Love Actually - discussion guide

Author: Steve Couch

Keywords: Love, sacrifice, sex, friendship, death, betrayal, communication, family, intimacy,
hope, commitment
Film title: Love Actually
Tagline(s): It’s all about love, actually
Director: Richard Curtis
Screenplay: Richard Curtis
Starring: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Martin
Freeman, Kris Marshall, Bill Nighy, Martine McCutcheon, Laura Linney, Andrew Lincoln,
Keira Knightley, Gregor Fisher, Billy Bob Thornton
Cinema Release Date: 21 November 2003 (UK; 14 November 2003 (USA)
DVD Distributor: Universal Pictures UK (UK); Universal Studios (USA)
DVD Release date: March 2004 (UK); April 2004 (USA)
Certificate: 15 (UK); R (USA)

Summary

Several stories interweave to make the point that wherever you look in life, love isn’t far from
the surface: the new Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) falls for his tea-lady (Martine
McCutcheon), while his sister Karen (Emma Thompson) faces up to the realisation that her
husband Harry’s (Alan Rickman) eye has fallen on a young work colleague. One of Harry’s
other employees, the lonely Sarah (Laura Linney) has to choose between a hot date or caring
for her mentally ill brother. Ageing rock star Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) has a surprise Christmas
number one, and realises that his friendship with his fat, Glaswegian manager Joe (Gregor
Fisher) is the most significant relationship in his life. Writer Jamie (Colin Firth) discovers that
his girlfriend and his brother are having an affair, then finds that love can cross language
barriers. Mark (Andrew Lincoln) has to reconcile his love for his best friend Peter (Chiwetel
Ejiofor) and his infatuation with Peter’s new wife Juliet (Keira Knightly). Daniel (Liam
Neeson) faces his grief after the death of his wife, while trying to help stepson Sam (Thomas
Sangster) to deal with his first schoolboy romance. Colin (Kris Marshall) gives up on finding
love in England, and buys a plane ticket to America, confident that his English accent will
unlock the hearts and beds of beautiful American girls. John (Martin Freeman) and Judy
(Joanna Page) meet while simulating sex acts for a film, yet share a sweet and tentative
courtship.

The sheer number of storylines means that many strands are given only the briefest
opportunity for character development or story arc. It could be argued that Love Actually
might have worked better as four or five separate films, allowing the secondary tales a little
more room to breathe and a greater share of the spotlight. But that overlooks the intentions of
the film – director Richard Curtis seems less interested in telling individual stories than in
telling the story of love itself: a diverse, irrepressible, all-pervading and essential presence in
human life.
Questions for discussion

1. The film asserts that ‘love actually is all around’. How far do you agree with that
statement?
2. ‘Whenever I get gloomy about the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at
Heathrow Airport. General opinion has started to make out that we live in a world of
hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere’. What is
the optimism of Love Actually founded on? Is this foundation sufficient to justify that
optimism?
3. Which of the storylines did you find most involving? Why?
4. Were there any storylines that left you unmoved? Why do you think this was the case?
5. Mark: ‘You tell the truth at Christmas’
Natalie: ‘If you can’t say it at Christmas when can you?’

What has Christmas got to do with telling the truth?

6. What does the film have to say about intimacy? What was the nature of intimacy for
John and Judy, the couple who met while shooting sex scenes for films?
7. What is the effect of infidelity in the film? Which characters are faced with their
partner cheating on them, and how do they respond to the discovery of this? Why do
you think Karen and Jamie react in different ways?
8. Karen asks, ‘Would you stay, knowing life would always be a little bit worse, or
would you cut and run?’ What advice would you give to Karen? Is forgiveness
possible in a situation like this?
9. Why does the Prime Minister have Natalie transferred to a different department? Does
he have any right to feel hurt when he sees her with the American President (Billy Bob
Thornton)?
10. How did you react to Mark’s doorstep profession of love to Juliet? Was it appropriate
for him to express his feelings for his best friend’s new wife like that? If not, what else
could/should he have done? How do you think his friend would react if he found out
about the incident?
11. Sam asks, ‘Worse than the total agony of being in love?’ In what way can love be
agonising?
12. The film features three desperate missions of love – the Prime Minister’s search for
Natalie, Jamie’s pursuit of Aurelia (Lucia Moniz) in Portugal, and Sam’s evasion of
security guards to say goodbye to Joanna (Olivia Olsen). How far would you go to tell
someone that you loved them?
13. Would the film help somebody to define what love actually is? How would you define
love?
14. What different types of love are presented in the film? Which others are missing?
15. ‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.’ (Romans 5:8). What, if anything, does the film have to say about God’s
love? Are there any appropriate parallels to be drawn from the incidents in the film to
love on the scale described in Romans 5?
16. What does the film suggest about the relationship between love and sacrifice?