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There are moments in cinema when it is expected that we as audience members suspend disbelief. When you’re watching Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, or Prometheus you know that what you’re watching is not real and therefore your expectations for what can and cannot happen fly out the window. I love a good sci-fi thriller because you’re transported to a place you’ve never been before.
I like movies of all kinds – I can sit down for two and a half hours and watch a drama like Phantom Thread starring Daniel Day-Lewis. You want to put Titanic and watch me get a half chub when Kate Winslet tells Leo to paint her like one his French girls? Be my guest, my apartment is open to anyone that wants to come by. The point is I like movies and I understand that they are fictional sometimes.
I realize that Love, Actually (one of the most popular Christmas movies ever made with a stunning ensemble cast) is a movie. I’ll concede that. Movies have to embellish. They have to entertain. Movies are not real life and sometimes you have to roll the dice with your storyline. I get all of that.
But it seems as though we’ve glossed over a glaring error that I noticed last night when I sat down to watch Love, Actually for the first time in a long time.
The fact of the matter is, we’ve turned Mark, the character who is in love with his best friends wife, into some sort of movie folk hero for being a truly terrible human being. I can get down with movies taking certain liberties, but there is just no way in hell this situation could ever happen in real life. It’s beyond unreasonable.
I’m of course talking about the scene when Scumbag Mark shows up at Keira Knightley’s door while she’s watching a movie with her husband (played by the incredible Chiwetel Ejiofor) and scams his way into an unauthorized kiss and perhaps more. This is how he starts the whole thing –
Now there is no denying that this is an iconic moment in movie history. This guy gets his picture posted on blogs all over the internet to this day when people are writing about a romance that started during Christmas or when a writer just needs a picture that will generate clicks. This is one of those pictures that people are drawn to. People love this scene but last night I threw my hands up in the air on the couch while I watched. I yelled. I laughed out of pure confusion.
I had a friend in high school ask a girl to prom doing this little sign routine. A clever move, no doubt. But you know what my friend in high school who needed a prom date didn’t do? He didn’t go behind his best friends back to try and take his wife away from him through some bullshit gimmick.
I mean think about this for a moment. Really think about it. This scene is supposed to be sweet. It’s supposed to make your heart warm. This guy brought a portable CD player (LOL, get an iPod and one of those speaker systems with the docking mechanism – it’s 2003 buddy please join us in the new millennium) to make it seem like there were carolers outside his BEST FRIEND’S apartment. What a little rat.
And then he tells her that he loves her under the guise that it’s Christmas and you tell you truth on Christmas and that’s just supposed to absolve him of any wrongdoing. What a crock of bullshit this is. I mean can you believe the balls on this guy?
To do this to the guy that made you his best man? What the fuck are you doing, dude? You lost out on this one, find another girl in the sea of humanity that is LONDON, ENGLAND. It’s not like you’re living in Lavenham or Hawkshead here. Only true Englishman will understand those references but they’re small towns in England, okay?
And if that wasn’t enough, Keira Knightly ends up giving him a kiss, leading me to believe that this little forbidden romance isn’t ending at her doorstep. A couple of scumbags, the both of em. Fuck this guy forever and always. This movie did not age well for me and I hope when you inevitably decide to watch it during this holiday season that you take my side. .
All images via Youtube
Respond
jduda@grandex.co
The Madison Wickam of movie characters.
Yeah but bring back dorn and crew
I hope they never come back after the bullshit that Grandex pulled. Didn’t they also give Duda a job in Austin and relocate him across the country only to dump him weeks later? Madison is a garbage CEO (shutting down successful podcasts as a media company right when they’re taking off?) and as much as I love the old PGP, I hope they go on to bigger and better things. Madison ruined PGP and I’m only here out of loyalty for the writers still onboard, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll stick around. End rant.
I, for one, am going to love the comment section for the next few months. Similar to when Brian left the first time. Miss you Crime Dawg, Arf!
Hot(?) Take: This entire movie sucks.
Wait a GD Second….. they KEPT DUDA?!
Don’t the remotes make like $25 an article? If so, and Duda averages 3 a week, that’s a little under $4,000 a year. Peanuts compared to providing a full on salary with benefits.
More of a quality comment. Not a cost decision
Duda coming in with a take that everyone and their dog has made for years.
Speaking of, you know who also has a dog? Dave. I wonder what his thoughts on Love, Actually are.
This is FAR from a new opinion, he is not at all considered a folk hero
I feel like he wasn’t trying to get a kiss, it seemed like he was just getting it off his check. He had some explaining to do after the wife saw the wedding film.
However, I might be biased because Love Actually is one of my top 5 favorite movies.
It’s my only Christmas movie since I discovered it. I love Andrew Lincoln because of his work on Walking Dead ❤️
Duda is now one of the only reasons I still have this app on my phone
Duda with a HOT take. We all know this is really about Dorn getting the axe, not the dad from Walking Dead.