Love Actually
There are many who love to hate Love Actually . Primarily because the Christmas neither comes nor goes. It is also influenced by the fact that it is a romantic comedy And for those of you who like to play tough, this doesn't fit your standard of good cinema. Then this Hugh grant , an actor who has been immersed in self-pitying, incredibly linear and repetitive roles that did him little justice at the time (the peak of his career) to his talents as an actor.
But, because there is always a big, huge "but" when it comes to hating Love Actually , all the deniers of what is one of the best Christmas movies retract when they finally sit down to see it (very forcefully at first, of course). It's no joke, from the writing of Condé Nast Traveler we validate this theory having (almost) forced our partners, friends and family at some point or another in the 17 years of life of such a movie, to see it. Yes, we said movie. Not the kind that deserves to be part of the repertoire of filmin , but of those who brighten our day. The cultureta bar must be lowered a bit to give in to its charms and have a good time with the family . Because in the end, when Christmas and the cinema are mixed, that is the only important thing: to enjoy it, without regrets.
And what makes her the perfect movie to celebrate Christmas this 2020?
Love Actually
First of all, the fact that this year we have not been able to Enjoy the trip . Nor of the airports . Although before that, didn't it seem like a real and sovereign boredom to pick someone up at the airport? Take the car and drive there or swallow a long subway ride. Park, walk meters and meters to reach your destination , having nothing to do outside the exit door but to see faces, suitcases, people... all while others push trying to raise their heads above your shoulder to be able to see theirs. Delayed flights, cell phones that don't work to be able to contact your passenger and receive first-hand information (roaming that doesn't work, my friend, roaming), waiting and doing nothing but waiting. A nuisance until 2020 arrived and deprived us of traveling.
If you watch Love Actually with the premises of this new normal it will bring tears to your eyes when you see the opening scene , in which real-life people (it was shot at Heathrow) greet their loved ones upon arrival at the airport. The hug and the kiss . Much and many times. I wish I could do that again, I wish I could travel, I wish I could love without the need to maintain social distance.
Hugh grant is also added as one of the fundamental reasons to love this film by director Richard Curtis. Although it is also one that haters use to hate her. If Love Actually was released in 2003, A Place Called Notting Hill has been queuing since 1999 (and face it, thanks to the actor and Julia Roberts you went to take photos next to the iconic doors and houses of this London neighborhood because before, you didn't even know it existed ), Four Weddings and a Funeral put him on the map in 1994 and his relationship with Elizabeth Hurley was the bombshell that made him still interesting. Still, the Romantic comedies they made many catch him mania.
Not us and there are those who are going to have to swallow some of his words. Haven't you seen him as Jonathan Fraser in The Undoing (HBO) ? Or like Jeremy Thorpe in A Very English Scandal (Amazon Prime) ? It will be that someone was always a good actor, only that he never had the opportunity he deserved to play roles that prove it. “It is not something that I have chosen, the change chose me because I became very old and ugly for romantic comedies, which has been a great blessing,” Grant recently told the Los Angeles Times.
Hugh Grant, we've always loved you.
The film was responsible for bringing together a good gang of relatives – the children of Emma Thompson with Alan Rickman are, in fact, the children of the director with Emma Freud, script editor of the film – and friends who, later, became cult celebrities for the characters they played in other movies and series.
Andrew Lincoln was cop Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead ; January Jones went from being one of the girls who give Kris Marshall's American dream its charm to being Betty Draper, from Mad Men ; Thomas Brodie-Sangster was lovesick little Sam and now stars queen's gambit , while Chiwetel Ejiofor went from Keira Knightley's charming husband to an Oscar nominee for 12 years a slave . And Martin Freeman? Nothing more and nothing less than The Hobbit.
Actor Martin Freeman and actress Joanna Page.
And if we needed one more reason to continue adoring this Christmas jewel, we choose the plot head on what happens in Portugal . Because we will always have Portugal . The same thing that Colin Firth thought to escape from the icy London to a rural area of our neighboring country to avail himself of a well-deserved spiritual retreat away from the broken heart caused by his girlfriend (with his brother).
We accept that of all the love plots in the film, this is the less believable : he speaks English, she speaks Portuguese. And they fall in love throughout the film without understanding anything of what the other says. Until Firth, thanks to an express Portuguese course, confesses his deep love to the character of the singer Ana Lúcia Pereira Moniz in a restaurant. That by the way, she is not Portuguese but the marine bar, in Marseilles . And well, we accept it (actually his country house is not in Portugal either, but in Côte d'Azur, in the town of Vidauban).
Portugal, Colin Firth and an unintelligible love.
Let's not also forget the soundtrack of the movie . reason why Mariah Carey returned to dominate the charts with All I Want For Christmas Is You its now classic theme that was actually first released in 1994. The movie breathed new life into the theme and put it back on the map for those who had missed it in the 90s, as well as the more young people who had not listened to her. And as long as the streaming platforms continue to have Love Actually on their menu, everything indicates that the success of the melody will continue.
The song not only showcases Carey's gifts as a singer, but also as a writer in a collaboration with Walter Afanasieff. Let's remember that currently there are not many (or any) songs that are detached from the religious theme in Christmas terms, a curious fact that adds points to its unstoppable rise and that continues to make it attractive year after year. no matter who likes it . Same thing with Christmas is All Around , of billy mack , the soundtrack with which the film begins and that follows the trajectory of a "lifelong" artist who finds a vein by turning the lyrics of his hit I Feel It In My Fingers . A formula that is complemented by entertaining self-boycotts and a video with clear references to Robert Palmer and his addicted to love . Can you imagine that Palmer would have made the Christmas version of this great song? Oh, I wish.
And beware, because there is a short/sequel of the film that was released in 2017 that, although it does not satisfy our desire for more, it keeps us calm to verify that our beloved characters are still valid (although a little older).