My "Love Actually" story

[emmagrant01]

Before our son was born (and we had more disposable income), DH and I used to go to London every year over Thanksgiving weekend. We usually made almost a week of it, and we'd go to lots of theatre, do some Christmas shopping, and generally have a wonderful time.

On our 2003 trip, we had an evening free one night and decided after dinner to go to one of the cinemas on Leicester Square. We picked a movie that was conveniently about to begin, one I had only heard of because Liam Neeson was in it (and I was in the Star Wars Prequels fandom at the time). That movie, of course, was Love Actually.

To say that we enjoyed it is a huge understatement. The experience of seeing that movie and having no idea what it was about, in London in the midst of the Christmas season, and right after a fantastically romantic dinner at a great restaurant -- it was just perfect. And every time I see it, I remember the night that we saw it for the first time. That was one of the top ten movie-going experiences of my life!

What's your story? What makes that movie so special to you?

Comments

[lalaith-niniel.livejournal.com]

I literally just finished watching the movie before getting on the computer. I'd never watched the deleted scenes and some of them had me cracking up!

I first watched Love Actually my sophomore year in college with a bunch of friends and it became a tradition while we were all together. Now I watch it every year when I wrap presents and remember the good times!

Love Actually

[thorinsmistress.livejournal.com]

I watched "Love Actually" my senior year of college - just after I returned from a year abroad in Ireland. While "Love Actually" is set in England, it helped me to "transition" back to the US without going absolutely bonkers. And I pull it out every Christmas to remember my time across the pond. Plus some nice eye candy, to boot!

[longtimegone]

I saw this movie in a theater in Ft Lauderdale, FL when it came out with my parents and brother and his GF. We enjoyed it a whole lot.

Over the years, it's morphed into the movie my dad and I watch together every Christmas! Which is a bit awkward during the more sexual scenes, but it's always kind of funny and he loves it as much as I do. :D

[nenne.livejournal.com]

That is a lovely memory.

I don't remember my first time watching Love Actually, but to me this has become part of my Holiday tradition. I watch it every year and enjoy it just as much as I did the first time around.

[adamei.livejournal.com]

This pretty much sums up how I feel about Love Actually:

http://thehairpin.com/2011/12/hate-actually/

I love it so much. SO much. I don't remember the time I saw it the first time but now it's an essential part of my holiday traditions. I wrap my gifts with mulled wine and Love Actually :)

[winstonmom.livejournal.com]

I just love the movie!
It is a must watch at Christmas time.....and of course Mr. Darcy is there!

[davidbrider.livejournal.com]

I don't have a specific story about it (except that when I watched it a couple of years ago it made me cry - that scene where Andrew Lincoln is communicating to Keira Knightley with the cards has that effect on me...), but I think it's a lovely film. I love a good romcom anyway, but I think the way it tells several different - but mostly connected - stories through the film is really sweet. I particularly love the Hugh Grant/Martine McCutcheon one, and the Colin Firth one (I don't remember the name of the actress who plays his love interest, but nevertheless; that scene of him trying to propose to her in Portuguese gets me every time).

Lovely film.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I've only seen it once, but it stuck with me. I'm not into romantic comedies at ALL, but sometimes the British ones get under my radar with their spectacular casts.

I was just realizing the other week when there was a meme question going around, "What's your favorite Christmas movie?" and I thought I didn't have many Christmas movies I cared about; I'm fanatic about a number of Christmas specials, like Charlie Brown and the Grinch and nearly every Rankin-Bass show of that era, and there's the made-for-tv George C. Scott Christmas Carol and the Barishnikov/Kirkland Nutcracker. All of those are part of my Christmas tradition (and my Christmas in July tradition, too; I rewatch all of those every summer for fun!), but I don't really have an affinity for Christmas movies. And then I thought, "Wait, Love Actually's a Christmas movie, isn't it?" And I remembered that, yeah, I had really enjoyed that film, hadn't I, and I remembered that I really loved the Bill Nighy plotline best of all, and I got warm fuzzies.

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure there's anything in particular that makes it special to me, although my SO and I did see it together in the cinema the first time (which is a fairly rare occurrence). We are in the middle of watching it now though - about halfway through and may finish tonight. *g*

[marciadanielle.livejournal.com]

I saw it when it first came out in the theatres way back when and saw 3 more times after that. When the dvd came out (this was before I knew what a torrent was) I was working in a bookstore and we got the dvds in the day before the release and I remember begging my manager to let me bring one home a day early so I could watch it again (she did let me!)

It's not so much a memorable first experience, as it's become a holiday tradition to watch it. I'm a big anglophile and I love being able to recognize the landmarks and know that I've been there! (I do the same for movies filmed in Toronto!)

liam love

[lauramcewan.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure we saw it in the theater and then pounced the Dvd. It's our tradition, a movie without the kids.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

I cannot for the life of me remember the first time I saw this, but it's one of 2-3 Xmas DVDs I own and play constantly as background through December while I draw and write Christmas cards, grade papers, wrap gifts, and research. It just sets an awesome fun Christmas mood.

[graysong.livejournal.com]

What makes the movie so special to you?

Carl.


Actually I don't remember the first time I saw it ... I've watched it so many times. One of my all time favorites, even if Sarah and Carl's story is heartbreaking. (I like to imagine a mini sequel where a few years later they get to have a different ending ...)

And now I'm asking myself if I should watch it tonight. Should I?

Thank you. That will be nice. Yes is being my answer. Easy question

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Aww :)

[germankitty]

Heh. I saw that movie at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, MN while my son spent 6 months in the US, to attend High School. Naturally, the subplot/line of dialogue that got the BIGGEST laugh, EVAR was the one with the two teenaged boys going to Wisconsin, of all places, to get laid. :)

It was kind of a strange experience all around; we were a party of five (my son and I, hiS host mother and her two younger daughters). The girls went to see a Disney film (the younger was only 10 or so at the time), Beth and I decided on "Love, Actually" even though we didn't even really know what it was about, and I lied to get my son into "The Matrix 2 (3?)", because at the time he was still 3 months short of his 18th birthday. IIRC, I told the ticket lady that we were tourists and just happened not to carry our passports -- but that I was vouching for my son. Luckily, he resembles me enough not to question that, and he's always been big and tall, so it must've been plausible enough -- he must've been the only underage kid in there who didn't get carded. :)

Afterwards, we also got to explain to the preteen why we didn't want to take her to Hooters. Not a problem to me, as such, but to her somewhat conservative American mother, who regularly sent her daughters to Bible Camp? Yeeaaaahh ... *grins*

[samtastic4.livejournal.com]

i love love actually!!! it makes me smile, and puts me in the perfect mood for the holidays! <3

[justbecause421.livejournal.com]

Love Actually is one of my all time favorite movies (and currently the only one sitting on my bedside table!)

When I was 17 my grandmother sent me to stay with her cousin's in London for a month. it was my first solo overseas trip and the longest I had ever been away from home. It was beyond a doubt one of the best experiences of my life. If my grandmother had made me a bit of an anglophile growing up this trip cemented it (as I suspect was her goal). When my plane took off to bring me back to the States I cried like I was leaving home not returning to it! But before that I sat with my great "uncle" in a terminal at Heathrow chatting and people watching, it's a memory I carry more than 10 years later and fueled the flames of a long standing love of airports. Soooo, when L.A. opened with the airport scene I was pretty much done for right from the start, my the end of the movie I was crying (I still do sometimes)

It's funny that you ask about the first time we saw the movie since I don't think I remember seeing any movie quite so clearly as this (except maybe the 2nd HP movie but that's an even longer story). I was on campus my junior year of college. Ironically I was supposed to be studding abroad in London that semester but when my grandfather feel seriously ill and was hospitalized on the day I was supposed to leave I returned to my home university instead. I remember standing in line at the campus center *by myself* waiting to get into the theater and being on the phone to my best friend at a different university depressed that my school friends were all enjoying their abroad experiences while I was going to end up spending my 21st birthday alone. Against all odds I left HAPPY and bought myself a copy of the DVD asap. (incidentally I ended up not spending my birthday alone and having a really great semester overall- not thanks to the movie, I wouldn't say it's life changing ;) but thinking about that whole time bring back so many memories!!)

[shantismurf.livejournal.com]

What a lovely memory! I'm not sure if I've seen it now that I try to recall...definitely going to the top of my queue!