What is the most perfect Christmas movie and why is it Love Actually?
If you’re celebrating Christmas away from home, the feeling of waking up with a little sadness in your heart must be familiar.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year and despite everything, there’s a lot to be thankful for — both the huge deals and little things.
Personally, on this day, I’m thankful for the little thing called “Love Actually”. To Me, Love Actually is Perfect.
One of the main reasons film is such a hit Christmas movie is because of the brilliant rollercoaster of emotions it takes the audience on. It shows comedy and great sadness at the same time, showing the true side of the festive period, which for some of us, can be very difficult.
But hey, cheer up! Because we’re in the season of giving, I’ll be sharing with you 4 reasons why you should include watching Love Actually in your Christmas tradition.
17 year after, still a classic
“Love Actually” hit theaters just in time for 2003’s holiday season, and audiences deemed it an instant Christmas classic — which means it’s been a whopping 17 years since the star-studded film hit the cinemas, giving us Hugh Grant’s infamous underwear dance.
Love Stories, not just one
It’s that time of year again, when the wind is colder and hugs are warmer. And all we see are red lights and smiles so bright. But the only way we know it’s truly Christmas, is when Love Actually is on repeat on your television — which will be the case tonight.
The film is full of many different kinds of love, each one important. This includes romantic love, with some stories more romantic than others. What makes the movie Love Actually one of the best Christmas movies for rom-com fans is the fact that it tells so many different tales of love, including the one lost, gained, unrequited, unconventional, and even non-romantic.
Trivia: There were 14 love stories included, originally. Richard Curtis, the writer and director of the film, said, “This film is my Pulp Fiction. I am a fan of multiple storylines, but I soon realized how tricky they are,” he reflected in 2013, upon Love Actually’s tenth anniversary. “At first, we had 14 different love stories, but the result was too long, so four ended up going, including two we’d actually shot.”
Star-studded cast
Did I already mention Hugh Grant’s underwear dance?
Just like reading a book, it turns out that big-name writers and directors have specific actors in mind when they’re crafting characters from nothingness, too. Richard Curtis apparently had multiple of the film’s key players in mind when he was creating these now beloved characters.
“I knew from the start I wanted Hugh Grant as the prime minister and Emma Thompson as his sister,” he acknowledged in 2013, ”And I wrote Martine McCutcheon’s part for her, too. I even called the character Martine, though I had to change it before the read-through so she didn’t think she’d already got it.”
How star-studded is star-studded? Well, check these names: Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman, and of course, the late Alan Rickman.
The feels
If you’re not feeling anything, at all, even on Christmas day, all the more reason you should binge this movie. It’s about Christmas but technically not really about Christmas so you won’t feel obligated to feel anything but come on, you gotta feel something. It’s just love, actually.
So, wherever you are in the world, never feel that you are alone, because Love, Actually, Is All Around.
Just in case you needed this, To Someone (somewhere out there), You Are Perfect.
