Love Actually is a 2003 Christmas-themed romantic comedy film written
and directed by Richard Curtis. It features an ensemble cast, many of
whom had worked with Curtis in previous film and television projects.
The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through
ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of
whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress. Most of the
film was filmed on location in London. The story begins five weeks
before Christmas and is played out in a weekly countdown until the
holiday, followed by an epilogue that takes place one month later.
The United States release was on 14 November 2003 and a week later in
the United Kingdom, where it debuted to positive reviews, but received
mixed-to-positive reviews in the US. The film was a box-office success,
grossing almost $247 million worldwide on a budget of $45 million.
The film begins with a voiceover from David
(Hugh Grant) commenting that whenever he gets gloomy with the state of
the world he thinks about the arrivals terminal at Heathrow Airport, and
the pure uncomplicated love felt as friends and families welcome their
arriving loved ones. David's voiceover also relates that all the
messages left by the people who died on the 9/11 planes were messages of
love and not hate. The film then tells the 'love stories' of many
people:
Billy Mack and Joe
With the help of his longtime manager Joe (Gregor Fisher), rock and roll
legend Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) records a Christmas variation of The
Troggs' classic hit "Love Is All Around". Although he thinks the record
is terrible, Mack promotes the release in the hope it will become the
Christmas number one single. The song does reach number one; after
briefly celebrating his victory at a party hosted by Sir Elton John,
Billy discerns that Joe is in need of affection and suggests that he and
Joe celebrate Christmas by getting drunk and watching porn.
Juliet, Peter, and Mark
Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) get married in a
lovely ceremony orchestrated and videotaped by Mark (Andrew Lincoln),
the best man. He promises no funny business on their wedding day, but as
they walk down the aisle as husband and wife, a singer, choir and band
appear performing "All You Need Is Love". Both Juliet and Peter believe
that Mark dislikes her to the point that, when she has a favour to ask,
Peter warns his best friend to be nice. Mark avoids seeing her so he
will not have to show her his taped version of her wedding, but she
stops by one day with a snack hoping to get him to warm to her. She
confesses that she knows they are not close, but asks him to give her a
chance. When asked to show her the tape, he feigns ignorance of where it
is, but Juliet quickly finds it after only a brief search. She pops it
in and at first is happy to see a good picture of her in her wedding
dress as the professionals failed to do so. As the video continues, she
realises it is focused entirely on her and it causes her to stop
talking. Left in an uncomfortable silence, Mark can only blurt out that
he acts that way for "self-preservation" before running out and leaving
her alone. On Christmas Eve, the doorbell rings at Juliet and Peter's
house. She runs down and opens the door, only to find Mark, carrying a
boom box playing Christmas songs and large cue cards. The first one
tells her to tell her husband that it's carol singers. One by one, the
cards confess his love for her. Then he walks away. Juliet runs after
him to give him a quick, innocent kiss and runs back inside.
Jamie and Aurélia
Writer Jamie (Colin Firth) is pushed to Juliet and Peter's wedding by
his girlfriend (Sienna Guillory) as she feigns illness. He returns
between the ceremony and the reception to check on her. Finding his
brother there, at first he believes his explanation, but the reality is
revealed when she yells down to his brother that she wants to have sex a
few more times before Jamie comes back. Crushed by this, Jamie
withdraws to his French cottage where he meets Portuguese housekeeper
Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz) who speaks only her native tongue. Despite their
inability to communicate, they have similar personalities and become
attracted to each other. When Jamie returns to England, he realises he
is in love with Aurélia and begins learning Portuguese. He returns to
France to find her and ends up walking through town, gathering people as
they walk to her job at a restaurant. In his broken Portuguese he
declares his love for her and proposes. She responds, "Thank you. That
will be nice. Yes is being my answer" in broken English as the crowd
erupts in applause.
Harry, Karen, and Mia
Harry (Alan Rickman) is the managing director of a design agency; Mia
(Heike Makatsch) is his new secretary. Harry is comfortably married to
his wife, Karen (Emma Thompson), who stays home to raise their children.
Harry becomes increasingly aroused by Mia's overtly sexual comments and
actions at the office and does nothing to dissuade her. At the company
Christmas party held at Mark's gallery, he not only inquires if Mark is
her boyfriend, but dances closely with her. While at the shops, he calls
Mia to find out what she wants for Christmas and ends up almost caught
by his wife purchasing an expensive necklace from the jewellery
department thanks to the salesman Rufus (Rowan Atkinson). Later on,
Karen discovers the necklace in Harry's coat pocket and happily assumes
it is a gift for her. When he hands her a similarly shaped box to open
on Christmas Eve, she is heartbroken to find it is a Joni Mitchell CD
instead and struggles to hide her pain from her husband and children.
She realises that the necklace was for someone else and asks him what he
would do if he was her and if the supposed affair is just sex or more
than sex (love). When he sees the harm he's done to his wife, he is
truly sorry and calls himself a fool. She responds that not only has he
made a mockery of their marriage but of her and the way she chose to
live her life.
David and Natalie
Karen's brother, David (Hugh Grant), is the recently elected Prime
Minister. Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) is a new junior member of the
household staff at 10 Downing Street and whenever they meet, David
continuously admonishes himself for acknowledging the obvious spark
between them. During a meeting with the U.S. President (Billy Bob
Thornton), they run into Natalie and the president makes some
inappropriate comments to David about Natalie's body. Later, David walks
in on Natalie serving tea and biscuits to the president, and it appears
that something untoward is happening. Natalie seems ashamed, but the
President has a sly grin on his face. Due to this, when he gives his
political speech, David is uncharacteristically assertive while taking a
stand against the President's intimidating policies. Finding that his
relationship with Natalie has become strained and a distraction, David
has her moved to another job. However, he is spurred to action on
Christmas Eve when he finds a Christmas card from Natalie declaring that
she is his and no one else's. After a door to door search of her
street, he comes across Mia, who informs him that Natalie lives next
door. The entire family is on their way out the door to a multi-school
Christmas play and he offers to drive them so he can talk to her. After
Natalie sneaks him in to the school, he runs into his heartbroken sister
who believes he is there for his niece and nephew. As the two try to
keep from being seen and watch the show from backstage, they finally
kiss. All their hiding was for nothing because as the curtain rises,
they are seen kissing by everyone.
Daniel, Sam, Joanna, and Carol
Daniel (Liam Neeson), Karen's friend, mourns the recent death of his
wife Joanna, as he tries to raise his stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster)
alone. Sam has fallen for an American classmate, also named Joanna
(Olivia Olson), and, after discussion with his stepfather, decides to
learn the drums so that he can accompany her in the big finale for their
school's Christmas pageant (the same one that Natalie's nephew and
Karen and Harry's children are in). After Sam feels that he missed his
chance to make an impression on her, Daniel convinces Sam that he must
go catch Joanna, who is returning to the US, at the airport that night
and show her how he feels, lest he regret it for his whole life. Sam
runs away from the airport security and says hi to Joanna, who then
kisses him on the cheek. Meanwhile, Daniel, who previously mentioned
admiring supermodel Claudia Schiffer, meets Carol, played by Schiffer,
the parent of another of Sam's school mates.
Sarah, Karl, and Michael
Sarah (Laura Linney) first appears at Juliet and Peter's wedding,
sitting next to her friend Jamie. She is an American who works at
Harry's graphic design company and has been in love for years with the
company's creative director, Karl (Rodrigo Santoro). For unknown reasons
they admire one another from afar, but neither is willing to make the
first move. They finally connect at the Christmas party and he drives
her home. They kiss but before more could occur, they are interrupted by
her mentally ill brother, Michael, phoning from his residence in a
mental care facility. Sarah and Karl's evening tryst is aborted and Karl
leaves. On Christmas Eve both are working late and, when Karl wishes
her good night, he tries to say more but cannot and only wishes her a
merry Christmas. As he leaves, Michael phones and she spends the night
with him, sharing her Christmas scarf.
Colin, Tony, and the American girls
After several blunders attempting to woo various English women,
including Mia and Nancy (Julia Davis), the caterer at Juliet and Peter's
wedding, Colin Frissell (Kris Marshall) informs his friend Tony (Abdul
Salis) he plans to go to America and find love there, convinced that his
Britishness will be an asset to him in a foreign country. Landing in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Colin meets Stacey (Ivana Miličević), Jeannie
(January Jones), and Carol-Anne (Elisha Cuthbert), three stunningly
attractive women who fall for his Basildon accent and invite him to stay
at their home, where they are joined by roommate Harriet (Shannon
Elizabeth).
John and Judy
John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page) are professional body
doubles for films. They meet for the sex scenes in a film for which Tony
is a production assistant. John tells Judy that "It is nice to have
someone [he] can just chat to." While the two are perfectly comfortable
being naked and simulating sex on-set, they are shy and tentative
off-set. Carefully pursuing a relationship, they attend the Christmas
pageant (involving David and Natalie, Harry and Karen's children, Daniel
and Sam, et al.) at the local school with John's brother.
Rufus
Rufus, played by Rowan Atkinson, is the jewellery salesman, whose
obsessive attention to gift-wrapping nearly results in Harry being
caught buying a necklace for Mia by Karen. Also, it is his distraction
of staff at the airport which allows Sam to sneak through to see Joanna.
In the director and cast commentary, it is revealed that Rufus was
originally supposed to be a Christmas angel; however, this was dropped
from the final script.
Epilogue
The epilogue is set one month later; the relationships of the characters
have continued to evolve. Billy arrives with a gorgeous groupie in tow,
and tells Joe that his successful hit song has caused his comeback.
Juliet, Peter, and Mark meet Jamie and his bride, Aurélia. Karen and the
kids greet Harry, but Karen's reaction suggests that they are
struggling to move past his indiscretion. Sam greets Joanna, who has
returned with her mother from America, and Daniel is joined by his new
girlfriend Carol and her son. Newlyweds John and Judy, heading off to
their honeymoon, run into Tony who is awaiting Colin as he returns from
America. Colin returns with the gorgeous Harriet and her sister Carla
(Denise Richards) who greets Tony with a hug and a kiss. Natalie
aggressively welcomes David back from his flight in view of the press,
indicating that their relationship is now public. These scenes dissolve
into footage of actual arrivals at Heathrow Airport, as the screen is
divided into an increasing number of smaller segments which form the
shape of a heart, as The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" plays on.
