Love Actually - Hasn’t dated so well…

[SMAJJ]

Following on from an earlier thread regarding Four Weddings, I watched Love Actually a few years back and can remember a few things that made me think it’s not dated so well!
Fat shaming, misogyny, homophobic but the worse one for me personally was Colin Firth’s character using an offensive ableist slur…
AIBU and overthinking it - it’s what it is yadda yadda even though it makes me cringe and is slightly triggering ( child has a disability)

its on over Christmas and it’s annoying me that it’ll be lumped in as a great Christmas film but I find it really outdated and offensive!

I really hate that kind of stuff: it’s nasty and outdated!!
Someone give my head a wobble but be kind if you do….

What am I missing, haven’t watched it in a while.
What parts are misogynistic/homophobic?
And the fat shaming.. Are you on about the part where Martine
Mccuttcheon tells Hugh Grant that her ex is no big loss because he said she had fat thighs because as I remember it everyone disagrees with the comment including Martine, im
sure she tells it like that’s the reason she left?

Same.

It’s quite telling that the least sleazy adult male character is probably the porn stand-in

I started watching it last year and not far in turned it off because of the misogyny. Many might accept it but if we turn a blind eye and accept it becomes acceptable and it’s not.
It’s disappointing many people can accept this as normal I also find most male comedians make their humour by degrading woman, men laugh and their wives laugh along with them to show they don’t care so it’s no surprise misogyny is still very much alive.

Yeah I thought it was a load of bollocks back in the day too, I think the only reason that anyone likes it is because of Emma Thompson absolutley smashing her scene (I did actually cry during that bit, which is phenomenal since the rest of the film is freshly microwaved dogshite) hers is the only memorable, relatable bit so when people think of the film 20 years later, they think of her and forget the rest and thats why it ends up so highly rated. 😅

I forgot they used the ablist, S word, so extra fuck the film makers, it was 2003 not 1983.

It’s got its problems but I still absolutely love it! One of my favourite Christmas films with The Holiday and Home Alone

It was of its time. I went to see it at the cinema in 2003 with my childhood sweetheart at 14 so it’s was all very romantic and festive so I have fond memories of it.

I’m not easily offended.

I thought this review in the Torygraph (topping "5 Christmas Movies to Avoid At All Costs") summed it up well:

Here is a film that fatally cannot decide if it’s set in a world that exists – when 9/11 happened, and loved ones put in phone calls just before their deaths – or one that doesn’t, in which Hugh Grant is a bachelor PM, Martin Freeman is a body double, and Martine McCutcheon is unironically referred to as “the chubby girl”. Yet writer-director Richard Curtis’s single worst move (even more heinous than a whole subplot with Kris Marshall as a chirpy sex predator on holiday in Milwaukee) is the opening narration he gives Grant, about what love means in a post-9/11 world. Co-opting the tragedy of the century as a thematic backdrop to a panoply of completely fantasised, greetings-cards sentiments is an unforgivable faux pas.

Bah I enjoy it and do not see the fat shaming in particular - I think people are kidding themselves if they haven’t gossiped about Mary’s thunder thighs/knobby knees/ample bosom whatever physical attribute in their own offices!
It’s a movie. If every one had to be censored for political correctness what a sad state we’d be in.

Hated it then, hate it now.

On the evidence of this thread only about 5% of people would agree with ‘of its time, enjoyed it then but find some bits a bit dodgy now’. Everyone else is split between ‘loved it then, love it now’ and ‘always thought it was a pile of shite’.
That’s if you leave out PP who haven’t expressed an opinion on the film but just had a go at OP for being too sensitive.

"Hiya kids. Here is an important message from your Uncle Bill. Don't buy drugs. Become a pop star, and they give you them for free!" will never not make me laugh*

*Before I get accused of finding drug addiction hilarious, that's obviously not the case. Except for when Bill Nighy mentions it!

👏

Love you for that comment!😅😅😅👌🏾

I'll try and watch them both this year in that order!

I get really annoyed when Martin Mcutcheon says ‘piss if’. Nobody in the world says piss it, it’s not a phrase!

And Rowan Atkinson’s tedious cameo 🥱

One other Christmas film themed movie I love is Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd.

Now that is really of it's time. And that's why it's still hilarious. Movies aren't funny, (nor is stand up comedy for that matter) if they don't occasionally play on social taboos/stereotypes. I guess you could argue about degrees of that, but generally you cannot have humour without some of it. And that's always going to date as society progresses.

Another in favour of turn over the channel!

My son has Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia and I have to say that word every time I explain to someone what he has. Because of Sp*z being a slur I feel like I’m saying the wrong thing when saying a perfectly normal medical diagnosis.

You can watch things from only a few years ago and realise they wouldn’t be acceptable now. The problem is you can’t airbrush history. Everything changes so rapidly. When you see something that you find offensive,you have to think was it meant maliciously or not. The chances are it wasn’t. If it’s still a problem for you though just don’t watch it

I feel literally soiled every time I’m forced to watch it!

It’s complete cynical drivel designed to make the unquestioning masses swoon at Christmas.

I’m typically quite into Christmas movies, but not this one.

Naff film, never liked it.

Everyone complaining about the misogyny

When Daniel (Liam Neeson) and Sam are leaving the school he bumps into Carol .
Cannot recall the exact words but she implies she bumped into him on purpose
Then "You;re Sams dad aren;t you?" (StepDad)
Then "I;ll make sure of it" when he says he hopes to bump into her again.

She knows his wife is barely cold in the ground and she's chasing him,

Not all misogynistic is it ? That is pretty eurgh

But it is one of my favourite films (and my DDs)

Just in cases
Where the Fuck is my Fucking Coat
Eight is a lot of legs David

Yes it was a shit film. Ignore the posters who are saying "yes but I bloody love it!"- these women were fit and popular in the early 2000s, now in 2025 far, far from it and still love it because it reminds them of their long-gone glory days

And what about all the stuff with Aurelia and her sister who is referred to as fat from the moment Colin Firth offers her (Aurelia) a croissant? She immediately responds with ‘if you saw my sister you’d know why’ at her refusal of said croissant. When he goes to find aurelia later in the film the father opens the door aghast at the idea anyone would be looking for the sister who he refers to as ‘Miss Dunkin’ donuts’. And that’s on top of all the stuff with Martine Mcutcheon.

I thought it was misogynistic, fattist tripe from the first time I saw it and no, it wasn’t of its time. It was misogynistic fattist tripe then and still is.

Oh and fucking hell, don’t get me started on Curtis’ The Boat that Rocked, where a woman is almost casually raped in a hilarious deception by the Nick Frost character.

It is a fictional film, they make films with talking animals, gangsters shooting each other, drug barons involved in human trafficking, love triangles, cannibals, serial killer who like wearing women's clothes dont all films have something someone doesn't agree with or not based on reality

So what do people want in a movie? Why is this film any different

Watched it with a mate last weekend, I’d forgotten about the s**z comment and was shocked they used it tbh.

Got annoyed at Alan Rickman for cheating on Emma T but also forgot about the hilarious bit when sexy secretary is sat in front of him and spreads her legs.

Mr Bean taking aaaaaages to wrap the damn present is so annoying

We both stuck our bottom jaws out and recited ‘I’m quite pretty’ and ‘they’re all of meeeeeee’ at the requisite time.

Told PM aide to fuck off when she called Natalie chubby

Best bit is the male voice choir PM protection officer