Watching Love Actually (spoilers follow)

[dolorosa_12]

I just had to post something here. I'm watching Love Actually on TV at the moment, and it's pretty much your typical Christmas fluff, with a good cast. But the scene where Emma Thompson's character thinks she's getting an expensive necklace for Christmas, when in fact her husband is giving the necklace to his lover is so moving, that still, the tenth-or-so viewing of it still makes me cry. She grabs at the present she thinks is the necklace, and it's a Joni Mitchell CD. And because her kids are there, she can't say anything to her husband. She excuses herself, puts on the CD and cries silently, stuffing her fists into her mouth to stop from being heard. And then she goes back in to her family, and life goes on.

The sequence only lasts about two minutes, and within it Emma Thompson manages to convey the full gamut of human emotions from elation to despair and then innnocence betrayed and then deep misery covered in brittle cheer. it's probably the most powerful scene in the movie.

It just got me thinking on the endurance of mothers, and wondering how many will put up with degradation and disrespect out of love of their children. Every time I see that scene, I think of my own mother and it makes me cry.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

:'( at that scene. the first time you see it you have this faint glimmer of hope that he might give it to her anyway, who cares about office chick, but noooo.

[anya-1984.livejournal.com]

Well you shouldn't go around snooping in your husband's pockets!

I'm kidding, I know its really really sad... I've never really figured out whether they're still together or not, at the end.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

They are still together, for the sake of the children, but she no longer loves him or trusts or respects him.

Was the first comment you, by the way?

[anya-1984.livejournal.com]

no, wasn't me...
That's funny, i thought it was the opposite at first - that she did love him (hence the unconvincing "I'm fine") but they weren't together... Now I think they are still together, but cos of the way she asked him if she should leave or stay I didn't get the impression she's staying for the children, i thought it's cos she still loves him but feels a bit humiliated...

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I disagree, but that may just be my bleak view of humanity and my preferred outcome of all stories: tragic unrequited, self-sacrificing love and futile struggle trumps happy endings every time!

(That was mildly sarcastic, by the way!)

[catpuccino.livejournal.com]

I was reading this book called "Shattered Dreams" on the bus to Sydney today (it's for my family law essay) and in the second chapter it has some stories related by women who have suffered from domestic violence. Very sad stories.
Not really related to this, except that it just reminded me of these women who struggle through so much... and that a lot of men suck. Not all... but a lot.
A lot of women too though...
*sigh*

Do you think he actually had an affair? Or just was infatuated with that sexy young(er) thing?

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he never actually had an affair, unless you think that 'it's adultery even if you only commit adultery in the heart'...