Every time someone tries to convince me that Love Actually is just a bunch of Christmas fluff, I direct them to the scene in which Emma Thompson delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as a woman (Karen) trying to hold it together on Christmas when she learns her husband (Harry) bought a necklace for his very forward assistant and...is probably cheating on her.
She handles the whole thing with grace, confronting him and then returning her attention to her children, but we get very little explanation from him.
The ending is intentionally ambiguous, and because Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson are such great actors, it's impossible to tell whether or not they stay together. Karen greets Harry at the airport in a cold but civil manner that seems to imply they are separated. But then she says they are going "home," implying they are still married partners. Are their smiles strained because they're still trying to make it work, or is it because they broke up and are trying to remain cordial? Her scarf says married but her fabulous earrings say single. WHICH ONE IS IT?
Every year, my friends and I scrutinize this scene, and now the film's script editor Emma Freud finally live tweeted an answer at a midnight screening of the film with writer/director Richard Curtis:
Freud also ended the debate on whether Harry actually cheated or simply intended to cheat:
More sad news: Sarah and Karl never ended up getting together...which, WHYYYY:
Here are some happier revelations:
The reason Jamie is called Jamie is because that's the name of Richard Curtis's brother.
Her mom was the housekeeping in the first scene with Hugh Grant, and her kids were the second lobster and spiderman in the school Christmas performance.
January Jones came up with half of her hilarious lines.
Rowan Atkinson was originally supposed to be an angel who was intentionally wrapping the present slowly to stop Harry from cheating on his wife.
(Which, by the way explains why he was at the airport to distract the gate attendant, allowing Sam to sneak past and profess his love to Joanna!)
Joanna was actually singing that mindblowing rendition of "All I Want for Christmas."
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From: Cosmopolitan US
