Dancin' Dan here to wish a happy birthday to the romantic comedy to end all romantic comedies. Love Actually surely caused fans and haters of the genre alike to spontaneously combust upon seeing it – so packed is the film with cliché after cliché after cliché (seriously, the only cliché that isn’t here is the one where an unattractive girl removes her glasses and suddenly becomes hot). Richard Curtis’s film tells the stories of no less than twenty-two Londoners (and one Portugese and four American girls), pretty much making this the first rom-com epic.
It’s true, we have Love Actually to blame for the insipid Valentine’s Day and the even worse New Year’s Eve, but those two films don’t have nearly the lightness of touch, the humanity, the… well… British-ness of the 2003 crowd-pleaser.
Gary Marshall’s films take the template Love Actually set and run it through the Hollywood machine, going for maximum slickness and commercial appeal. Of course, neither of those films had the good fortune to have actors as wonderfully mature as Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, and Laura Linney, either.
For me, it’s really the cast that puts Love Actually over. Curtis’s script is gangly and awkward and rarely subtle, but the actors (also including Hugh Grant, a fresh-faced Keira Knightly, The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln, and sure-fire Best Actor nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, as well as a delightfully trashy January Jones) somehow manage to keep the whole thing on an even keel. In their hands, the movie never feels like much too much, which it really should, what with all the forced interconnectedness between the characters and storylines. You could call this the Crash of romantic comedies and I wouldn’t argue with you.
But, then again…
Of the sprawling cast, Emma Thompson’s performance received the lion’s share of accolades, and this scene is just magic. It’s a superbly crafted moment on every level. But for me, the storyline that moved me most was Laura Linney’s. The scene where she finally, finally gets to be with the man she’s had a crush on (the eminently crushable Rodrigo Santoro), only to have her handicapped brother call just when they’re getting to the good bit, is shattering. To watch her dreams crumble in the face of the duty of familial bonds is poignant in a way not much else in the movie is.
Everyone has their own favorite in Love Actually, be it a scene, character, performance, or entire storyline, partly by design. There’s something for everyone here, one part of why it was a huge hit. But I think the other big reason for the film’s success is that there’s a bittersweet flavor underneath the Christmas-flavored cheese – not every storyline ends happily, not exactly, which somehow makes this very contrived film feel somehow more real than most romantic comedies.
What’s your favorite in Love Actually? Let us know in the comments!