Close, but she finds the necklace by hanging up his coat in their front room and feeling a lump in his pocket. She looks to see what it is, is clearly surprised and pleased by the necklace, then puts it back and goes back to join the kids in showing him their roles in the Christmas play.
I adored Rowan Atkinson in his cameo in the store and in his even briefer appearance at the airport.
I never fail to dissolve at both the scene in the restaurant in Portugal between Colin Firth and Aurelia and the school Christmas song, especially when the girl singing points to the boy drumming as she sings ‘All I want for Christmas is – you.’
And for the longest time I wondered if the man in the mental hospital wasn’t Laura Linney’s brother as she says but her husband; I thought it was a bit strange that she calls him ‘babe’ and ‘my darling,’ but the credits clearly identify him as her brother, so, there you go.
The first time I saw it, I saw jjimm’s version. In subsequent viewings, I saw this one. She may have the necklace, but, after Harry’s “fool” realization, Karen has their family and his, well…Love, actually. Much good may your pretty jewels do you, skank!
Did he do that on purpose? Distract the guards, I mean. He seemed to be doing the same silly deliberate self-absorbed thing he did in the shop, but I could *swear *there’s a twinkle in his eye as he turns around and walks away, as if he saw what was going on with the boy and decided to help him out. Totally redeems an otherwise irritating fellow, IMHO.
According to the director’s commentary, Atkinson’s character was supposed to be an ‘angel’, appearing at critical moments in each storyline to help. Most of that never got filmed.
As for the brother, there’s a deleted scene where he and his sister are reminiscing about Christmas when they were children and he remembers how she used to voluntarily clear the table so she could watch Top of the Pops in the kitchen.
Now that would have been a very different movie! I always had the feeling that the director didn’t know what he wanted out of the movie, so he just threw it all up in the air and caught what he could as it fell.
Also, when the secretary is sitting there putting on the necklace, we see the messy bed in the background, which is, I think, another sign that they had sex.
They knew what they wanted but when they started putting it together, there were already over three hours of film! The angel (it was subtly intended, unexplained within the movie) was just this guy who shows up at the right (or wrong) moment within each storyline.
Well, they’re kinda connected to everyone else by being either on the TV or the radio in at least one scene with each character. They even help Sam get through to Joanna; the staff are distracted by a video of him stripping.
I assume that second scene was deleted partly because it wouldn’t have made much sense for American characters.
And that totally makes sense about Rowan Atkinson being an ‘angel;’ he definitely gave Sam’s Dad a knowing smile as he turned away. I’m glad they didn’t follow through with that after all - I prefer stories about people getting together because of their own actions, not because of intervention by heavenly beings.
Does anyone have an explanation for the school concert being held on Christmas Day, or should I just accept that the writers decided they wanted everything to happen on that day no matter how little sense it makes?
I am watching this movie with my girlfriend right now, who has never seen it before. In a little while I shall fill in with a) the Christmas Day question, and b) her interpretation of the necklace/Mia scene.
I can’t explain it, but there is another nitpick I’d like to add, as much as I love this movie: We see the funeral of Daniel’s wife and Sam’s mum at the beginning of the movie, four weeks before Christmas. By Christmas he’s ready to hook up with his Claudia Schiffer lookalike? Didn’t make sense to me in the context of the movie–he seemed to really love his wife passionately…just seems unrealistic he would move on so quickly.
Re: the Rowan Atkinson angel…if you watch the end scene when Sam chases after Joanna at the airport, and then comes back to give Daniel a big hug, you can see sparkles on his coat, which was supposed to be “angel dust” from a deleted scene.
Agreed. I got the impression that she had died of a long, difficult illness, and she had made herself perfectly clear that she wanted him to find love again. From personal experience, death after a very long illness is comprised more of relief than grief. And, as was established early in the film, he was respecting her wishes.
OK, Christmas Day concert: yes, it looks like a conceit for which we need to suspend disbelief. The excuse is “it’s all the schools getting together for the first time”.
Without giving her the context, I asked my girlfriend re. Mia and Harry - we only saw her with the necklace; do you think they actually had sex? Her reply: “Of course they did!” So there’s another opinion.
Also, her expression at the airport, I now see it as an “I am still in the process of trying to forgive you” expression. I could see that as taking more than a mere month to get over; as well as him making a “fool” out of their marriage, she expressed insecurity about her weight and age earlier on in the film, and the infidelity, of whatever kind, has fulfilled her low self esteem.
Finally, there’s a piece of tragic irony I missed before: as Harry (Alan Rickman) hands over the Joni Mitchell CD, he says “to continue your emotional education”.
The ‘all the schools getting together’ bit I liked for explaining how all these random people happened to be at the same Christmas concert, and also why a British primary school would be having such a huge concert at all, but it still doesn’t explain Christmas Day.
I mean, it’s a bank holiday, the teachers are all off work, and there’s no public transport - half the families wouldn’t even be able to get there and half the others would be away visiting family elsewhere. But I guess it is more satisfying having all the stories wrapped up on the same day and for that day to be Christmas Day.
Yup, I’m SciFiSam again! When I started posting again, I probably should have just emailed the moderators in the first place and asked them how to get back into my old account (lost passwords), but I just created a new account instead. Now I look like a relative oldie.
Well, his wife had insisted that he bring Ms. Schiffer as his date to the funeral.
In the context of the movie, it’s no more strange than:
(1) Sam deciding he was going to impress Olivia by playing the drums;
(2) Sam learning to play the drums; and
(3) Sam auditioning and getting chosen to play the drums for the closing number in what I recall as being the last two weeks before the concert.
I always thought it was a physical affair, or at the very least he was planning to bang her once the family obligations of the holidays were over but got caught out first. I just assumed I was supposed to read between the lines.
Much good may your pretty jewels do you, skank!