I watched Love Actually for the first time as an adult — review | Films | Entertainment

Growing up, I loved watching Christmas movies; they’re filled with festive magic, a loving sense of family and community, and hope or redemption. They can be romantic, comedic, or action-based, but no matter what, the ending left you feeling warm and full of life. As a mid-20-year-old who is briskly approaching their 30s, I refuse to let bleak adulthood take away my rose-tinted glasses for Christmas films. 

However, I recently watched a classic Christmas film for the first time as an adult, and I may have begun losing my festive spirit. After 10 years, I witnessed the toxicity in Love Actually (2003) and have concluded, this is the worst Christmas film of all time. Below, I go into detail about why I think this movie sucks.

Toxic relationships we’re supposed to accept

My main gripe with this movie is the amount of cheating that occurs, and we’re supposed to just accept it because “it’s Christmas.” The main cheating scandal occurs between Harry (played by Alan Rickman), who cheats on his wife, Karen (Emma Thompson), with his younger coworker.

Harry is seen flirting with the “other woman” and even has the audacity to dance with her at his office Christmas party in front of his wife. He then buys her a necklace while the mother of his children gets a CD! Emma then just sucks it up despite her knowledge of the necklace because of her children.

This scene is not what I despise; it is totally valid that Karen did not want to ruin Christmas for her children, and most people initially deal with heartbreak by ignoring (denial) their pain.

According to The Telegraph, who interviewed Emma Thompson, she shared: “That scene where my character is standing by the bed crying is so well known because it’s something everyone’s been through. I had my heart very badly broken by Ken (her then-husband). So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me. Well, it wasn’t exactly that, but we’ve all been through it.”

However, when she confronts him, all he can say is “Oh, God. I am so in the wrong. The classic fool!” To which she replies, “Yes, but you’ve also made a fool out of me, and you’ve made the life I lead foolish, too!” And then they just go back to playing happy families?

At the end of the film, they appeared together, heading “home” from Heathrow Airport. According to Radio Times, Emma Freud, the wife of the writer and director of Love Actually, Richard Curtis, reveals that the pair stayed together.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, someone asked: “@emmafreud, can u please explain the outcome for Emma and Alan’s characters, or must I remain eternally confused? I never did work that one out!” Emma replied: “@JPerlstrom, they stay together, but home isn’t as happy as it once was.”

Has the world gone mad? Why are we normalising cheating? Harry both physically and emotionally cheats on his wife, and we’re just meant to accept it?

Another plot that grinds my gears is the love triangle between Juliet (played by Keira Knightley), Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Mark (Andrew Lincoln). The couple, Juliet and Peter, are newlywedded, and Peter’s best friend, Mark, who is quite cold to Juliet, personally films their wedding.

The professional videographer’s footage is corrupted, and Juliet begs Mark to see what he captured. Caught in a lie, Mark is confronted by Juliet, who finds the recording. It is revealed that Mark only filmed Juliet and not his best friend.

It is very beautiful but strange. Mark then turns up at their house with flash cards, telling Juliet to lie to her husband and pretend it’s carol singers. The sequence then follows of Mark telling Juliet how much he actually likes her and that she is “perfect.”

It ends with Juliet chasing Mark down the street and kissing him. All the while, her husband is sitting at home, none the wiser and we’re just supposed to accept this as cute and endearing? This whole film is toxic!

Boring scenes 

Despite the toxicity, there are some cute and healthy pairings, but they’re awfully boring. One pairing guilty of this is John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page), who are both professional stand-ins who met while performing an intimate scene for a film. Another is Colin’s (Kris Marshall) escapade to America, which is forgettable.

As much as I was rooting for Sarah (Laura Linney) and Karl (Rodrigo Santoro), I felt that the storyline was not given the chance to develop into an important and beautiful conversation, like some of the other couples. Their relationship rather fizzles out instead of discussing issues around mental illness.

I enjoyed the humour artist Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) gave us, and it was nice to see the importance of platonic relationships explored, but again, I could have done without this plot point.

Nonetheless, the film was saved by the romance between Jamie (Colin Firth) and Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz), David (Hugh Grant) and Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), and the paternal relationship of Daniel (Liam Neeson) and Sam (Thomas Brodie-Sangster).

To conclude, yes, Love Actually has some sweet moments and can be incredibly charming, but watching it back as an adult, I wish some of these messages had been thoroughly thought through. I’m afraid the spirit of Christmas or the fact that love is all around could not save me from disliking this movie.