25 Days of Christmas Movies: Love Actually and The Holiday

So I wanted to do a 3 movie watch of The Holiday, Love Actually and The Family Stone... but I think that might be difficult to watch now and I'm a little behind on my movies for this... so if I don't combine it with another movie- I may review it in my 25 Days of Rom Coms- which I will have leading up to Valentine's Day.

Anyway these are 2 of my favorite movies ever- I'm sure I've reviewed them before on this blog... but I will again!

Love Actually

So this is an anthology movie featuring several British actors in different stories all relating to Love and there are many scenes with them all together... let me try to describe each one.

So we have the Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant) who is developing feelings for a woman that works with him and afraid of a scandal breaking out.

David's sister is Karen played by Emma Thompson- she's a housewife who's husband is the boss at the place most of the characters work. He is having an affair with his secretary and buys her a gorgeous necklace that Karen sees and is heartbroken to learn that was not meant for her.

Karen's best friend was Joanna who sadly passed away recently and who's husband Daniel is now a single dad to his stepson Sam who is heartsick over a popular girl at his school- a singer from America who is also named Joanna. Sam learns to play drums to impress Joana.

Sam was inspired by Billy Mack- an old has-been rock star who's releasing a Christmas themed cover of the song "Love is all around" and is promoting it with his manager by his side. Everyone is listening to the song whether they like it or not- and they're kind of rooting for Billy Mack to beat out pop boy band Blue for the number 1 Christmas song of the season.

One person who does not like the song is Sarah who works for Karen's Husband Harry and knows his secretary Mia. She is in love with her coworker Karl- but is distracted by her phone constantly ringing with phone calls from her brother who is in a mental health hospital. They are from America- so she is his only family member.

Sarah is friends with Mark, Peter and Juliet... Mark is in love with Juliet who gets married to his best friend Peter. This is where the Poster Board scene is from. Also Keira Knightly was a teenager in this movie when she played Juliet.

Another friend that is at the wedding is Jamie Bennet played by Colin Firth. He is a writer who catches his girlfriend in bed with his brother while he is at the wedding. He then goes to a cottage to work on a novel and falls for a beautiful girl working at the cottage named Aureilia. Although she only speaks Portugeuse and they can't understand what the other one is saying- they are saying more or less the same things. This is one of my favorite parts of the movie.

Working for the caterer at the wedding is Colin- a lovesick British man who is having a hard time picking up women in London- so he's working to go to the US where he thinks his British accent will be seen as adorable. This is another one of my favorite parts of the movie. Colin is very sweet and he's the comic relief of this movie.

Now for the part I had to cover my eyes at as a kid- John and Just Judy. They work with Colin's friend Tony and they are body doubles for an X rated Movie- although I don't think they're really body doubles they are just there to check that the positions can be simulated for the movie I guess? I still don't exactly get it but this is probably a storyline you won't see if this is on in syndication but it is one of the sweetest stories with two people actually talking to each other. This is one of my favorites in recent viewings.

This movie is a classic and a must watch. One of my favorites for sure.

The Holiday

So I love this movie... probably just as much. This is a very cozy movie with excellent memorable characters- but I have to say... everyone knows the Kate Winslet scenes in this movie are better than the Cameron Diaz bits of the movie. And I love the Cameron Diaz storyline- I love her relationship with Graham... but why didn't she ever help out poor Arthur? Arthur is my favorite part of the movie by far and I just love Iris and Miles for being such great friends to him and helping him so much.

I also love the Hollywood aspects to this movie because there are actual people behind this that are very famous in Hollywood and I think this is a great homage to something that they love. For example- Jack Black's character Miles is a composer who composes a song for Arthur and also a very lovely song for Iris and the composer of this movie is Hans Zimmer- who I'm guessing is behind those beautiful songs. Jack Black is also a pretty famous musician- known for Tenacious D... so this role just seems perfect for him and overall I like this!

Okay that is everything. I hope you guys like this post- definitely check these movies out... they are must watches to me.

Bye!

-Shannon