‘Love Actually’ Romances: Ranking 8 Pairings From Worst to Best
We feel it in our fingers / We feel it in our toes / Christmas is around the corner / And so our desire to rewatch Love Actually grows.
The rom-com film — written and directed by the great Richard Curtis — is celebrating its 23rd anniversary just ahead of the holiday season. Since Love Actually’s release in theaters on November 14, 2003, the movie has become a holiday classic, thanks to its cheeky humor, its intersecting tales of yuletide romance, and a stellar cast that includes Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, and more.
But while some of those romantic subplots are sugar plum-sweet, others land like lumps of coal. Here’s how we’d rank Love Actually’s most significant pairings. Do you agree or disagree with our Love Actually ranking? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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8. Harry & Karen
Oof, Harry (Rickman) and Karen (Thompson) have some relationship work to do after he buys a gold necklace for his secretary and not his wife. Instead, Karen finds a Joni Mitchell CD under the Christmas tree. (No shade to Joni, of course.) The film’s epilogue makes it seem like these spouses are finding their way back to each other, but their strife is Love Actually’s biggest emotional wallop.
7. Mark & Juliet
Romantic as it might seem that Mark (Andrew Lincoln) staged a “Silent Night”-soundtracked, placard-enabled declaration of love to Juliet, we agree with Knightley’s assessment that the gesture is “slightly stalkerish” and “quite creepy.” Juliet is newly married — to a character played by the comely Chiwetel Ejiofor, no less — and Mark, as he realizes too late, simply missed his chance.
6. Karl & Sarah
We get it, Sarah (Laura Linney) — we’d do a secret happy dance in a stairwell if we got an overnight with Karl (Rodrigo Santoro), too. And yes, we also get prioritizing your ill brother over your new date. But giving up on your romance Karl after one false start? Sarah, Sarah, Sarah… how could you?
5. John & Judy
It’s cute how chaste this romance is, considering how Judy (Joanna Page) and John (Martin Freeman) meet — they’re both body doubles for adult film stars, though they only mimic intimacy in those day jobs. When he and Judy finally get together, John exclaims, “I might get a shag at last!”
4. David & Natalie
David (Grant), the new dance-happy prime minister, is totally charmed by Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), his new foul-mouthed staff member, so much so that he goes caroling from house to house just to find her. Yes, they’ll have some HR issues to work out, but we’re rooting for them.
3. Billy & Joe
Yeah, the relationship between rock star Billy (Bill Nighy) and manager Joe (Gregor Fisher) might be platonic… and their bro hug is awkward at best. But as Billy realized at Elton John’s holiday party, there’s no one with whom he’d rather spend Christmas with than Joe, the guy who’s been there for him for years. “You turn out to be the f**king love of my life,” Billy tells him.
2. Aurélia & Jamie
“I know I seems an insane person because I hardly knows you but sometimes things are so transparency…” Jamie (Colin Firth) says in broken Portuguese as he proposes to Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz), the housekeeper with whom he’d bonded as he rented a vacation home months earlier. And she learned English during the interim “just in cases”? Swoon.
1. Sam & Joanna
The sweetest storyline of the movie, for our money, is schoolboy Sam (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and his infatuation with American classmate Joanna (Olivia Olson), the kind of crush for which you’d run through a busy airport for one last conversation and a kiss on the cheek. Hopefully, their budding relationship doesn’t have to be long-distance!
