All You Need Is Love
Illustration by Meghan Zhang
Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world,
I think about my favourite movie,
Love, Actually.
Letterboxd will tell you that this is the dumbest, cheesiest move they’ve ever seen, that they couldn’t stop crying along with Emma Thompson to Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell, or that they STILL don’t know what Andrew Lincoln’s plan was if Chiwitel Ejiofor answered the door instead of Keira Knightley. I’m not here to say that anyone is right or wrong, and I’m not here to agree or disagree with anyone's opinions; I am firm in my belief that film is subjective and can mean many different things to many different people.
Love, Actually means something very personal to me.
And it should to you, too.
Every Christmas Eve since I was born, my family has sat down after dinner to watch Love, Actually. Was it a questionable decision on my parent’s part to show this movie to children that young? We’ll never know - I think I turned out fine? Yet, every year, I’m more excited than the last, because as I grow up, I’ve come to realize how important the message of this movie is.
Love actually is all around, if you care to look for it.
Look up from whatever medium you’re reading this article through right now. The person sitting across the room from you - they’re excited to go home next week and see their dog. Or the little kid crossing the street holding their mother’s hand - they love her like she hung the moon and the stars, which for them, she probably did. The person next to you on the phone - they’re talking to their partner, whom they consider their other half. Maybe you’re at home right now, in which case I urge you to look at pictures on your phone, or the framed ones on the wall. The ones of you, your siblings, your friends, your significant other, your grandparents. Love is everywhere, even if we think it isn’t.
This message is so important to me because I know firsthand of the lonely nights from my past, and probably my future, where it feels like love is the one thing we are living without. I’ve yet to experience any real romantic love in my life, and as every Christmas rolls around this fact becomes more poignant by the second. But, in the immortal words of Hugh Grant: “It’s always there. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.” Love, Actually is the most beautiful depiction of this to my stubborn memory. Jamie learns Portuguese so that he can talk to Aurelia, just as Aurelia learns English so that she can talk to him, “just in cases.” Sarah has to give up her whirlwind office romance to care for her brother who loves her, and whom she loves deeply. When Karen’s husband cheats on her, she finds the strength to carry on in the love she has for herself and her children. Billy Mack skips several high profile Christmas parties to spend the holiday with his oldest friend and manager, Joe. For Christ’s sake, Sam runs through Gatwick Airport Terminal 2 to tell Joanna he loves her!
I have the most endless emotional connection with this movie for this reason, and so, so many more that just won’t fit into this one page article or, in fact, a 500 page textbook. This holiday season, be mindful to think of all the love around you. For now, let me say, without hope or agenda - because it’s Christmas, (and on Christmas you tell the truth.)
Love actually is all around.
