Thursday, December 16, 2010

Love Actually

Don't tell anyone but I don't like the movie It's A Wonderful Life. My favorite holiday movie is Love Actually. I watched it the other night and it never disappoints.

Maybe it's because there are so many story lines that I never get bored. There's the guy in love with his best friend's new wife. And the guy who caught his wife cheating with his brother. Alan Rickman's character breaks my heart every time with his cheating on Emma Thompson's character.

Sounds like a movie about cheating, I know. But it's really a movie about love. LOVE. Not every character in the movie finds love at the end. Some just find sex. Some find imperfect love. Or familial love. Or in the case of the aging rock star, managerial love.

One of my favorite story line is Hugh Grant as Prime Minister. Who can resist a PM who dances in his underwear through 10 Downing Street? This guy stands up to an awful handsy American president and goes on a great search for the (ever so slightly) chubby assistant he fired. Their romance begins back stage at a wonderful school Christmas pageant complete with children dressed as lobsters in a manger scene.

But the best story is the story of the ten-year old Sam and his major crush on Joanna. His step-father played by Liam Neeson, helps him learn to play the drums in time for the big concert. Their relationship is so sweet and poignant but in true Richard Curtis style is also funny and absurd.

The aging rock star played by Bill Nighy sings that Christmas is all around. Watching a favorite movie can be a way to invoke the Christmas spirit. What's yours?

I won't even mind if you say It's A Wonderful Life.

8 comments:

Becky Levine said...

Miracle on 34th Street. Natalie Wood gets us every time. :)

Oh, and Rudolph, of course.

Monica Ferris said...

My favorite Christmas movie it "Scrooged," aka A Christmas Carol, starring Alistair Sim. Mr. Sim was convincing as both the crabby miser and the reformed kindly old man. It also seems closer to the original story as told by Dickens. Running a close second is "A Christmas Story," about Ralphie and his desire for a Red Ryder BB gun.

Gina said...

I love Bing Crosby's Holiday Inn. I get Fred Astaire dancing, Bing singing and a lovely rendition of White Christmas. I love this movie much more than the Bing/Danny Kaye movie, White Christmas.

Terri Thayer said...

Natalie Wood was such a beauty. I admit I haven't seen Scrooged lately, so I'll check it out.

Yes, Holiday Inn is much better than White Christmas. Love that snowy setting!

signlady217 said...

Home Alone 1 & 2; The Santa Clause 1, 2, and 3; Christmas with the Kranks; and Elf. (Yeah, I'm a huge Tim Allen fan, just love him!!)

Betty Hechtman said...

I just watched Love Actually last week. You didn't mention the writer who falls in love with the woman cooking and cleaning for him. I guess that is what she was doing. All you ever see is her handing him coffee and diving in the water after his typewritten pages of a mystery fly into the lake. I love the scene where he goes to Marseilles (sp?) after her. I laugh out loud every time.


The thing is, if you really pick apart the story, it is ridiculous time wise, but I don't care. I love it too.

I also love Meet Me in St. Louis. When Judy Garland sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, I always get watery eyes. That song just does it to me.

Terri Thayer said...

Thanks for the list, signlady!

Yes, Betty, I don't care how ridiculous Love Actually gets, it's always fun to watch.

Just watched Pirate Radio by the same director/writer. Just as much fun, too. Maybe a new holiday favorite.

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