If it comes to a top Christmas movies list, Love Actually has to be on it. Granted, I did say I didn’t like basic, and granted, three of the movies in my series of reviews are household names, but they’re on my list because they’re movies that deserve to be called classics and if any of the movies on my list exemplify this the most it’s Love Actually. Premiering in ‘03, this film directed by Richard Curtis is shows nine intertwined stories that all exemplify love and the troubles that can come with it.
The film begins with a voiceover from David (Hugh Grant) who states that whenever he thinks about the sad state that the world is in, he imagines people at airport terminals, and all the love that’s shown and exemplified there. He then commences to tell us about the 9/11 attacks and how all of the messages left then we messages of love, not hate. Then the movie cuts to begin the different love stories.
All of these stories are intertwined except for the first one shown, which directly after David’s voice over it goes to Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) who is a rock and roll legend who records a Christmas variation of the hit “Love is All Around” by the Troggs. Throughout the movie, although he’s not personally connected to any of the other characters, his single is usually playing, or he’s on TV in the background. Relationships shown are a woman and her husband, who she thinks is cheating on her, and a man who’s best friend just married the love of his life. If that’s not enough to show messy love can be, I don’t know what is.
This movie is an instant classic because it doesn’t directly talk about Christmas and the meaning behind it, nor does it have Christmas tales about someone learning to enjoy Christmas. It focuses intensely on these nine different relationships, and shows that love comes in all different forms, and can create many different emotions; from instant attraction to a new house maid to feeling the loss of a significant other. This movie may be a classic, but it’s certainly not your basic Christmas movie, and should definitely be on your playlist this season.
Do you think romantic comedies like this fully encompass the holiday spirit?[vc_text_separator title=”Third in a five-part series” i_type=”entypo” i_icon_entypo=”entypo-icon entypo-icon-monitor” i_color=”custom” add_icon=”true” i_custom_color=”#2bb673″][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”10″ element_width=”3″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1450895568477-1d1f0ab0-bfa3-2″ el_class=”Christmas movie reviews”][TS-VCSC-Youtube content_youtube=”https://youtu.be/KdzH6a-XEGM” el_file=””]