You must watch..."Love Actually"

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Gotta show some love to one of my favorite films about love, Love Actually.  You should watch it again if you haven't recently, and if you haven't seen it yet, watch it first then read this because...SPOILERS!

I think Love Actually is the type of film that interests lots of baby writers because so many want to write movies with big intertwining casts of characters (easy to screw up).  I caught Valentine’s Day on TV the other day.  At first glance it’s very similar to Love Actually...a whole bunch of interwoven stories about a single (and similar) subject (even the posters look the same).

Faces of Famous Actors: The Movie

So, why do I love Love Actually but only felt lukewarm about Valentine’s Day?  Was I simply charmed by British accents?  Maybe...but I think it goes deeper than that.  One problem I had with Valentine's Day was that it often felt too on the nose.  Too many people just talk talk talking and saying just what they're feeling and blah blah blah…just blah.  Love Actually does a nice job burying potentially on the nose moments.  For example, the scene where Juliet discovers Mark loves her, the movies SHOWS instead of TELLS (Juliet sees the video Mark has taken of her wedding, and it's all of her).

Also, when people do tell someone exactly how they feel, Love Actually often buries the moment with humor or other obstacles.  For example, in the scene where Jamie proposes to Aurelia, he has to speak a foreign language to her riddled with funny subtitled errors.  So, instead of the audience groaning while he says all those sappy things, we’re laughing and completely charmed.  Next time you want to write a scene where someone has to do/say something on the nose (like confess their love) find a way to bury the moment.

Another good example of this is the ending of When Harry Met Sally.  First, the movie keeps Harry's on the nose dialogue short and sweet ("The thing is, I love you") then, when Harry has more in depth/sentimental things to say (all the things he loves about Sally) those words are buried by making Harry say them in anger.  In turn, Sally is pissed and crying when she responds.  The characters are basically acting the opposite of what they're feeling.  The result is a scene that could have been overly sappy or cringe worthy but is instead,  funny, romantic, and simply lovely.