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Provide an aim of a paper that is to highlight what actions that have been taken by the director to capture the theme of intimacy on big screen, in the ability to create an outward impression of love and chemistry between the characters.
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#Analysis of film Love Actually Essay
In this paper, I am going to discuss the theme of intimacy on the basis of the British multi-starrer romantic comedy film, Love Actually. The film features popular English actors including Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson and Keira Knightley.
The script centers around feelings of love and affection shared among its myriad characters, covering an entire gamut of expressions from happiness and joy to bitterness and sorrow, self-sacrifice, valiant triumph and ambiguity to decisiveness.
The aim of this paper is to highlight what actions have been taken by the director to capture the theme of intimacy on big screen, in the ability to create an outward impression of love and chemistry between the characters.
To describe the plot in brief, Love Actually derives from the first-person narrative of David (Hugh Grant), who happens to be the Prime Minister of the UK, ostensibly inspired from the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was known for his youthful appeal, and becoming a media favorite after begetting a child when in office.
As is true with gentle British romantic comedies such as Notting Hill and the Bridget Jones Diary, we are introduced to David’s glimpse on how the feelings people have for their loved ones, the bonds of affection, make this world a much more vibrant and enthusiastic place.
We are soon led to a number of sub-plots capturing the essence of intimacy, all of them somehow tied to one another through common characters. The film covers an entire gamut of possible sexual relations between couples; homosexual with Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) and his manager Joe (Gregor Fischer), interracial with Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor), love triangles, extra-marital affairs and more.
The underlying theme is about human beings who cannot thrive without being loved and treated with warmth and affection (Miller & Perlman, 2008, p.23). The desire for intimacy springs from the characters’ innate need for self-affirmation and the consideration of being treated with kindness and love.
What these film try to showcase is that societal values do not always allow these relationships to blossom because of the perceived licentiousness even though Western culture has surged ahead to an advanced state of permissiveness, many unspoken relationships between couples are treated with derision and suspicion (Miller & Perlman, 2008, p.24). To illustrate the same, I shall describe two scenes, elaborating on how the selected scene illustrates the concept of intimacy, while connecting to research findings.
In one of the scenes, Juliet (Keira Knightley) is shown walking down the aisle to get married to Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) while Mark (Andrew Lincoln) video-tapes the entire wedding as the best man. Even as the priest pronounces the couple as man and wife, it is clear that Mark always had a crush on Juliet, but due to unwitting circumstances, was unable to express himself.
Although, Mark is shown to enjoy himself on the wedding day, pouring love and congratulations to the new couple, secretly, it appears as if the wall has come crashing down on him.
Later, when he watches the video in his private studio, Juliet trespasses into the finer details of the video, including Mark’s admission that he has always been in love with Juliet. When she confronts him over the topic, he says that while there is no doubt that he has always been in love with her, he did not press ahead because of a strong fear of rejection. Apparently, he was so deeply in love that he couldn’t imagine to be rejected by the love of his life.
Research suggests that many human beings willingly or unwillingly enter into hopeless romantic arrangements as conveyed by Mark’s character. This is done with an aim of creating a strong feeling of intimacy with other people who we regarded as our soulmates (Miller & Perlman, 2008, p.45).
The subject is under the impression that he/she has a need to linger around the object of his/her affection, thus, living in the hope for a romantic possibility in a distant future (Miller & Perlman, 2008, p.45). Therefore, it’s a subconscious choice with no basis in reality, and the success of such a maneuver in romance could only be described in terms of a fool’s chance.
It has also been argued that being on unspoken terms in matters of love protects people from avoiding perceived feelings of hurt upon rejection. This puts them at a huge disadvantage at a later stage, because the desire for intimacy with the subject grows stronger with time, and thus, it’s more beneficial to avow and be rejected, rather than linger on till the very end as in Mark’s case.
Mark was walking a tightrope on his feelings for Juliet. On the one hand, he was too proud to admit it, but on the other hand, he needed the reassurance of Juliet’s presence in his life. For this reason, he didn’t mind hanging out with her new lover and husband Peter. He would consider one thing that, somehow, he would remain a very important person in Juliet’s life, if not the most important.
Research suggests this is a closed dependency which is devoid of any reason but for some reason, it can show the calculated nature of subjects in creating out-of-the-blue situations and circumstances which may drive them closer into the hearts of the object of their affection (Miller & Perlman, 2008, p.58). Indeed, love is a transient feeling which captures a range of emotions from happiness to sadness.
Another scene has the young and bachelor British Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant) having a secret crush for his attractive maid Natalie (Martine McCutcheon). While on one hand, he’s unwilling to admit his craving for her nubile charms, on the other hand, he does not want to create a scandal for the avid British media who watches his every move at 10, Downing Street.
No matter how David tried to keep the status quo, his feelings could not be brushed aside forever. In one of the scenes, when visiting American President makes passes at Natalie, David is seen frothing with jealousy and anger. It forces him to come out of his shell and deliver a strongly worded action against the American President’s bullying tactics. This, however, strains David’s relationship with Natalie, which of course, is rectified in the end.
What this scene basically describes here is that as human beings, we often set high standards on who we are supposed to fall in love with (Miller & Perlman, 2008, p.45). Whether or not we admit it, status, class and materially relevant things play a huge and significant role in shaping our conscious choices on who may we allow ourselves to fall in love with.
This outward demonstration, however, fails to suppress our core feelings of intimacy for the object of our affection. David wanted to be around Natalie and would create unnecessary circumstances and situations for the same. His final outburst at the American President reflects the deeply buried feelings of love he harbored for Natalie. It’s the intimacy which counts in the end.