It’s an annual tradition for some people to watch “Love Actually,” the 2003 Christmas “classic” written and directed by Richard Curtis that puts several seemingly separate love stories together to explain why love actually is all around. (That’s the way the film phrases it, okay?) So, if there’s one line that people remember from this movie, it’s probably one of its famous confessions of love … but let’s back up.
“Love Actually” marries (pun intended) several vignettes about love in different stages (longstanding marriages, the newlywed phase, people flirting in workplaces, you name it), all of which eventually converge, and to call its cast star-studded is … an understatement. Keira Knightley, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Rowan Atkinson, just to name a few, appear in various configurations throughout the film, whether Brodie-Sangster’s youngster Sam is pining after one of his classmates, Linney’s Sarah wants to pursue a relationship with a coworker despite family troubles, Rickman’s Harry considers stepping out on his wife Karen (Thompson), Freeman’s John meets his eventual girlfriend while working as a nude stand-in on a movie, and Grant’s David, the Prime Minister, romances one of his junior staff members. (He also does a very silly dance that Grant was not keen on performing.)
Let’s talk about the love triangle between Ejiofor, Knightley, and Lincoln to illustrate why the love found in “Love Actually” might not be healthy, actually. At the start of the film, Juliet and Peter (Knightley and Ejiofor) have a glorious wedding attended by several of the movie’s other characters … and throughout the festivities, Peter’s best friend Mark (Lincoln) seems sort of miserable. Why? Well, he’s in love with Juliet, which brings us to the quote itself.