movies

Five Love Actually fan theories that will forever change the way you watch the film.

It’s nearly Christmas, which means it’s time for your annual re-watching of everybody’s favourite Christmas movie, Love Actually.

Nothing could improve this quintessential Christmas experience, you think. Well, to that we say, “don’t be so sure”, and present you with five Love Actually fan theories that we think make watching the film even more enjoyable.

So before you watch the romantic comedy this year (or watch it again for the third time this month) take a look at these…

1. Daniel is in love with Karen.

In the film, we see Liam Neeson’s character Daniel and Emma Thompson’s character Karen are good friends, best friends perhaps. But what if there were more to it?

After watching Love Actually for the “4000th time”, Twitter user Jen Lewis said discovered a line in the film that strongly suggests Daniel is in fact in love with Karen.

Is this more than just friendly love we see? (Image via Universal Pictures.)
ADVERTISEMENT

When Daniel meets Claudia Shiffer's character near the end of the film, she introduces herself as Carol. But as they're parting, he says "Well, I hope we'll meet again, Karen," and she corrects him.

It's called a Freudian slip and we agree that it could be a serious sign that his true love was on his mind as he spoke. We love the implications of this - if Karen's marriage ends due to her husband's affair, she could end up with Daniel.

What's funny about this theory though is that Neeson dismissed it as "sick" in a 2016 interview, saying Karen is his sister. Clearly, he needs to rewatch his own film - because they're definitely not siblings.

2. Rufus is an angel and Mia is the devil.

Sure Mia (Heike Makatsch) is a pretty irredeemable character, but is she outright evil?

Fans seem to think so. They contend her "sexy" Christmas party costume isn't just a metaphor, and that she is, in fact, the devil, hellbent on destroying Harry (Alan Rickman)'s family. The timing is also perfect - Christmas is the devil's arch-rival's birthday, after all.

They suggest that Rowan Atkinson's character, shop assistant Rufus, was actually an angel trying to save Harry's marriage by taking so long to wrap the necklace on purpose.

ADVERTISEMENT

This one has actually been confirmed by the scriptwriter herself - well sort of.

Emma Freud, who is married to director Richard Curtis, live-tweeted a re-watching of the show in 2015. Among the other important revelations, she said Rowan being an angel was an earlier concept that was then abandoned. But his angelic act remains intact.

3. Mia deserves our sympathy.

Other fans suggest Mia is not the devil, but the saddest character in the whole film. (Yes, even sadder than Laura Linney's character Sarah.)

Here's their spin:
- Mia pursues much-older Harry because she has dad issues.
- When at home, Mia is always shown alone (even on Christmas Eve), and therefore has no friends.

They suggest Mia is new to the company, has nothing going on in her life, and is focusing all her attention on Harry to distract herself from her lonely life and hopefully fill that empty void. Wow, that does sound sad.

4. The PM's chief of staff gets David and Natalie together in the end.

We love this theory and it makes so much sense.

Ignore the fact that Annie, Prime Minister David's chief of staff, calls Natalie "chubby" and you'll see she actually wants these two kids to get together in the end.

Fans point out that as PM, David (Hugh Grant), must get thousands of Christmas cards, presumably sorted through by some staff member, because he has better things to do (like leading the country).

Why then does the card from Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) appear on his desk in a pile to sort through? Because the lovely Annie (Nina Sosanya) slipped it in there on purpose - because she really wanted to see them together. Awwww.

ADVERTISEMENT

LISTEN: Michelle Andrews tries convincing The Binge hosts to watch 'A Very Moody Christmas'. (Post continues.)

5. Love Actually gets meta.

Even though it is arguably (read: definitely) the greatest Christmas movie of all time, one fan suggests Love Actually doesn't want to be a Christmas movie.

This gets a little meta - it's not that the writers themselves didn't want to make it a Christmas movie, but that they wrote it as if they didn't want it to be a Christmas movie.

Reddit user GOddamnnamewontfi explains:  "Love Actually the movie wanted to be written as a movie just about love, but had a Christmas theme shoved into it so that it would sell better, we see evidence of this throughout the film."

The user suggests two examples as evidence of this. One is that Bill Nighy's character Billy Mack is shamelessly messing with a classic love song and turning it into a Christmas song just to make money.

The other is that sea creatures are forced into the school's Christmas play - pointing out how ridiculous it is to have things forced onto them that have no purpose.

This isn't the most compelling theory, but makes more sense with this tweak: Love Actually is a movie showing us that the true meaning of Christmas - what the whole holiday is really all about - is love.

And I think we can all agree on that one.