Love Actually Movie with Hugh Grant
LOVE ACTUALLY MOVIE
Love Actually movie was filmed in 2003. It’s a British romantic comedy that starts at 5 weeks before Christmas and does a weekly countdown. The movie’s opening and closing scenes are at Heathrow Airport in London. The airport scenes are of real people greeting loved ones. The film crew spent a week at the airport filming and got permission to feature some of the travelers.
The word “actually” was spoken 22 times by different characters in the film according to IMDb trivia.
There are 10 separate love stories told in the movie with a lot of them being intertwined as the movie progresses.
Hugh Grant narrates the Love Actually movie opening at the airport: “Whenever I get gloomy about the state of the world, I think of the arrival gate at Heathgrow Airport. The general consensus is we live in a world full of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. Love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, and old friends. When the plane hit the twin towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from people on board were messages of hate or revenge, they were messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.”
I loved the romantic house in Portugal where Colin Firth playing Jamie Bennett lives while writing a book after he finds his girlfriend in bed with his brother. It was for sale and I wanted to share the real house with you, but it’s no longer available.
Jamie Bennet hires Aurelia (Lucia Moniz) as a maid. She speaks Portuguese and he English. Neither of them knows what the other is saying that does not stop them from falling in love.
Triva is that this pond where Colin Firth sits writing and the scene where he and maid Aurelia (Lucia Moniz) jump in the water to retrieve his writing papers is only 18 inches deep so they were on their knees in the water. It was full of mosquitoes and Firth had bites so bad to his elbow he needed medical attention.
Nevermind that, this is romance in a foreign land and one of my fav couples in the movie. The favorite part of Jamie’s day is driving Aurelia home and she says…
Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) were in a love triangle. They were married in a beautiful ceremony, but Peter’s best friend and best man Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is in love with Juliet.
After failing to woo any stuffy British women, fun boy Colin (Kris Marshall) believes American girls will fall for him as soon as they hear his British accent. Colin flies to the state of Wisconsin finding love at a bar in Milwaukee. His ladies are played by – left to right – Elisha Cuthbert, January Jones and Ivana Millicevic along with not pictured Shannon Elizabeth
Aging rock star Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) changes the words of his hit Love Is All Around to Christmas Is All Around in an effort to have the number one Christmas song. The song does win best Christmas song. Billy can spend Christmas partying with Elton John, but chooses to spend it with his long time manager who he realizes cares about him the most.
Sometimes love is forlorn. Sarah (Laura Linney) has loved Karl (Rodrigo Santoro) for over two years. They finally have a date that is constantly interrupted by phone calls from her brother being cared for in a mental facility. She puts the care of her brother ahead of her love for Karl and their love is doomed. They both work at a graphic design company for Harry yet another love triangle in the Love Actually movie.
Here’s Harry (Alan Rickman) manager of the design agency. His new secretary Mia (Heike Makatsch) is after him big time. He has a short affair with her cheating on his wife….
Karen (EmmaThompson) who figures it all out pretty quick. She happens to be the sister of….
David (Hugh Grant) the new Prime Minister who falls in love with Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) a new house staff employee who serves him tea and biscuits. He is so distracted by his feelings for her, he has her relocated. Martine McCutcheon looked stunning in red in the movie by the way.
After reading a Christmas card from Natalie who professes her love for him, David goes on a door to door search for Natalie finding her at home on the way to a Christmas play with her family.
He goes along where they watch the show from back stage and finally get their first kiss accidentally in front of the audience.
Recently widowed Daniel (Liam Nelson) and his stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) deal with their loss of wife and mother, but they have another problem too. Sam has his first crush and is seriously love-sick for Joanna a girl in his class that he believes does not know he is alive.
Joanna (Olivia Olson) is singing in the Christmas play so Sam decides to learn to play the drums to get her attention. The Christmas play just so happens to be where Natalie and Prime Minister David finally get together.
Olivia sings “All I want for Christmas is You” in the Love Actually movie that is one of my favorite songs. She did an amazing performance that I can watch and listen to over and over again. I hope you’ve seen the Love Actually movie by now. I like to watch it every Christmas season.
At the end of the Love Actually movie we see most of the couples together at Heathrow Airport for different reasons. Then on screen are hundreds of faces of real life loved ones and friends kissing and hugging each other at the arrival gate.
My Love Actually airport meeting in real life love story is about three sisters.
These are photos of some of my family, friends and a few blogging buddies in real life.
In the center of this photo and the photo below is the real life photo of two sisters meeting their long-lost sister for the first time in real life at O’Hare airport.
They are my nieces and it was one of the most important moments in their lives and the lives of our family this year. Their sign says…Welcome Twin! The three sisters look so much alike. You can see them all grinning ear to ear, second from bottom photo, far left. I also have photos of my husband and daughter, our dog, some of my brothers and sisters, a grand-niece, nieces and nephews, my mom, me, Facebook friends and blog buddies.
The pink sign in the center photo my niece Amy is carrying at the airport says Welcome Sister as they all hugged their lost sister Jackie for the first time in real life. I have chills thinking about it and will forever remember the reunion our family had with Jackie.
If you’ve seen the Love Actually movie you know at the end more and more faces are added until the movie screen fills with smaller and smaller faces to fit everyone. Like the movie I squished everyone together.
Love Actually was a true love story for our family this year when lost love was finally found.
If you have a happy airport reunion story or love actually love story I want to hear from you.
Merry Christmas Everyone
Plus, don’t miss the Christmas movie Funny Farm with Chevy Chase
