Though it was released nearly two decades ago, few Christmas movies are quite as beloved and popular today as the 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually. The movie covers a wide-ranging network of characters and relationships – romantic, familial, and platonic. It also boasts an impressive cast of celebrities who were A-listers at the time, and who have become A-listers since.
The film may not exactly be regarded as the highest quality cinema ever produced, but it is known for its humor, its romance, and above all else its heart. Here, we take a look back at ten of the sweetest moments the film featured.
“To me, you are perfect.”
Though it’s become a subject of debate in recent years, particularly concerning the boundaries that the gesture crossed, there’s no denying that the “to me, you are perfect” scene is one of the most memorable and legacy-defining scenes from Love Actually.
For the entire movie, Andrew Lincoln’s Mark is in love with his best friend’s new wife, Keira Knightley’s Juliet. In the film’s final act, Mark takes some initiative, confessing his love and assuring Juliet he expects nothing in return via cue cards at her front door. Perhaps it’s creepy, but there’s something decidedly bittersweet about the moment to be sure.
David’s dance routine
Hugh Grant’s David, the recently elected Prime Minister, is portrayed as decidedly quirky and goofy from the very beginning of the film. But it’s not until he’s truly alone in his quarters at 10 Downing Street that we finally get to see him let loose and embrace his nerdy side.
In the supposed privacy afforded to him at the end of the day, David begins to undress and dance around the building to “Jump (For Your Love)” by The Pointer Sisters. David gets hilariously into the music, grooving around until he’s suddenly interrupted.
Sam and Daniel’s romance lessons
Though the entire film may be about people finding love in the most unlikely of places, one of the film’s most adorable love stories also happens to be the one that takes place between its youngest characters. Thomas Brodie Sangster’s Sam finds himself in love with an American girl who is soon returning to the United States.
His stepfather, Liam Neeson’s Daniel, though initially incredulous, soon decides to instruct Sam on key moments in romantic history – including the film Titanic – as well as giving him romantic advice all throughout the film.
“It’s the saddest part of my day, leaving you.”
It’s often said that love is its own language, and Love Actually truly shows that in the story of Jamie and Aurelia, who fall in love with each other despite the language barrier between them. In one of the more poignant moments these two share during their unwitting courtship, they both make incredibly vulnerable, romantic confessions – without the other’s knowledge.
Jamie admits to Aurelia, “It’s my favorite time of the day, driving you,” when he has to drive her home at the end of the day. But Aurelia, unknowing of what he just admitted, counters with her own sweet (yet bittersweet) reply: “It’s the saddest part of my day, leaving you.”
Billy Mack and Joe spend Christmas together
Bill Nighy’s aging rock star Billy Mack is definitely one of Love Actually‘s more colorful and more beloved characters. But it’s the way his storyline ends that just so happens to be one of the most touching and surprising moments in the entire film.
Though Billy Mack proudly brags about his promiscuity with women of all ages throughout the movie, he realizes on Christmas no less than the real source of his happiness, and the true love of his life, is none other than his faithful manager and best friend, Joe.
David and his security caroling
After receiving Natalie’s heartfelt Christmas card, which contained a confession of her love for him, David sets out on a search of her neighborhood in the hopes of finding her. As he moves from house to house, he finds himself confronted by various different people of all ages.
But it’s when he encounters a group of young children that David gets to have one of his sweetest, and funniest, moments of all. After the kids beg him to sing Christmas carols, David launches into a rendition of “Good King Wenceslas,” for which his security enthusiastically and expertly begins to provide backup.
Sam’s grand romantic gesture for Joanna
Love Actually takes the concept of young love to an entirely new level, with the lengths the film goes to in its commitment to the budding romance between Sam and American girl Joanna. Fearing that he will never have a chance to tell her how he feels, Sam goes to the airport with his father as Joanna is about to leave.
What ensues is a madcap dash all throughout the airport, past security guards, through station after station, until he is able to say goodbye. Though we don’t actually witness their conversation, what we do get to see is even better. After Sam emerges victorious to return to his father, Joanna comes out and kisses him wordlessly on the cheek.
David and Natalie’s first kiss
Arguably one of the more underrated couples in the entire web of stories, David and Natalie spend almost the whole movie dancing around each other, due to bad timing, fear of rejection, power dynamics, and much more. But it’s at the Christmas pageant put on by all the film’s children characters that these two finally find a moment of quiet.
Behind the scenes of the recital, David and Natalie finally act on their feelings for each other, engaging in an adorable first kiss that quickly becomes public knowledge once the backdrop is raised, revealing their budding romance to the audience.
Jamie proposes to Aurelia
When it comes to setting unrealistic expectations for romance, Jamie and Aurelia just might take the cake. These two fall in love with each other without ever being able to hold a conversation in the same language, but once they are separated from each other, they both decide that’s not good enough.
In just a little over a week, Jamie learns bits of Portuguese, and Aurelia learns just a bit of English – just enough for the both of them to be able to understand each other when Jamie arrives in Aurelia’s hometown and proposes to her in her native language.
The ending montage
Possibly the sweetest moment in the entire film is one that doesn’t involve any of the story’s actual characters. After all of the central characters reunite with one another at Heathrow Airport a month after the holidays, the film transitions into something else entirely.
With “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys playing softly in the background, a montage of real airport reunions taken during the production of the film plays out, forming a full-screen montage that ends in a heart-shaped cutout. In the end, love actually is all around.
