Movie Opinion: Love Actually (2003) Actually has Aged Just As It Should

Screen Rant ran an article by Bisma Fida, Love Actually: The 8 Storylines That Aged Badly, Ranked (Published Dec 10, 2021), which obviously was regurgitated into one of my newsfeeds because Love Actually (2003) is still one of the best Christmas movies ever made, that's why it's still topical in 2024.

Bisma, who completely failed to get their profile page pro-nouns in order. Something that should be a priority for anyone commenting on what is accepted by modern audiences, who are all completely comfortable accepting preferred pro-nouns without question, because we're just that enlightened in 2024.

F**K Screen Rant

Full disclosure, I hate Screen Rant to the point that, if I do click on their click bait titles because I didn't see it was a Screen Rant story, I'll close the browser window almost immediately once I see what it is (which is why I'm not providing any links to their homepage).

It's not because I dislike their articles. I would actually like to read many of the ones I see. Their website is so dripping wet with in page ads, pop-up ads, video-pop-up ads, banner ads, ads for ads, and ads, for ads, reviewing ads, that are soon to be released as a teaser ad... who the Fuck knows!! (Yes I wrote the 'F' word).

Their site cripples any computer, or mobile device, I try to read their articles on. So Fuck Screen Rant. They're clearly in it for the money, and not for sharing informative content.

I literally downloaded an ad-blocker just so I could read Bisma's article in full.

I also hate them because it's largely their site that fills up with articles for and against Love Actually every year because they know it gets the clicks, and I'm just contributing to their noise with this article.

Back to Love Actually

I imagine that I'm of the generation Love Actually was made for. 30-40 somethings (I was 33 when the film came out), generation X's with maybe a bit of give either way on the age range. 

Almost all of the characters are either looking for love, are in love, or have been in love for some time. Likely very relatable to any age group but possibly most broadly relatable to 30-40 somethings.

That said, I mostly like the movie for Bill Nighy's character, sort of washed up rocker, Billy Mack. Bill clearly seems to be having so much fun with the role. It's my favorite performance of his.

It's also kind of cool that, for all his childishly silly behavior, he does recognize he values the friendship he has with his long suffering manager, Joe (Gregor Fisher). Who he publicly body shames many times, Bisma Fida. Which is not to say it makes Natalie's (Martine McCutcheon) body shaming acceptable, but Joe clearly winces every time Billy put's him down in public too.

Every Relationship in Love Actually is Still Relatable Today

Love Actually is exactly what it is. A slice of many different types of Love. All of which are still very much relatable today. Stereotypical or not. Stereotypes are stereotypes because they share constant traits that don't change over time - by definition they have the longevity to become a stereotype.

You may think borderline stalker Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is creepy but you sometimes can't choose who you fall in love with. Maybe his best friend, Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor), just had the courage to ask Juliet (Keira Knightley) out first and was never aware of how Mark felt about her?  

Up until Juliet asks to see his wedding footage, Mark was doing everything he could to make sure he didn't ruin her relationship with his best friend. That tape was for his eyes only. You can't tell me you've never 'stalked' someone you haven't had the courage to ask out? At the very least you've checked out their social media (which wasn't a thing in 2003).

Once Juliet saw the tape, and connected the dots that Mark didn't hate her, he had to do something to address it. Whether you agree with what he did or not is you being judgmental. Juliet seemed fine enough with it to kiss him, and a year later (I think it was a year), they're all still friends and Mark has a new relationship. You don't know... maybe she went inside and told Peter "Mark has a crush on me, I kissed him, we're all good now". Peter said "Yeah I know, he's been stalking you for years but was too chicken shit to do anything. Lucky me!"

I'm not going to go through the eight relationships Bisma identified, along with why they're problematic, suffice to say, it would be a very boring movie if anyone took Bisma's notes on board. 

Body shaming is still a thing. Married men giving gifts to pretty work colleagues is still a thing. Pretty women chasing successful men is still a thing. The male gaze, still a thing (and always will be, just like the female gaze is also a thing and always will be). Inappropriate advances in the workplace, still a thing.

Everything in this movie is still a thing. 

Karren (Emma Thompson) pushing on through Christmas, for the sake of the kids, after just realizing her husband, Harry (Alan Rickman), is likely cheating on her, is still a very relatable thing.

You can argue that some of these stories would not be acceptable to modern audiences but you'd be wrong. What you're doing is pushing idealism onto what actually happened.

Idealism is what 'should've happened' or what is 'the right way' to handle particular situations. The ideal that we all aspire to. Yes things could have been handled better. Maybe it's not how things are done now. Maybe it could've had more representation of LGBTQ relationships. Maybe...

This movie is already filmed. This is how the story goes. Don't be a revisionist. Agree with it or not. If you think Colin (Kris Marshall) is a dumb ass for declaring he's the right person on the wrong continent, then you have every right to think that. In this case his theory is proven right, as a fun play on people who fall in love with accents. Men who think they're god's gift to women... still a thing.

It's a good movie. It's a good Christmas movie. It gets you to feel something, and creates plenty of discussion. More than any other Christmas movie. It deserves to remain a classic re-watch. Also, The Grinch is a terrible character too... and there are at least two movies now about that character that play every holiday.

Incidentally, Bisma wrote a previous article in 2019, 5 Reasons Why Love Actually Is The Best (& 5 Why It's The Worst), in which they call out Mark's musical surprise at Peter and Juliet's wedding as being "sociopathic behavior, because of absolute disregard for everyone's schedule or the consent of the bride and groom".

No Bisma. That's a man who knows his friends well. They loved it, and were not put out at all. There's no way he'd contemplate it if he thought they wouldn't love it. How much can you be put out by a five minute song? Some weddings you can be put out that long just in the queue for wedding cake!