it and they just appear to be friends.

The whole film is cringe.

Yeah, its weird looking back it now. Love "actually" isnt staying with a man cheating on you, nor is it putting your entire life and happiness on hold for your brother (plenty of people care for family members and still have their own lives), nor is it marrying a woman you don't actually know, nor is it moving on from the loss of your wife in a matter of weeks, nor is it telling your best friend's wife you love her.

It should be called "Bad choices, actually".

I went to the cinema to see it when it first came out and even then I didn't think it was funny or clever. Just smug. I love the Rowan Atkinson scene though. Brilliant

So many threads about this over Christmas. It’s an old film, of course it’s going to have different values. Doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable though. It’s like picking apart the Wizard of Oz or any other old film. Just let it be.

Natalie swears too much.

Disagree. Does she even swear that much?

I regularly use the "where the fuck is my fucking coat" line when looking for something.

Odd to complain about her swearing specifically, given the Bill Nighy character "fuck wank bugger shitting arse head and hole".

Oh yes he's even worse much worse in fact!

possible bromance going a bit further
what more could you want?

Er, speaking as an LGB person - an actual same-sex relationship? I liked previous Richard Curtis films and wanted to like this one, I don’t need LGB characters in a movie to enjoy it, but I found it really really offputting when it came out and he mentioned somewhere that there had originally been a lesbian couple in it but they got cut, yet somehow there was still room for about 10 different heterosexual relationships most of which were problematic for reasons specified too often to count? They couldn’t have cut a single one of those to make room for one same-sex storyline? And no, Bill Nighy telling his manager he’s the love of his life doesn’t count (and no-one would think it did count as a romance if it was a couple of clearly platonic male-female colleagues making a one-line jokey comment with no other indication throughout the movie that they were interested in each other. Because straight people quite rightly expect to be represented with actual romantic relationships).

I don’t wanna get into an argument about what percentage of the population is LGB, it’s quite difficult to quantify and I’m not sure anyone really has reliable authoritative figures, but a drama with say 6 straight friends doesn’t seem unrealistic to me. But by the time you get to a huge ensemble cast like Love Actually with loads of vignettes and interlocking storylines yet none of them is same-sex, I call bullshit. That doesn’t reflect the real world, and the movie isn’t reflecting its audience.

This is a scathing (and VERY funny) analysis.