Love Actually is…

(30 Days of Truth – Day 20 – Discuss your favorite movie and why it’s important to you)

Have you ever watched a movie that, when the credits roll, leaves you feeling like you’ve just run a 100-yard dash through a sand trap? Have you ever spent 135 minutes wiping away tears of sadness and laughter simultaneously? For me, this is Love Actually and this happens every time I watch. Love Actually is a one of those movies filled with complicated, intertwining relationships where the telling of multiple stores culminates in the end with everyone coming together in a big closing scene. This movie is funny and sad and everything in between. It’s filled with people falling in and out of love and people hoping to be loved. It’s a movie that celebrates the loss of a beloved wife and mother. It leaves you agonizing over a love that can never be realized and it fills your heart with giddy elation when the boy finally gets the girl.

As much as the stories in the movie move me, it’s really the accompanying soundtrack and musical score by Craig Armstrong that invokes my extreme rush of emotions. As much as I would love to describe in great detail how this movie makes me feel, I just don’t think I’m capable of it. And to make matters worse, I watched the movie AGAIN tonight and now I just want to take my ‘all is right with the world’ arse to bed. I thought it would provide me with mounds of inspiration and the words would just start flowing but it had the complete opposite effect. I’m sitting here and can’t think of a thing to say. I’ve experienced emotional overload and now I just need sleep. However, I don’t want to leave you hanging. Besides, these clips and these quotes will do more justice than any silly words I write here.

I’ll start with the official trailer for the movie.

One of my absolute favorite scenes and by far my favorite movie quote of all time comes from 11 year old Sam. Sam is in love with a girl at school but he thinks she doesn’t know he exists. This is dialogue between him and his step father.

Daniel: So what’s the problem, Sammy-o? Is it just Mum, or is it something else? Maybe… school – are you being bullied? Or is it something worse? Can you give me any clues at all?
Sam: You really want to know?
Daniel: I really want to know.
Sam: Even though you won’t be able to do anything to help?
Daniel: Even if that’s the case, yeah.
Sam: Okay. Well, the truth is… actually… I’m in love.
Daniel: Sorry?
Sam: I know I should be thinking about Mum all the time, and I am. But the truth is, I’m in love and I was before she died, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Daniel: [laughs] Aren’t you a bit young to be in love?
Sam: No.
Daniel: Oh, well, okay… right. Well, I mean, I’m a little relieved.
Sam: Why?
Daniel: Well, because I thought it would be something worse.
Sam: [incredulous] Worse than the total agony of being in love?

Tell me that’s not the most adorable line ever spoken by a kid in a movie!

This is a compilation of scenes I found on YouTube that, in my opinion, truly conveys the level of sadness felt thoughout the movie by some of the characters.

In this scene, Mark uses written messages to confess to his best friend’s wife, Juliet, that he loves her. This is the definition of romance.

And who doesn’t absolutely love Hugh Grant?!?

The first time I watched this movie I honestly believed that love, real love, did not exist. I remember the feeling I got when I turned the movie off at the end. It was a feeling of hope and that all I have to do is look around. “Love actually is…all around.”