How Love Actually Ruined Christmas (ePub)

"Love Actually" is a movie I could (and did) watch again several times. Maybe not every year, but surely every third year I would say. And until now I found nothing wrong with that, or the movie itself.

Reading this book made me see some things in a different light. To be honest, I have never noticed the casual misogyny before. And while I don't agree on all the examples the author brings for that here, I do see his point.

Some things I just haven't questioned as much as the author does, for example how unappropriate it is when your boss tells you to finally make a move on the hot co-worker. But on the other hand - this is the only scene that makes me see Alan Rickman's character as a 'nice guy'. In all his other scenes he is looking a bit like Grumpy from "Snow White", and Gary Raymond is completely right when he writes that "he's looked narrow-eyed the entire film". I have never realised that before, but it's so true!

Gary Raymonds dismantles the whole film, scene by scene. And in almost every one of them he finds something at fault. It's just like when you know that you don't (want to) like something and then you are looking for every tiny tittle that supports your theory. Sometimes he has a point, but often it's just overdone in my opinion. For example complaining that all the people in the movie are WASPs, which firstly is not true and secondly it's like complaining that in "The Full Monty" are no wealthy characters or in "Trainspotting" no clean ones.

Although I didn't agree on everything he critizes, I still liked reading Raymonds thoughts on the movie, because he writes in a very entertaining and often sarcastic way. And I do question some of the things now. I also have to agree that the movie is not really about Christmas that much! It's just set in the weeks leading up to that and features only a few Christmassy things: a Christmas song, Christmas shopping, a Christmas Office Party and the Christmas concert + nativity play at school. Not so much after all...

Nevertheless, I'm sure I will watch this movie again (and again, and probably again after that).