YMMV / Love Actually

• Adorkable: Given this trope's prevalence in romantic comedies and this movie's wide assortment of couples, it was bound to get a few.
  • Jamie, as to be expected of Colin Firth, with his horribly broken Portuguese only making his proposal even more endearing.
  • Aurelia also applies due to her responding to the above mentioned proposal with her own joyfully broken English.
  • If David's hilariously groovy dance moves don't make him apply, then his awkward pursuit of Natalie throughout her entire neighborhood does.
  • Natalie herself, with her Cluster F-Bomb introduction to David being just the right amount of uncomfortable and charming to make him fall for her.
  • Sarah's hopeless feelings for Karl and squeeing when it looks like they'll get together fit their trope to a T. The teddy bear helps as well.
  • John and Judy manage to pull this on each other, bonding right away, even though they're in the rather uncomfortable position of being body doubles for sex scenes. There's also when Judy says "All I want for Christmas is you" to John, who responds with his own leap of joy.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Is Sarah's storyline suggesting that duty to your family is more important than romance? Or that family love is just as important as romantic love?
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Harry and Karen separate at the end of the movie or decide to brave on? And we never find out how far Harry went with his secretary. As Karen points out, she doesn't know if it "was it just a necklace, or sex and a necklace, or, worse of all, love and a necklace?" According to Emma Freud (Richard Curtis's partner and the film's script editor), Harry full on cheated but he ultimately stayed with Karen, albeit in a strained marriage. This even goes unanswered in the Red Nose Day sequel, due to Alan Rickman's death the previous year.
  • Karl. He's supposed to be this really nice guy, but he treats Sarah more like a one-night-stand than anything else. Also is their final scene meant to be Sarah deciding not to pursue a relationship, or is she simply putting it on hold until she has more time?
    • Does he really treat her like a one-night stand, though? He seems pretty hurt when she tells her brother she's not busy while she's with him, and he's the one who approaches her at the Christmas party. If anything, it seems like he thought she wanted only a one-night stand, or he recognizes that her brother comes first and she isn't emotionally available for a relationship. He cordially greets her at work even after the whole escapade, so it's not like he totally ignores her later.
  • Every single relationship in the movie. Since Mark is still in love with Juliet, it's possible that his friendship with Peter will deteriorate. Jamie and Aurelia barely know each other - a marriage that may possibly fail. Ditto for John and Judy. David and Natalie are from very different backgrounds and it could be that their relationship won't last because of his job, if you want to be as pessimistic as possible about it.
  • In the original screenplay, Rowan Atkinson's character was a kind of "Christmas angel" who dropped in. Since most of his scenes were cut, in the actual movie it seems more like he is just a random Troll who comes out of nowhere and aids the cause of love by tricking people because it's fun.
  • Sam's crush on Joanna is presented as nothing but adorable, but the fact he states his reason for being in love with her as " she's the most popular girl in school", can come across as rather shallow. At least Joanna does appear genuinely sweet when Sam does interact with her towards the ending.
• Awesome Music:
  • There are three main love themes in the movie, all of which are great:
    • The Glasgow Love Theme, a very poignant, lovely piece on piano.
    • The Portuguese Love Theme, a subtle, romantic tune.
    • Last but not least, the Prime Minister's Love Theme, a soaring, exciting orchestral piece which occasionally becomes Recycled Trailer Music.
  • "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell is a touching song that represents Karen's story perfectly.
  • "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys sets just the right mood to end the film.
  • The Beatles' "All You Need is Love" from Peter and Juliet's wedding, as performed by everyone who attended the wedding.
  • Eva Cassidy and Norah Jones, with "Songbird" and "Turn Me On", respectively.
  • The Pointer Sisters' "Jump (for My Love)" is perfect for the Prime Minister's moment of glory.
  • Olivia Olson's performance of "All I Want For Christmas Is You". And she could actually sing it even better, except that Richard Curtis worried that people would assume she was dubbed so he instructed her to insert breath pauses she didn't really need.
• Base-Breaking Character: The American girls. Some people don't care for them since they come across as total airheads who completely fall into Colin's stereotypical view of them. But others find their scene to be humorous in its sheer absurdity.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The rather random scene where David decides to do a dance around 10 Downing Street to "Jump" by The Pointer Sisters. It seems a little out of character for him, and Hugh Grant dislikes it for this reason. It also adds nothing to the overall narrative. There is a small callback to this scene with the instrumentals to "Jump" playing again when David finally goes after Natalie - we can guess the song is meant to represent David following his heart instead of his duty.
• Broken Aesop: The beginning montage of the movie, along with Hugh Grant's narration, talks about all the different kinds of love there is; familial love being as prominent as romantic love. In the film proper, however, while friends and family members interact in the background or as side-plots, the main relationships focused on are all romantic and/or sexual, and the one familial relationship that gets a main focus is Sarah with her mentally challenged brother, which only serves as a negative aspect of her life that apparently ruins her chance for a relationship with Karl. The film Book Ends with another montage of friends and family hugging as well as couples, which at that point can make viewers who had expected familial love to be just as much of a focus to feel a tad snubbed.
• Broken Base: The Colin subplot of him going to America hoping to score with the girls there. Half the base finds it rather misogynistic and a bit too parodic in tone compared to the movie's mostly grounded nature. Others find it funny however.
  • The Mark and Juliet storyline is either seen as touching or outright creepy.
• Common Knowledge:
  • Many viewers mistake John and Judy for actors in a porn movie. They're actually supposed to be stand-ins/body doubles for a regular movie that just happens to include a lot of sex scenes. In one of their first scenes John mentions that he was once the stand-in for Brad Pitt.
  • Mark's climactic stunt with the cards is often attacked as a creepy stalker move, and trying to emotionally blackmail Juliet into sleeping with him, with even Andrew Lincoln himself saying years later he was uncomfortable with it. This ignores that one of the cards actually specifically says he's doing it "without hope or agenda," and it's portrayed as him simply needing to get it off his chest so he can move on and find his own happiness.
• Crosses the Line Twice: For those who actually like the Colin subplot, the sheer absurdity of all these knockout women instantly falling for him based entirely on his accent can be quite humorous if you don't take it too seriously.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Jamie and Aurelia seem to be the favourite couple among fans thanks to showing how love goes beyond a shared language and having such an Adorkable engagement.
  • For many, Billy Mack simply steals the film due to his wonderfully sarcastic wit, the fact that he comes out on top by just being honest, and ultimately being a good guy in the end. Bill Nighy's hilarious and endearing performance earned him a well deserved Bafta.
  • Sam and Joanna are well-liked for being adorable, with his pursuit of her in the airport being by far one of the most beloved moments in the film. And Olivia Olsen's singing doesn't hurt.
  • Much like his stepson, Daniel is also well liked since he's great dad to Sam who selflessly supports him throughout his entire courtship of Joanna.
  • Karen is pretty popular thanks to her powerhouse scene where she breaks down crying over Harry's possible affair, only to buck up and stay strong for the sake of her children and wait to call him out when they're alone. Emma Thompson's work even earned her a Bafta nomination.
  • Mark also counts due to his iconic cue cards scene, where he romantically explains his outed feelings to Juliet while also caring for and respecting her and Peter enough to never dare making a move.
  • David the Prime Minister applies because of his Adorkable nature which doesn't stop him from being a strong politician and patriot. Additionally, Natalie also fits into this trope since she's a great match for him and a very humorous and sweet character.
• Fanon: It's common for fans to assume Jamie and his brother are half-siblings, with different dads, as they don't look at all alike. Some viewers assume that the brother doesn't appear when Jamie arrives at the family Christmas, but he is present at the very back of the room.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Liam Neeson plays a man whose wife has recently died. His performance at the funeral especially is very hard to watch after his wife Natasha Richardson's sudden death by accident, especially since they didn't have "a long time to prepare for this moment."
  • The scene in which Billy Mack appears on television with Ant and Dec and comes out with the immortal line for the kids "Here's an important message from your Uncle Bill. Don't buy drugs. Become a pop star, and they give you them for free." Ant stands next to Billy, looking visibly shocked. Ant would later spend time in 2018 in rehab for drug and alcohol problems, albeit prescription ones.
• He Really Can Act: Billy Bob Thornton is often seen as an odd choice for playing the President of the United States, but viewers agree that in the film proper he fits the role perfectly and his presence in the cast is in no way distracting.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Emma Thompson plays Liam Neeson's friend, who comforts him over the death of his wife. She would do the same in real life after Natasha Richardson's passing.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Billy's storyline mirroring Rage Against the Machine getting the Christmas number one six years later.
  • Sam and Joanna's actors do voices for the cartoon Phineas and Ferb... as a boy and the older girl he has a crush on. Possibly an intentional Actor Allusion. And for added flavor, their characters end up together in the Distant Finale.
  • The Prime Minister's first name is David and he is implied to be Tory - and the film was released well before anyone could have realised David Cameron would become the next Tory PM.
  • Mark's card message includes a picture of a mummified corpse. Andrew Lincoln later became the lead star of The Walking Dead. Also, try watching the aforementioned TV series's first two seasons while remembering how Mark loves his best friend's wife.
  • Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson play brother and sister. This is hilarious if you've seen them playing lovers in a film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Also there is the exact inversion, since Alan Rickman here plays her husband, while in Sense and Sensibility he was her (future) brother-in-law.
  • Colin Firth's fiancée is told by her sister "go to England so you can marry Prince William." Fast forward to The King's Speech, where Firth plays Prince William's great grandfather.
  • Laura Linney on the phone to her brother says, "I'm sure [the Pope] is very good at exorcism." Two years later, she stars in The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
  • Liam Neeson's character puts Titanic (1997) on to provide emotional support for Sam, which is funny when you know he later went on to play Leonardo DiCaprio's dad in Gangs of New York.
  • It's funny when Billy ruminates on being a washed-up rock star in his fifties, when his character Ray in Still Crazy famously throws a tantrum about being fifty during the movie. In fact, his role as Ray is what got him cast in this movie as Billy.
  • Emma Thompson gives Thomas Brodie Sangster's father advice on how to deal with him. She later has a more direct role in doing so in the Nanny McPhee series, though said father is played by Colin Firth (Jamie).
  • Richard Curtis later wrote Yesterday (2019), in which the Beatles never existed. Upon the film's release, he admitted he never considered how this would prevent Mark's big gesture of having the audience play "All You Need is Love" at the wedding, and he now figures the entire movie doesn't exist in that world.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Natalie is constantly ragged on (pretty much by everyone but David) for being a fat cow. She clearly isn't. David acts just as puzzled and annoyed by this fallacy as the audience does. Interestingly, several years before the film was made, the British media was obsessed with Martine McCutcheon's weight. There was a considerable public backlash against certain aspects of UK media claiming she was fat. This storyline feels like a huge Take That! parody of that event and the media attitudes surrounding it. What a cow◊.
• Ho Yay: Billy and Joe. Their storyline represents platonic love between friends, but naturally people like to read more into it. Especially since the film (outside Deleted Scenes) doesn't include any explicitly homosexual characters.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Even people who don't like the film agree that Bill Nighy makes it worthwile. It helps that his storyline doesn't involve the others, so it can be enjoyed without missing anything.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The scene with Mark and his cards for Juliet is often used, replacing his notes with other messages, including by Boris Johnson in the 2019 election campaign.
  • "After all these years, I still won't forgive Alan Rickman for buying that tart from his office a gold necklace."
• Narm: Judy turning to John and saying, "All I want for Christmas... is you!" Even Martin Freeman looks a little baffled by how awkward that line is.
• Narm Charm: Sure, the movie's sentimentally can more than border on sappy, but it's all backed up by enough clever writing and strong performances that it works.
  • Judy declaring to John "All I want for Christmas is you" is indeed awkward, but the delivery and Martin Freeman's reaction implies they were going for uncomfortable laughs there. And the moment is still rather sweet, seeing the only couple with no drama making their feelings clear.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Rowan Atkinson of course as someone who just Trolls Harry at the checkout. He appears briefly towards the end to let Sam get through airport security, but he sure is memorable.
  • Despite being a major motivation for Sam, Joanna doesn't physically appear until the concert. But damn if Olivia Olsen's awesome rendition of "All I Want For Christmas" doesn't make her one of the most memorable parts of the film. Even with her extensive voice acting resume, she's still recognised for her work as Joanna.
  • Their segment of the film is definitely divisive, but the American girls Colin meets are still quite memorable for their one scene in spite of, or because of that.
• Popularity Polynomial: Keira Knightley commented on this, saying that the film initially did well but not as well as the filmmakers would have hoped. It was met with So Okay, It's Average responses in America at first. Then a few years later its popularity grew until it was considered a Christmas tradition in some households.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Billy Bob Thornton as the U.S. President. Even weirder, it works.
  • It seems odd that they cast Keira Knightley as Juliet, considering she was only eighteen and playing a woman who gets courted by two men several years older than she. While she didn't look that young, it seems like a strange casting choice.
  • Keira Knightley (Juliet) during filming? Barely turned 18. Andrew Lincoln (Mark)? 29.
• Retroactive Recognition: The film is quite famous for this, especially in the UK where two thirds of the main cast later became big stars and recognisable names in acting:
  • Andrew Lincoln later became even more famous for his starring role in The Walking Dead.
  • Likewise, Chiwetel Ejiofor started appearing in films such as Serenity, The Martian, and of course his Oscar-nominated performance in 12 Years a Slave.
  • Kris Marshall would later find fame in appearing as Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman in Death in Paradise.
  • Olivia Olson, who plays Sam's love interest Joanna, would later be best known as Marceline the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time and Vanessa Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb.
  • Keira Knightley was no big name when the movie was filmed, although Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl gave her much notice that previous summer in 2003 (Love Actually came out at the end of the year). Prior to 2003 she was known only as "that girl from Bend It Like Beckham" (or alternatively, as Natalie Portman's In-Universe body double in The Phantom Menace).
  • Sam is now very recognizable as Jojen Reed. Or else Newt... Oh, and Ferb, too.
  • Jeanie is Betty Draper. She also shows up in another Richard Curtis work, The Boat That Rocked, as Eleanor.
  • Carol Anne had some fame as Kim Bauer on 24, but she would soon become a 2000s sex symbol with The Girl Next Door (2004).
  • Martin Freeman to American audiences, as in his home country he was known enough for The Office (UK). Sherlock and The Hobbit later catapulted him to international fame.
  • Sienna Guillory has a small part as Jamie's wife, who cheats on him with his brother. She would later be best known as Jill Valentine in the Resident Evil Film Series.
• Ron the Death Eater: Mark gets hit with this a lot, mostly due to misinterpreting some of the scenes. While taping only Juliet at the wedding is incredibly voyeuristic, a few viewers mistakenly thought he was the official videographer (he wasn't, and the only reason Juliet sees the video is that the one she paid for didn't turn out well). He doesn't actually stalk her and in fact keeps his distance precisely because he doesn't want to mess up her relationship with Peter. The stunt with the cards is him resolving to try to move on from this obsession because he knows how unhealthy it is.
• The Scrappy:
  • Mia. Not only is she a Flat Character, but she casually mentions in a Deleted Scene, "I'm thinking of having an affair with my boss," with apparently no thought to how it will hurt him or his family. It's especially callous when you see the scene with Karen sobbing quietly in the bedroom after she's discovered Harry's infidelity. And what's even worse? She's sobbing quietly so the kids won't hear her. Ironically, she's the one who sets it up for David and Natalie to get together.
  • Colin doesn't endear himself to modern audiences for naturally assuming that American girls are easy and will sleep with whatever English guy tries to seduce them, regardless of any other qualities.
• Song Association:
  • It's fair to say that Hugh Grant as a sexy Prime Minister dancing at 10 Downing Street will pop in the mind of many people whenever they hear The Pointer Sisters' "Jump (for My Love)".
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The woman David is in love with lives right next door to the woman trying to steal his sister's husband. Absolutely nothing is done with this.
  • Colin's subplot could've had the situation play out realistically, where his moronic and insensitive feelings towards women are proven wrong and he realizes that he should better himself, rather than getting served beautiful American women on a platter.
    • Additionally, Colin's ending may have worked better if it didn't include his scene at the bar and instead just showed him arriving at the airport with his new hot girlfriend and her sister, which would've given it more comedic shock value and not showing how they got together would've given the situation more ambiguity, rather than making the women he gets with look like Brit crazy morons.
• Toy Ship: Sam and Joanna. Not too bad, because they're about eleven. Given what Sam does to actually make this canon. (His dad drives him to the airport, he uses a distraction to sneak past the boarding gate, jumps over a guard through a metal detector, gets chased to the boarding gates, uses another distraction to get through the final check, and then speaks to her before getting carted away), he probably earned it. And the small kiss he receives after makes it all the sweeter.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The film is easy to date to the early 2000s. Primarily, Billy Mack's entire storyline is based around releasing a track and getting to the top of the Christmas Top 40 music charts (a very big deal in the British music business). The problem is that the next year, The X Factor started and between 2005 and 2008^note and again in 2010 and 2013, the winners of that show has always gotten the UK Number One. Also, it's from when Ant and Dec were still working on children's television. Billy Mack's rival for Christmas Number One is Boy Band Blue who took a hiatus not long after this film. The American president is also a No Celebrities Were Harmed composite of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Additionally, the reference to the September 11th terrorist attacks in the opening narration seems more and more jarring as time goes on, especially to non-Brits who aren't familiar with the pop cultural references in the Billy Mack storyline.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Many think that Colin's happy ending feels pretty unearned. While the other protagonists are well-meaning, likable people who have to work towards their happy endings, Colin comes across as perverted, shallow, rude, and creepy. He has a noticeably dim view of women, believing that all the Brits who reject him are just stuck up prudes, not considering that his flirtations are the problem, and he believes that American women are idiots who will sleep with him just because of his accent. Rather than getting a reality check of any kind, he's ultimately proven right, when he instantly comes across three women way out of his league who instantly go gaga over him for no reason other than his accent, resulting in a four-way, and later getting a relationship with at least one other beautiful woman, very likely for the same reason. So ultimately, Colin gets rewarded for his unenlightened and condescending world view, going through no positive Character Development or genuine struggles in the process.
• Values Dissonance:
  • It's been only a week since Daniel's wife died, and his best friend tells him not to be mopey because nobody will want to shag him. To American audiences this might sound harsh, but it's a pretty accurate portrayal of British morbid humor, as well as Karen trying to treat Daniel normally instead of tiptoeing around him and making him feel worse.
  • Present day viewers will likely be put off by how the film portrays Natalie as having to apologize for the President making a move on her, completely against her will.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The film, at first, seems like a nice little family Christmas movie that could be fun to take the kids to, and even gets frequently aired on ABC Family. But then there's the subplot with two stand-ins for a sex scene in a movie (complete with nudity) and an implied fivesome with four American girls and one British guy. And the F-words. And several restrained but emotionally intense scenes about a superficially happily-married father of elementary-school aged children whose wife finds he's having an affair with another woman. To make matters worse, it's rated "for all ages" in Spain and the Netherlands! To be fair, if the subplot with the movie stand-ins was removed, the movie would be a lot tamer. The fivesome is shown only briefly in silhouette, the cursing isn't anything kids haven't heard before by middle school, and the emotional part of the affair subplot would likely go over kids' heads.
• The Woobie: A lot of the characters are easy to feel sorry for.
  • Daniel and Sam for losing their wife/mother.
  • Sarah, who is so dedicated to her mentally ill brother that it hinders her personal life
  • Karen for getting cheated on and lied to by her husband.
  • Mark for having to hide the fact that he is in love with his best friend's wife.
  • Jamie for getting cheated on by his girlfriend, with his brother no less...

---