MovieChat Forums > Love Actually (2003) Discussion > surprised how disgusted i was by this mo...

surprised how disgusted i was by this movie

posted 9 years ago by trippycheez
39 replies | jump to latest

I put this on thinking it would be just a light-hearted, sweet, fun film. I remember how much everyone loved it when it came out.

But it turned out to be AWFUL. I'm trying to work through my visceral reaction against this movie. I just hated so much.

There are three main reasons:

(1) The movie is not about love, it's about infatuation. "Love" here is framed as sex or initiating a grand gesture to be with a person you barely know. Long-term relationships don't come out well at all. One man's wife dies and then is barely mentioned again by him or her son, and by the end he seems to have found a new lady to replace her. Another man apparently cheats on his wife for little reason and risks wrecking his family. The just-married couple is perhaps happy, but the main storyline with them is the best friend who is in love with the bride. Overall I'm not seeing deep "love" here... not even a fun rom-com type love. Just random hookups and empty infatuations. Depressing.

(2) The Sept. 11 framing. I just winced so much with the opening lines about Sept. 11, then the final scene in an airport... Ugh! So cheesy! "In a post 9/11 world, what we need is a British Christmas movie about various shallow forms of love." Why!

(3) CHRISTMAS. the characters keep saying things like, "well, it's christmastime, so we need to enact our love now!" WHY! do people actually associate christmas with romance? i imagine for most folks, it's a time to hang out with your family. it can be magical in a kind of child-like sense. but in the movie it's framed as some sort of special day when you have to tell a random person you've never talked to before that you love them, the end.

I did like the plot line with the aging rock star. He hit just the right note. Otherwise... yick.

[–] lilactime2014 9 years ago

Gosh you sound like a big, dull dud!

It's only a film, not Kafka's Motorbike.

'tler

[–] prplayer 8 years ago

putrid movie, the people making it seems to have no clue how to portray love, they were so far off it's not even funny anymore

if they where going for a sweet, romantic movie then they failed spectacularly

so many movies, so little time

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

They weren't going for a sweet romantic movie, they were going for showing a lot of different kinds of relationships, some of which work out, and some of which don't.

[–] SnapCrackledThePop 8 years ago

You missed the whole message of the movie

[–] Mr_fizzlepop 8 years ago

You missed the whole message of the movie

Oh, thank you for knowing the whole message of the movie because I really would like to know what it was, so if you could just tell us the whole message so we're clear on what the movie was trying to convey, that would be great.

If You're Failing to Plan,
You're Planning to Fail.

[–] MovieKnut 8 years ago

Really? Watching it now. It's not Christmas until this has been shown on tv.

You can't palm off a second-rater on me. You gotta remember I was in the pink!

[–] Luke_was_a_terrorist 8 years ago

So a Christmas movie about love and romance DISGUSTED you? Really?

I think you're the opposite of paranoid, I think you walk around with the delusion people like you.

[–] jim-85613 8 years ago

Okay you got to write down your hateful rant. I think most normal people would disagree with you. I know I do.

I loved the movie. I thought it was sweet and quiet funny at times. I really liked the characters and actors. I am an American and I trully enjoyed this English flick.

[–] priceonmyhead 8 years ago

I'm with OP. This movie was terrible! The characters were so fake. The plotlines so contrived and boring. Ew!

[–] pepetoony (1780) 5 years ago

I agree...I just came away from this movie thinking, "Wow--straight people sure are horny for each other! Like a bunch of rabbits in heat!"