<em>Love Actually</em> Is the Least Romantic Film of All Time
I confess that it wasn’t until recently that I understood the degree to which Love Actually, the 2003 romantic comedy by writer/director Richard Curtis, had been gradually reevaluated and granted the status of a “classic” holiday film. For me, the news came by way of a November Vulture piece that began, “It might be hard to recall, but the film that has now become a beloved holiday classic was one that initially received a flurry of mixed reviews.”
My own review was among several cited. I’ve of course always known that my take on Love Actually was more unforgiving than most. But “beloved holiday classic”? Really?
Well yes, evidently. Over the course of several conversations with friends and colleagues, some of them conducted with good cheer but at high volume—I refer interested parties to the Twitter feeds of Atlantic employees on the afternoon of November 20th—it was confirmed to me that a considerable number of people not only consider Love Actually a classic, but go so far as to watch the movie annually as a holiday tradition.
Which is—and please believe that I am being as diplomatic as I can—utterly insane. Begin with the obvious: is not, in fact, a holiday-season movie in any meaningful sense. Yes, it takes place in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and it features a Sisyphean parade of pop yuletide ditties. But this is not a movie about peace on Earth and goodwill toward men (or, for that matter, about what toys Santa will be placing under the tree). Insofar as conveys the spirit of any holiday, that holiday is Valentine’s Day—and, indeed, the film served as a, ) that have since been associated with that date.
