I’m glad that we’re discussing it at all. I’ve been wanting to talk about this movie for years, but I’ve never seen it talked about very much.
If I had to vote again, I’d vote for #11: The score. It breathed so much life into the movie that it’s hard to imagine it unscored, or scored by a lesser composer. Some of Craig Armstrongs other works:
1996: Romeo + Juliet - BAFTA and Ivor Novello awards.
1997: Orphans
1998: The Negotiator - Opening credit track (“Rise”)
1999: Plunkett & Macleane
1999: Best Laid Plans
1999: Cruel Intentions
1999: The Bone Collector
2000: Romeo Must Die
2001: Moulin Rouge! - Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
2001: Kiss of the Dragon
2002: The Magdalene Sisters
2002: The Quiet American
2003: Love Actually
2004: The Clearing
2004: Ray - Grammy Award for Best Original Score
2004: Layer Cake - Track (“Ruthless Gravity”)
2005: Fever Pitch
2005: Must Love Dogs
2006: World Trade Center
2007: Elizabeth: The Golden Age (with A. R. Rahman)
2008: The Incredible Hulk
2010: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
This is how I took it, too. All she had left was a necklace.
And I meant that he did the right thing eventually. He didn’t ruin his marriage over a stupid infatuation with a younger woman. He realizes that what he has at home is what he really wants.
You know, I was never convinced that Harry and Karen’s marriage was actually reconciled. When they get together at the airport at the end, it’s all about the kids; Karen and Harry don’t actually interact much. I always got the sense that, while they were not divorcing, the marriage was by no means on firm ground yet, and if they did stay together, it would be more for the kids than anything else. And it never occurred to me that Harry actually slept with Mia. It was obvious to Karen that he had wanted to, quite a bit, and that was enough to totally shake her belief in her marriage. I think it would take her a long time to truly trust him again.
I don’t mean that she would suspect he was running around on her all the time. What I mean is that prior to the whole business, Karen thought they had an utterly solid marriage. No cracks. It had never occurred to her to want to cheat (other than perhaps the odd, ridiculously improbably fantasy of some movie star or something like that), and she assumed it had never occurred to him to want to either. He might see a pretty actress or model or something and have the odd daydream, but never a real person. Now she doesn’t have that as her basis for reality anymore. It turns out her husband, even if he never cheats on her, apparently wants to sometimes. Apparently she doesn’t know him as well as she thought she did. Maybe she doesn’t know him at all. Maybe nothing she believed about her life is true. That’s devastating and terrifying. You don’t get over that easily, maybe never.
In a way, it’s almost worse for her that he didn’t actually sleep with Mia. If he had, she could then rearrange her world view to say “Harry is a jerk,” get divorced, and get on with her life. But what she has instead is a marriage that, from all viewpoints but her own, looks exactly like the one she thought she had. But now she knows about the cracks that she had never suspected existed. Every time he’s a little late for dinner, she’ll wonder a little. Every woman he meets will now make her think “would he rather sleep with her than with me? Is she newer, more exciting, more whatever than I am?” She always assumed his commitment to her was equal to hers to him. Now she knows it isn’t.
I will have to watch it again to give a definitive response, but I suspect it will still be: Daniel, Sam and Joanna. I found the interaction between the Daniel and Sam very touching (even though IRL I am not fond of kids.)
I enjoyed the movie (more than I expected to) but don’t recall it well enough to say 100%.
Jamie and Aurelia, because I also love the cross-cultural thing (and it doesn’t hurt that I’m part Portuguese). I saw 4 Weddings & a Funeral again recently, and notice that Richard Curtis does a similar gag in both films: subtitling a character’s foreign language attempts, to point out their errors in translation. And it cracks me up every time.
Hugh Grant & whatshername was a close second.
Sam & Joanna bug me, because they’re a few years too young for any plausibility. Pre-teen boys (and I’ve raised 2, in addition to having been one myself) generally think girls have cooties.
I agree. I think it would have been just fine if they’d made the kids 13. Perfect gawky age for boys to start being interested in girls but not at all self-assured.
I disagree on that point. Plenty of kids were “girlfriend and boyfriend” in my last year of primary school - so age 10-11. I was a desperately shy and awkward kid, and even I remember sharing longing glances with another shy kid, a cute red-haired boy named John-Paul, during assembly and prayers.
Sam and Daniel is my second-favourite story, Harry and Karen are my favourite. It’s the most realistic, I think - long-term relationships, even very strong and loving ones (which I think theirs is) do get their fair share of problems and need working at sometimes, if they’re going to survive.
I love Jamie and Aurelia’s story - how could you not? - but as someone upthread pointed out, it’s a beautiful fantasy, it’s not real.
Part of the reason I so adore this movie is the way it blends fantasy and realism. The Laura Linney story is almost hyper-real; the Colin Firth story is mostly fantasy. The others are a mixture.