Few Christmas movies are as universally beloved as “Love Actually.”
Everyone knows someone, if not many, who cite it as their favorite holiday movie, and maybe it’s time to ask why.
That seems to be the question on many people’s minds after a 2020 Twitter thread breaking down the movie’s weirdest points went viral again.
It resurfaces just in time to underscore what so many of us have already known since the movie was released in 2003.
“Love Actually” is absolutely insane!
Here are all the problematic aspects of “Love Actually” that are often overlooked.
1. Nothing says Christmas like inappropriate working relationships.
Let’s start where a Twitter user, George Fox, with the character played by Hugh Grant.
Grant plays the British Prime Minister in the film – which is great – even Prime Ministers should be able to celebrate Christmas!
Except that Grant’s story is centered on the fact that he falls in love with the young assistant who brings him his tea.
Or, as Fox so eloquently put it, he wants to “hog the help”.
It’s the kind of Christmas hijinx that would be a one-way ticket to a resignation speech these days.
2. Throughout “Love Actually”, Natalie is often shamed and bullied because of her weight.
Worse still, the assistant in question, Natalie, is repeatedly called fat, mocked by one of the Prime Minister’s right-hand women as having ‘HUGE thighs’ and legs ‘the size of tree trunks. “.
Here’s what she looks like:
If you are nostalgic for the good old days of insane and unattainable standards of beauty, we have the film for you!
The rest of the movie is surely normal, beautiful, uplifting and heartfelt, isn’t it? LOL. No.
3. The men in “Love Actually” are not allowed to cry, even if their wife has just died.
Quick question: what would you do if your spouse had just died, leaving you to raise a child on your own, and your friend told you that *the day after your wife’s funeral*?
If you said something like “push her headfirst into the bowl of eggnog” or “sob until I pass out,” congratulations: you’re a normal person with normal emotional boundaries!
Who You Are Not is the character in this film, whose sadism cannot be overstated.
4. Speaking of boundaries, does anyone in “Love Actually” understand the codes of friendship?
While we’re on the subject of sadism, let’s talk about this guy, Mark, who in real life would be the subject of an eight-part Netflix true-crime documentary series.
Mark is desperately in love with Juliette, his best friend’s wife.
We find out via a wedding video Mark filmed for them that only features shots of Juliet, producing video that looks like something was found hidden under the floorboards of a recently apprehended serial killer’s house.
It’s no wonder actor Andrew Lincoln himself was nervous about taking on the role he described as “a creepy stalker.”
Especially given the scene in which he shows up at Juliet’s house unannounced to profess his undying love on a set of cue cards.
Listen, there’s a reason YouTube has multiple iterations of this scene recut to look like a horror movie.
Oh too? Keira Knightley was 17 when this film was made. Merry Christmas!
Speaking of bizarre male-female relationships, how about the love story centered around Colin Firth’s character?
5. “Love Actually” wants us to see even more inappropriate relationships in Colin Firth’s story.
Firth plays an underdog writer named Jamie who hires a housekeeper named Aurelia.
Naturally, he instantly falls in love, although he cannot communicate with her in any way because she only speaks Portuguese.
He then proposes to Aurelia a few days later, though he never had a conversation with her because of everything she doesn’t speak English.
And to our surprise and admiration, Aurelia says yes – after her father consents of course, delighted with what he thinks is a deal to sell his daughter into slavery. Yes, slavery.
Nothing says romance and holiday joy like indentured bondage!
6. ‘Love Actually’ doesn’t believe in airport security.
But as completely crazy as it all sounds, it doesn’t take into account how this film ends – with an eight-year-old boy named Sam walking through Heathrow airport to kiss his crush, jumping the barriers of safety as obstacles. – just two years after 9/11, we might add.
By now, the descent into madness that preceded the making of this film should be inevitably clear.
But just in case you need to point out how deranged “Love Actually” is, consider that in its original version, Sam was… why… a trained gymnast who dominates airport security with the power of gymnastics.
Fox summed it all up best in the conclusion of his Twitter thread.
Yes, this movie is a threat to everything we hold dear – and I’m still going to end up watching it for the millionth time this month.
None of us live up to the craziness of “Love Actually” at the end – it’s tradition, after all!
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.