If you know me, you may be surprised to learn I adore “Love, Actually”.
If you really know me, you likely aren’t that surprised at all.
It is that time of year when everyone rails on this holiday classic. And look, I am not here to change your opinion on the movie. People like what they like and there are flaws. Let’s make a deal: I won’t try to convince you to embrace this film if you back off about “The West Wing”, m’kay?
It is, in many, ways, a fluffy film. People fall after exchanging a look. Best friends go behind backs and proclaim love…and we are meant to swoon. Too many male bosses are pining for their subordinates. Things come together too simply. Hell, things fall apart too cleanly. It is glittered candy in DVD form.
Love is not simple. It is stomach flus. It is parent teacher conferences. It is enduring delayed flights and too many bills and arguments that aren’t really about the argument at all. It is about trust that can slip away, that you cannot take for granted because there are no guarantees of forever or even tomorrow.
Love is fleeting and elusive and all too rare. It is not something that you can work towards or earn or you deserve. Love cannot be willed. It is this magnificent unknowable thing that just appears if you are lucky.
And one silly, silly movie can let you believe that it could be right there, waiting for you at the office or on vacation or after a tragedy. The world is hard. Vulnerability is mocked, hope is hidden. For 90 minutes, “Love, Actually” lets you roll around in sheer optimism without the messiness and fear and the runny noses and broken radiators.
Hope, sometimes, is actually all you need. Unreasonable, unsullied, wide-eyed hope.
Yes.
doniree´s last [type] ..The Bent Brick | Holiday Cocktail & Snack Class (Discount Offered!)
Yes! People who shit on this “glittered candy in DVD form” are highly suspect, imo. Thanks for posting a logical defense of a movie I love irrationally.
I love Love actually the same way I love Miley Cirus. I can suspend disbelief and just enjoy the entertainment. Everything doesn’t have to be a political statement all the time.
The Maiden Metallurgist´s last [type] ..Bobbins
Yep. Pretty much all of this. I love this movie just so much.
katelin´s last [type] ..A Little Bit About Love Letters.
Yes! I get rather frustrated with people who go negative about it, and then I start to feel sad for them. If you really hate it so much that you have to make everyone else hate it, what happened to you?
I think one of the strengths of the movie is showing Love Gone Wrong in a few places, which makes it SEEM like they’re showing “real” love, or love in all its forms.. which makes the glittery candy love feel more believable, even though when taken on its own, it’s just as fluffy as in traditional rom-coms. But with the grounding of the other story lines, it kind of tricks you into being able to believe more in the love-at-first-sight, perfect ending love. (I love the movie, btw. Even after reading all the critiques people have about it, I still feel happy / warm / fuzzy every time I watch it.)
Alice´s last [type] ..new sinuses, new job, new husband
Yes to all of this, including the “West Wing” bit.
Kate @ GreatestEscapist.com´s last [type] ..The Time I Was a Big Weirdo About Potatoes (& Also Met a Supreme Court Justice)