"If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around. "

As much as people rag on Love Actually, it's hard to deny that the opening and closing segments (the later is captured above) of the movie are a superb use of home-video footage.

It is true that people greeting family members/friends at airports is largely joyful (I'm sure there are many fist fights as well, but we can ignore that for right now), so for a movie focused on love, integrating in snippets of real people greeting the ones they love only makes the rest of the fictionalized story more impactful. Plus, it's just a wonderful idea for a feature in a movie - something truly unique that still makes me happy every time I see it.

Much like how an airport brings together many people with many different stories, Love Actually tells numerous integrated stories as well - the guy who loves his best friend's wife, the sister whose responsibility for her brother overpowers her need for a super hot dude, the boss who has a crush on a coworker, a widower, a child with a Titanic level crush, the bloke who is obviously deemed adorable once he comes to America, the spurned writer, the almost cheater, and many more!

The movie has become a modern Christmas classic and has now been integrated into everyone's yearly watching traditions.

I still love the movie as a whole, but now that I've seen it at least once a year for the last 10 years, I've picked out certain moments that really make re-watching it truly worthwhile.




Nearly everyone would agree that, hands down, this is the saddest moment in the whole movie, but the scene is elevated by a legendary song and Emma Thompson's ability to convey emotions through every inch of her body. Her simple movements are subtle and heartbreaking. Plus, don't even get me started about her, "you make the life I lead foolish too," speech that happens later on! Good acting people, it goes a long way. Thompson might have been given a sad story line, but she sure makes it a memorable one.

Everyone melts into a puddle over the scene with Rick Grimes holding up all those cue cards - it's a solid scene, but I'd rather watch the two devastating story lines acted out by two bitchin' broads any day of the week.

Thompson and Laura Linney are awesome (duh) and Linney finds herself entangled with Rodrigo Santoro. She's very excited (as are the rest of us):

That reaction shot is still one of the cutest things of all time.

Alas, in the movie it doesn't work out between those two, but, I'm not gonna lie, I've imagined that eventually Santoro's character decides to not be bothered by all the phone calls and gives her another chance. Maybe even goes with her to visit her brother? It could happen! Yes, I've thought about this often.

There's also Hugh Grant dancing through the Prime Minister's mansion, Colin Firth not quite learning Portuguese, and many more memorable moments. But as Mark says after finally getting kissed by Keira Knightley: "Enough. Enough now."

Until next time.