Carrie Wittmer, writing in Elle, has ranked every storyline in the 2003 Christmas classic ‘Love Actually’.
She says:
“I ranked all the storylines while considering many factors, including: if the storyline holds up in 2019, if the story would make a good standalone movie, and if Love Actually would be Love Actually if the story was not in the movie.”
Here they are, from the bottom to the top:
- Jamie (Colin Firth) and Aurélia (Sienna Guillory)
- Sarah (Laura Linney), Karl (Rodrigo Santoro), and her brother (Michael Fitzgerald)
- Colin (Kris Marshall), Tony (Abdul Salis), and America
- Julia (Keira Knightley), Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and Mark (Andrew Lincoln)
- Harry (Alan Rickman), Karen (Emma Thompson), and Mia (Heike Makatsch)
- Karen and Joni Mitchell
- Rufus (Rowan Atkinson) and wrapping
- John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page)
- David (Hugh Grant) and Natalie (Martine McCutcheon)
- Daniel (Liam Neeson), Sam (Thomas Sangster), and Joanna (Olivia Olson)
- Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) and His Manager (Gregor Fisher)
Her critique is hilarious, actually!
Bonus: Mariah Carey has just released a new video to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her international hit, All I Want for Christmas is You, that Olivia Olson sings in the movie.
My take: I’ve just finished watching Love Actually (my favourite holiday movie) for another year. (Die Hard is my second favourite.) In retrospect, it’s very interesting how much music is in the film. If this script is genuine, Richard Curtis did write it with the music very much in mind. Supposedly, that’s a cardinal sin. (btw, here’s another take on the rankings. And another. OMG, it’s a trope, acutally!)