Few rom-coms have stood the test of time quite the way Love Actually has. One of the things that sets Love Actually apart from other films is its many intertwined storylines and the way they never seem to stop sparking discussion. From the rise and fall of fans' appreciation of that famous "to me, you are perfect" sign scene to regular discourse about the fate of Laura Linney’s character, there’s something about Love Actually that keeps us thinking. It’s not just a movie that we love, actually; it’s a movie that we’re ready to argue about... actually.
Well, 'tis the season for everyone’s annual Love Actually re-watch, and for those of us who have cast Jamie (Colin Firth) and Aurelia's (Lúcia Moniz) storyline off as unrealistic or even shallow, it’s time to give this arc a second look. Jamie and Aurelia's storyline isn’t as lacking in depth as it may seem; in fact, it’s one of the best storylines Love Actually has to offer.
Jamie and Aurelia Put the 'Love' in 'Love Actually'
First, it's important to remember the start to Jamie’s storyline in Love Actually. He arrives at home after attending a wedding and hears his girlfriend — who had previously claimed to be staying home sick — summoning Jamie’s own brother into the room in a manner that makes it clear they're having an affair and also leaves little to the imagination. This sets viewers off on the right foot rooting for Jamie. He then travels to a cottage in France to be alone and work on writing his novel. There, he meets his housekeeper, Aurelia, and the two fall in love, despite the fact that neither of them speaks or understands the other one's language.
There are moments throughout Love Actually designed to elicit "aww"s from viewers as the pair talks at each other over the course of the film, Jamie in English and Aurelia in Portuguese. In one scene, Jamie admits that his favorite part of the day is when he spends time with Aurelia while driving her home, and she admits that the worst part of her day is when she has to leave him (though, of course, neither understands what the other is saying.) Ultimately, when Jamie goes back to England, he realizes that he wants to be with Aurelia and starts to learn Portuguese in preparation to make a grand gesture to win her heart. As a pivotal scene in Love Actually begins to tie the storylines together in emotionally heightened urgency, the music swells as Jamie searches the streets for Aurelia, followed eventually by a mob of people invested in watching the storyline play out. Jamie proposes to Aurelia in what subtitles indicate is very broken Portuguese, and Aurelia agrees in equally broken English, saying that she learned to speak English "just in cases."
Ultimately, the story of Jamie and Aurelia is perfect romantic comedy content, and Love Actually is a romantic comedy, after all. Love Actually doesn't always feel like the classic rom-com, especially when it tries to deliver on the "actually" part of its title. It gives us the scene where Emma Thompson's character, Karen, cries alone in her bedroom after discovering that her husband is cheating on her, the moment where a glance between Sarah (Laura Linney) and Karl (Rodrigo Santoro) reveals that they never actually got together, or even the surprise ending where Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) professes his (platonic) love for the manager he's been verbally abusing for the rest of the movie. This is far from what we're expecting from classic romantic comedies, yet these moments give Love Actually its depth and likely a lot of its staying power. Yet, Love Actually needs some hopeless romantic, head-in-the-clouds rom-com moments to balance it out. Jamie and Aurelia give the audience just that. Still, that doesn't mean that their storyline in Love Actually is nothing but fluff.
Romance Is All About Communication
Jamie and Aurelia's romance sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of Love Actually storylines, because it's easy to forget it when it's stacked up against the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) kissing his former assistant on stage at a children's play or young Thomas Brodie-Sangster leaping over airport security guards to give the girl he has a crush on a kiss goodbye. Then, when the yearly Love Actually discourse rolls around, fans often label the Jamie/Aurelia plot line "unrealistic" and move onto the next. And, sure – the likelihood of two people hitting it off when they don't speak the same language, learning each other's languages, and working out in the end really does defy the odds. Yet, what makes Jamie and Aurelia's relationship is deeper than what it looks like on the surface.
The other couples in Love Actually have roadblocks that they need to overcome in order to be together. For Jamie and Aurelia, though, their roadblock is that they don't know how to communicate with each other. While it's certainly unusual to try to have a successful relationship with someone whom you can't talk to, at all, not knowing how to effectively communicate with one's partner is far from unique or unrealistic. Jamie and Aurelia both put in the effort to meet their partner where they are and learn how to communicate with their partner in the unique, specific way that they need. In the end, the couple's effort doesn't just give them a common language to communicate in; it gives them two. Sure – most people can speak the same language as their partner before things start to get serious, but plenty of people could take Jamie and Aurelia's lead when it comes to putting in effort to learn how to communicate with their partner. With a fairytale, rom-com-ready happy ending and some built-in advice about real-life love, Jamie and Aurelia's storyline is looking much more worthy of the best Love-Actually-romance crown than it may have on the first watch.
Jamie and Aurelia's romance is all about communication, and communication should be a vital topic in a movie that claims to be all about love. Early on in Love Actually, when Aurelia causes the pages Jamie has written to be swept away, he assures her that they weren't very good, and therefore, it doesn't matter that they're lost. In the end, when Jamie makes an attempt to speak to Aurelia in Portuguese but fumbles with his words, their relationship proves that he doesn't need to find exactly the right words to be happy; he just has to try. Jamie's relationship with language then seems to come full circle, and it's easy to see why — when it comes to communicating in love, really putting forth the effort is half the battle.
So, whether you think a couple could really fall in love without truly understanding what the other is saying or not, perhaps Love Actually would rather us ponder just how much communication actually has to do with love and how making an effort to understand your partner and help them to understand you can really make all the difference. And, if that's putting too much weight on a romantic comedy for your taste, sit back and enjoy the happy ending. This storyline really has whatever you may be looking for in your love story. You know – "just in cases."