Happy Romancemas! It’s day one and we’re about to watch a controversial classic.
If you’re new to the concept, this is our own little 12 days of Christmas rom com movie-watching challenge: A movie every day for the 12 days leading up to Christmas. We’re starting off strong with the 2003 mega-hit, Love Actually. Get your popcorn ready–you’re about to fall in and out of love with some great characters, actually.
There’s a reason I put this first on the list. Love Actually has swiftly become one of the all-time holiday romance classics. Not only is the Christmas season a huge character in the movie itself, but there’s basically every type of love in here, good and bad.
We have an adorable pair of body doubles who fall for each other on set, the boy who just wants to impress his musical crush, and the couple whose love transcends language. Then there’s the cheating, and the cheating, and also the cheating. (Because we get not one, but three kinds! Aren’t we so lucky?)
While there’s plenty to care about from this movie, there’s one moment that always stands out to me during every watch. It isn’t the cue cards or the kid’s Christmas concert. It’s the exact moment when Karen’s heart breaks.
After she realizes that her philandering husband gave the necklace she found to someone else, and getting an actual thoughtful gift of a Joni Mitchell boxset instead, Karen (Emma Thompson) excuses herself to their bedroom to cry. The scene is, in my humble opinion, the most well-written and well-acted scene in cinema. There’s no dialog–just a crunchy version of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Karen’s silent, heart-wrenching tears.
She smooths the bedspread, straightens her skirt, and wipes away her tears as she rejoins her family to pretend that everything’s fine for the sake of their kids. It hearkens back to times we’ve all had when we couldn’t help but try desperately to pull ourselves together so we could hide how demolished we truly were.
As you watch Love Actually today, give some appreciation for a woman who used everything she had in that scene. And, when you’re ready to complain about other parts of the movie–which are valid criticisms whether I’d normally like to admit or not–check out some of our previous articles about Love Actually in the next section.
