Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)- 2010

Director: David Yates
Writers: J.K. Rowling (novel), Steve Kloves (screenplay)
Composer: Alexandre Desplat

Cast:
[returning cast]
Harry Potter- Daniel Radcliffe
Ron Weasley- Rupert Grint
Hermione Granger- Emma Watson
Draco Malfoy- Tom Felton
Professor Snape- Alan Rickman (RIP 2016)
Fred and George Weasley- James and Oliver Phelps
Mrs. Weasley- Julie Walters
Mr. Weasley- Mark Williams
Mad-Eye Moody- Brendan Gleeson
Fleur DeLaCoeur- Cleménce Poésy
Bellatrix Lestrange- Helena Bonham Carter
Narcissa Malfoy- Helen McCrory
Voldemort- Ralph Fiennes
Dolores Umbridge- Imelda Stanton
[newcomers]
Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeor- Bill Nighy
Bill Weasley- Domnhall Gleeson (in case you didn't make the connection, fun fact- he's Mad Eye's son IRL... he'd also since shown up in the Star Wars movies as an Empire commander who gets made fun of a lot by the other characters, good and bad)
Xenophilius Lovegood- Rhys Ifans
Mundungus Fletcher- Andy Linden
Yaxley- Peter Mullan

...it's really hard trying to figure out who I should and shouldn't include... there's so many people in this movie, but few with really big roles.

Notable Nominations:
Art Direction and Visual Effects

 Write-up:

Opening Comments

Wow, my last post from this series was in 2016... I don't think I'd seen any of the movies except maybe the Chamber of Secrets and Fantastic Beasts since then. I think it's also the first time I'd seen any of the movies since we actually went to Harry Potter in Universal Studios. That was one tremendous nerdgasm, just seeing all this stuff from the movies. Hogsmeade Village and Diagon Alley as well as so many tourists in costume and robes. It's almost like it's Comic-Con there every day and it is awesome. (Also, very expensive). We went through Hogwarts Castle and were unknowingly whisked off to a ride where we had to escape the castle. Our feet were dangling and we were thrown forward and backwards and the visuals varied between actual set design and a movie where we zipped through the Quidditch pitch and around the castle. My mom keeps saying she loved it, but it half scared the crap out of me and my sister. I literally blinked my way through the times we were moving because a) it was a little too much of a rush and b) it was kinda terrifying and I thought maybe I'd throw up a couple times. But the times we were still or laying on our backs, just looking at the scenery around us. We saw spiders, dementors and the Hungarian Horntail. The dragon and its breath were AWESOME. The spiders and dementors... :shudder: both creepy. At least with the dementor, I tried to think happy thoughts because that's how you defeat them. Yep, I'm a true Potter head :P
We also ate true British cuisine at the Hogsmeade Pub and had Butterbeer... so good! We also saw some girls dressed like they went to Madame Maxime's Academy of Magic. As for souvenirs, I got a T-shirt, a Ravenclaw scarf (cuz I like blue... although I may have fit into that house... I took the quiz at Pottermore and it actually put me in Slytherin... in my defense, so was Merlin and he wasn't a bad wizard), and a time-turner. And the cashier was great, saying for me not to use the time-turner to take more money out of my band account. He was totally in character and it was awesome.

Oh and we also saw Grimmauld Place on the street... which brings me back to this movie. The film does spend some time there, but seeing it again after having been there last October... oh man, that was great.

Now for the actual movie...
It was a 2-part movie and this is part one. For Harry Potter, this was definitely justified because both halves revolve around two different settings. Part One is basically Harry, Ron and Hermione on the run, trying to figure out how to find Horcruxes (objects that contain pieces of Voldemort's soul) and destroy them. And Part Two is essentially "the Battle of Hogwarts." Where they decided to split the two movies couldn't have been more perfect.


Spoilers Ahead...Read the Books!

Adaptation
For starters, I'll say that I think I'd read this book three times EVER. Once was when we first got it... I remember that my mom and dad were off to Vegas July 2007. Sometime when they were away, I watched Under the Cherry Moon for the first time (and my sister walked in a couple of times and said there was too much kissing in the movie... and Prince isn't the best on-screen kisser, I don't think anyway). And when they came back, my mom came with the book. She bought it at the airport and was reading it on the plane, as was another passenger and they briefly talked about being fans and such.
I remember my experience reading the book and how we took turns with it. The first hundred or so pages was agonizing because nothing was happening. So when this movie was split up, I initially thought that a lot of this book could have been shrunk down to fit into one movie. But after seeing the end result, I'm happy with how they did it.

As for transferring the book to the actual movie, most of it was done well. I wish they kept the scene where Harry and his cousin Dudley have their final goodbyes because it was kinda of a big moment in the book. A bit of a payoff after all those years where Dudley and his friends bullied him.
The story kept pace pretty well and they montaged a lot of stuff that should have been montaged in the actual book, lol. We watched it last night and I felt like the movie zipped by really fast. It's 2 hours and 13 minutes and it really didn't drag. Maybe because I spent half of the movie noticing little things I hadn't before or that I was actively questioning stuff. You know, nerding out.
For the most part, I think the story followed the book really well and not much was changed too much where I could complain about it.

One new thing I noticed was at Malfoy Manor at the beginning. Voldemort is practically having a Council of Evil dinner party and they're discussing finding/killing Harry when he's being shuttled to a safe house. At the table, there were a couple of characters I didn't pay much attention to until now. This was this guy Yaxley that nearly catches up with Harry and his friends when they infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and I thought it was weird that Hermione knew his name, but I had no idea who he was or why he was after them. Seeing him at this dinner party, I totally get the connection. And the guy that Voldemort says spoke "like a true politician"- he becomes the new Minister of Magic.

Oh yeah... Rufus Scrimgeour is the new Minister of Magic that was elected after Fudge had to resign at the end of the Order of the Phoenix. He was elected in the 6th book and actually meets Harry where he tries to get him to help the Minister renew their image or mend relations with him after they spent the previous book tarnishing his image. Harry, of course, declines and lets him have it. In this movie, we're meeting him for the first time. A little nit-pick, I know, but I thought it was a little too much when we start the movie with him giving a speech and the camera is staring at his eyes... a little TOO close there, Mr. Director!
He shows up at the Weasley House to read Dumbledore's Will (I remember how this was one of the first three scenes we got to see before the movie came out) and bequeaths three random objects to the three main characters and ultimately says "I don't know what you plan to do, but you can't do this alone"... then next we hear about him, he gets killed by Death Eaters and the Ministry has fallen...

The movie starts on a bit of a sad note because Hermione wipes her parents' memories of her. I remember watching through this YouTube series, Cinema Sins, where they nitpick movies endlessly. Half of their Harry Potter nitpicks were things that were EXPLAINED IN THE BOOKS so I thought they were completely stupid. The other half is Deus Ex Machina, a literary device where things are conveniently placed in the books because they explain/resolve things later in the plot. One example is in Chamber of Secrets where Herbology happens to be teaching everyone about Mandrakes the same year Mudbloods are getting petrified and juice made from them is the cure. It's something that does happen a lot in the Harry Potter books, but so what... so as much as I like watching Cinema Sins, the guy behind it sounds like an ignorant jerk... I guess you could call it a guilty pleasure cuz I'd watched a bunch of these videos.
Anyway, the point I wanted to make... he got one thing right... when Hermione wipes her parents' memories, she also erases her picture from all the picture frames. His comment was "won't Hermione's parents think it's strange they have a lot of blank picture frames in their house"...  I get why she did it. Cuz if the Death Eaters find them and who they are, they'd probably torture them with the Cruciatus Curse and drive them incurably insane.

We do get a little story process when Harry and the other two stay at Grimmauld Place and learn who R.A.B. is. He left a note inside the locket Harry and Dumbledore retrieved in the previous movie, saying the locket is a fake and he plans to destroy the real Horcrux. Having inherited Grimmauld Place and Kreaker the house-elf from Sirius, Harry's able to compel Kreaker to tell him where the locket is. Mundungus Fletcher barely has any screen time, but we at least give him hell for running away when the Death Eaters attack the Order when they're transferring Harry to the safe house. It's because he ran that Mad-Eye Moody got killed.
But wouldn't you know it- the Ministry person he sold the locket was OUR Undesirable #1, former Professor Umbridge. I can understand why J.K. Rowling brought her back (she was disgraced and fired after her actions in the 5th book) in this book because who else to be in charge of the Muggle Registry... someone who thinks she knows better than everyone else and passive-aggressively tells muggle-borns that they can't be witches or wizards because they have no magic blood. Voldemort has always preferred purebloods above all others, but his policies really do hit home when we see all the propaganda the Ministry is sending out.
I could talk more on politics and who Umbridge reminds me of, but I've got better things to do.

While the movie is pretty dang serious through most of it, it's nice to have some of the Weasleys as comic relief. George gets injured the night of Harry's transfer and he comes up with the perfect line to make the seriousness of it go away. And later Ron has a couple of funny lines as well. That kinda makes up for the fact he turns into a jerk halfway through the movie and leaves because (shock horror) Harry has no idea how to find or destroy the Horcruxes. I thought Ron was a bit of a jerk in the Goblet of Fire after Harry is chosen to be in the Triwizard tournament, but this was over the top. But I guess if someone had to leave, he would... it also brings up a good talking point that the fandom had talked about for years. About why Harry and Hermione didn't end up together because they seem to be a good fit. I think J.K. Rowling came out and said she wanted to put Harry and Hermione together as well, but doing so would have taken Ron out of the picture entirely. Although looking at the actual quote where she says Ron/Hermione was "wish fulfillment"... I don't quite understand what she means by that. The article I read tried to explain that, but never gets anywhere.
But Ron has had issues for years being in the shadow of all his brothers as well as the great Harry Potter, so it makes sense that this would come to a head here of all places. There was a scene in the movie that was new and it was a nice addition. Hermione is depressed when Ron leaves and Harry tries to cheer her up by dancing with her to something on the radio.

My favorite scene of the whole movie is in Godric's Hollow where Harry wants to see where his parents are buried and it's where Bathilda Bagshot lives. She apparently was interviewed by Rita Skeeter for a new book (a smear piece on Dumbledore and his private life... she's still at, unfortunately... in the 4th book, Hermione does inevitably catch up with her and threatens to out her as an illegal Animagus if she doesn't stop with the swear pieces... it was left out of the movies, but considering this storyline, it kinda makes sense that it was left out). Anyway, Harry thinks it might be another lead towards a Horcrux.
Just the moment where it's snowing on Christmas Eve and Harry and Hermione are looking over the Potters' headstone... it was really solemn and sweet and sad all at the same time.

The way Ron ultimately comes back, maybe there were too many coincidences thrown together to make it work, but I honestly don't care. But him talking about this little ball of light that comes out of the Deluminator, goes into his heart and takes him to where Harry and Hermione are... I vaguely remember at the Oscars that they made fun, trying to make it sound like he's singing about this little ball of light. They did that with other movies too, but that one always stuck with me LOL

Another great scene is where they see Luna's dad about this symbol sees in her Beedle the Bard book (another thing from Dumbledore's will) and at the Peverell grave in Godric's Hollow. Three guesses what the symbol is... it's in the title...
Anyway, Hermione reads this story about the Three Brothers, which is about the Deathly Hallows. They choose to animate it. Not only is it a compelling story and Hermione is a great reader... but just the way it is animated... I got so sucked in that I was enchanted for the rest of the movie. It's REALLY well done. No doubt that's the reason this movie was nominated for two Oscars... beat by Inception and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

The remainder of the movie is pretty dramatic, though...
Harry and the others get caught by Snatchers (who work with the Ministry to round up Muggleborns with winds) and taken to the Malfoys because despite a stinging jinx Hermione uses on him, they believe Harry is with them.
Harry and Ron are thrown in the basement and Bellatrix Lestrange tortures Hermione, thinking they stole the sword of Gryffindor from her Gringotts Vault. According to IMDB, a lot of it was cut out because it would have pushed for a more mature rating. It was that bad. And it also says that after the scene was shot, Helena Bonham Carter is extremely apologetic to Emma Watson. The screaming and her expression afterwards really sells it. (She'd carved "mudblood" into her arm).

Throughout the books, Dobby the House-Elf made several appearances since Harry freed in the Chamber of the Secrets. But in the movies, all of the moments where he helped further the plot (giving Harry the gillyweed for the 2nd task at the Triwizard tournament and locating the Room of Requirement for Dumbledore's Army to meet) were given to Neville. I don't disagree with giving Neville more screen time to do something other than getting jinxed... but I just thought it was lazy on their part cuz they didn't want to spend time on that animation.
Dobby finally returns and of course it's for the last time... that's the really unfortunate part. Although it is nice he actually saves Harry's life and he actually needs him to (in the Chamber of Secrets, he kept trying to get Harry kicked out of Hogwarts because he overhears from the Malfoys something terrible will happen)... it's a minor nitpick, but I hate that his animation is completely different from the previous movie. I don't know, I just really like continuity with how characters look. When I go into the Twilight movies, I'll REALLY have a field day with that.

A few more funny things from this particular viewing...

The moment where Harry says in the Ministry of Magic (he and Hermione are disguised as employees using Polyjuice Potion) that if they don't find Umbridge in an hour, they'll come back another day... and a second later she shows up at the elevator, I screamed :P it's been so long since I'd seen it I totally forgot it was that moment. Plus, I really don't like her. Major ick factor.

I also noticed that the number 7 came up a lot in the series... just a random observation. My mom asked me how many Harrys there were when the Order was getting him to the safe house and half of his friends took Polyjuice potions to become decoys. (So funny when Fred and George said "look, we're identical"... their voices coming out of Daniel Radcliffe kinda reminded me of Merry and Pippin from Lord of the Rings, cuz Harry is a lot shorter than they are and just their accents. Plus they're all comic relief characters). I somehow remembered the chapter said there was 7, but I said it was called "the seven Harrys"... it was called the "seven Potters"... close enough, I say.
Plus there are 7 Horcruxes and 7 Weasley siblings (also, I know he didn't really have a part to play in the story, but it kinda sucks we never got to meet Charlie Weasley, Ron's brother who studies dragons in Romania) and I remembered just now that Harry's Quidditch uniform has the #7 on it. Oh, and there are 7 players on a Quidditch team.
I know it's not the most original number to use everywhere (Prince has SEVERAL songs that mention the number 7... including one just called "7"), but I just thought that was a fun/funny observation.

Wow, my Harry nerdom really does show in these posts :P
Also two things I noticed were recurring themes in this movie... but they were only referred to once in the second movie and that was when they were actually useful... the shard of the mirror Sirius had given Harry and Harry had used to it to call for help and got Dobby (he finds out who was actually behind it in the next movie) and there's the Snitch Harry got from Dumbledore's will. It shows up throughout the movie, flying around and he sees the words "I open at the close" on it. But by the time it shows up in the last movie, you completely forget that he has it... I just find that a little odd. But that's what happens when you have two separate movies.
Unless of course you play them back to back... which we did once before... the reason it took so long to do this was because my mom refuses to watch this movie unless we see the second half soon afterwards, whether it's hours or days...

so now it's time to watch the last Harry Potter movie and put an end to all this... sadly, but it must be done.

42. Love Actually (2003)

Code-name: Brit X-mas

Writer/Director: Richard Curtis
Type: British Christmas rom-com
Music: Craig Armstrong

Notable Nominations:
Golden Globe- Best Film (Comedy/Musical)
Golden Globe- Best Original Screenplay- Richard Curtis

Cast:
[The Music Circuit]
Billy Mack- Bill Nighy
Billy Mack's manager, Joe- Gregor Fisher

[Parliament]
David, the Prime Minister- Hugh Grant
Natalie- Martine McCutcheon
U.S. President- Billy Bob Thorton

[The Office]
Harry- Alan Rickman
Mia, Harry's secretary- Heike Makatsch
Sarah- Laura Linney
Karl- Rodrigo Santoro

[The Cabin in the Woods]
Jamie- Colin Firth
Aurelia- Lucia Moniz

[The Porn-Film Shoot]
John- Martin Freeman
Just Judy- Joanna Page

[The Wedding]
Juliet- Keira Knightley
Mark- Andrew Lincoln
Peter- Chiwetel Ejiofor

[The Funeral and the Christmas Show]
Daniel- Liam Neeson
Sam- Thomas Sangster
Karen- Emma Thompson
Joanna- Olivia Olson
Carol- Claudia Schiffer

[Coming to America]
Colin Frissel- Kris Marshall
Tony- Abdul Salis
Stacey "American Dreamgirl"- Ivana Milicevic
Jeanine "American Angel"- January Jones
Carol-Anne "American Goddess"- Elisha Cuthbert
Harriet ("She's the 'sexy' one")- Shannon Elizabeth
Carla ("She's real friendly")- Denise Richards

Rufus, the Jeweler- Rowan Atkinson

Write-up:

Caution: Spoilers ahead

In the introduction of the "Glee"ksmas episode, "Glee, Actually," Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) hinted that the show would pay homage to "Love Actually" with its plot structure. She then added it's "a movie that I don't think anyone cares for but is constantly on cable"
http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/Glee,_Actually

Yes, the fact this movie is in my top 101 says it all, but I just wanted to take this moment tos say: "Yes, Sue Sylvester, people do care about this movie. Particularly me, my mom and her side of the family."

It's not so much that we live and breathe this movie as it's become a Christmas tradition in recent years. Simply cannot go a season without seeing it at least once.
It doesn't just have a great cast, but they play characters all of us can see ourselves in. Throughout the movie, no matter what's going on, you find yourselves pulling for them to get their happy ending. However realistic some of them are... who cares, really? That's what movies are for. Making impossibilities, like Colin's American dream coming true or Sam reaching the gate to tell Joanna that he loves her, possible because they make us warm and fuzzy. Heck, those are rom-coms in a nutshell, really.

If I remember right, this was one of many movies my mom talked me into... not that I needed much convincing. I already loved Hugh Grant. Plus the chance to see Alan Rickman, Professor Snape himself, play a normal person... hard to resist.
As it usually happens, I find more to love about certain movies with time either because I can understand the circumstances better with my own experiences or, in this case, the names have become more familiar.

I didn't recognize Bill Nighy until he appeared as Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgour in the 7th Harry Potter movie. Or Rodrigo Santono until I saw him in "Post-Grad" alongside Alexis Biedel.
But the most notable connection I made, roughly an hour ago, Chiwetel Ejiofor (yeah, the guy who's up for an Oscar for "12 years a slave") was the guy who married Keira Knightley in this movie... my mind's still picking up the pieces from that explosion.

Another cool tidbit I found out a couple years ago, in the heat of my newfound crazy love for this movie, the actors who play Sam and Joanna went on to do voiceover work in the Disney Channel series "Phineas & Ferb."
Sam plays Ferb, Phineas's "man of few words" step-brother and Joanna plays Vanessa, the daughter of Perry the Platypus's nemesis Dr. Doofenshmirtz. They even wrote a story arc where Ferb has a crush on Vanessa.


Say what you will... "Phineas & Ferb" was the last great show Disney Channel put out (coming from someone who grew up with "LIzzie McGuire" and "That's So Raven"... well, I grew up with them as soon as our cable provider carried the Disney Channel).

Zooey Deschanel's website HelloGiggles.com had a great article someone wrote the other month, ranking the relationships featured throughout "Love Actually" from least to most romantic.
http://hellogiggles.com/ranking-the-love-actually-couples-from-least-to-most-romantic
I love how Santina Muhi broke each relationship down, what made them work, what didn't and being blunt where bluntness was absolutely needed. The rest of this entry will be my 2 cents on each relationship, but I recommend giving this article a read 8-) especially if you love this movie as much as we do.

One storyline that falls by the wayside, particularly on cable but also in conversation, is John and Just Judy. I didn't even know until I saw the Extras on the DVD that they weren't porn stars, but STAND-INS. What they were doing all over the art studio, being the naïve person I am, I didn't understand it. I thought it was part of this odd infatuation some British filmmakers have with commonplace nudity. As if there had to be a story arc with notable nudity because they're not as uptight about it as Americans are.
(Strangely enough, writer/director Richard Curtis isn't British, but a Kiwi [New Zealander]).
Ultimately, the two of them do hit it off and decide to go out, come the end of the shoot, to see what happens.

I'm not following Santini's rankings exactly, but I plan on getting the awkward, blunt and negative moments out of the way before getting to the really good stuff.

Sarah is probably the character I can relate to the most. She's been suffering from the pangs of unrequited love for two years, pining for the office hottie, Karl. There's one notable scene where she's racking up the courage to talk to him, waiting until the end of the day with her face all dolled-up, only to let the moment slip through her fingers out of shyness.
Been there, done that...
Thanks to the magic of movies. she does get her chance with him. Then it goes to hell and never comes back.

Throughout the movie, you see Sarah's phone ring off the hook. Only at this pivotal, the most awkward of all, moments do they reveal the caller is her brother who is less than well. I don't know if he's mentally ill or he's schizophrenic (because it's mentioned he hears voices in his head), but I cringe whenever I get to this part.
I really want to say I wish that problem didn't exist for her, that she just put herself first for a change and stop picking up the goddam phone, but deep down, I know I would have made the same choices. You're compelled by blood to be there for your family, however bad their timing may be.

Another cringe-worthy storyline is Alan Rickman's flirtation with his secretary. I don't care if the dude could hex me to death with the Avada Kedavra curse or that she was practically asking for it like the office skank she is. He was being a jerk and should have known better.
Which makes his scene with Rowan Atkinson even sweeter. He picks out a necklace for his would-be "mistress" (they never officially get together) and Rowan Atkinson takes forever, putting all kinds of flourishes in the gift-wrapping process. Couldn't have cast that part better.

Supposedly, Rufus the Jeweler was meant to be a Christmas angel, explaining his intervention at the airport scene... taking that into account, his scene at the jewelry counter has a secondary purpose as well. By taking so long with the gift-wrapping, it allowed time for Emma Thompson to see her husband by the jewelry, gave her the idea to sneak a peak at her gift and allowed her to experience the residual disappointment. Ultimately, this allows her to catch onto his cheating and brings their martial problems to the forefront, something they obviously needed.
They never did explain what happened to their marriage after that. Did they spend time apart to take a break? Or did they end up divorcing?

On a different note, we have the unconventional relationship between fading rock star Billy Mack and his "fat manager," Joe. The movie begins with his cockamamie Christmas song where they simply changed the lyric "love is all around" to "Christmas is all around"... cannot hear the original without bursting out laughing :-P
Billy Mack knows how stupid it is, yet the song somehow gains enough steam throughout December to become the #1 song of the season... go figure, right?
But even after getting back on top, getting invites from Elton John to party, he goes back to his "fat manager" and declares his love for him. An interesting twist for sure, but I guess it makes sense we had to have one sprinkle of "same love" here.

Interestingly, one of the people at the wedding reception (I think it was Sarah) mistakenly deduces that Mark is sad because he was in love with his newly married friend Peter... when, in fact, it was Juliet. In the time they've known one another, Juliet had been under the impression that Mark didn't like her because he never talked to her. But it was the opposite. I don't know which scene makes me tear up more: when Juliet sees her face at the focus of her wedding video (one of many examples of Craig Armstrong's beautiful score) or when Mark tells her the truth with cue cards and "Silent Night" playing in the background.

So sweet... :-P

Probably my favorite storyline is the one with Colin. It's a shame that Kris Marshall hasn't done any mainstream movies since this one because he's a good looking guy. A bit of a dork, yeah, but cute.
He has this grand scheme to go to America to find love since American girls go crazy for guys with British accents. Well... duh, of course. And like I said, only in the movies would that prove to be true.
The main criticism about this part is that all the American girls that he "hooks up with" at the bar are played by models... funny how January Jones and Elisha Cuthbert became big names far after this movie came out.

As a whole, this movie has one of the best soundtracks. Lots of great artists sprinkled throughout the album. In addition to "Christmas is all around," we have

• "The Trouble with Love is" by Kelly Clarkson
• "Bye Bye Baby" by Bay City Roller (which I will always associate with the funeral scene... a great way to remember a loved one)
• "All you need is love" (before the "Forever (on the dance floor)" wedding went viral on YouTube, this was the first pop culture instant of a marriage ceremony with a twist... word is that puppeteers did it for Jim Henson when he passed)
• a couple selections from Joni Mitchell (whom Emma Thompson had said was her emotional education... I first heard about her in a Prince song but nowadays, "River" and "A Case of You" jump to mind automatically)

Colin's storyline has my favorite soundtrack selections because they were current. "Sweetest Goodbye" by Maroon 5, "Smooth" by Rob Thomas & Santana and "Wherever you will go" by The Calling.

Of course, the one part of the soundtrack everyone who's seen this movie remembers coincides with the storyline everyone who's seen this movie remembers...

Daniel was married to Sam's mom, who'd just passed away. He's been distant so he asks him if something is troubling him. Apparently the trouble is that he's in love with a girl in his class.
I take it back. THIS is my favorite storyline because Liam Neeson goes on to prove he's the coolest stepdad ever. I have my own reservations about "Titanic," but I always love how they used it in this movie.

When the two of them are moping, Daniel says "we need Kate and Leo and we need them now" and they go on to reenact the "King of the World" scene... they talk about Jack and Rose as if they were soulmates, how they knew they were the only one for each other. Sam is absolutely positive that Joanna was "the one".
He then gets the idea to get good at the drums because girls like musicians. This translates to the play the kids are putting on at school, which includes an unorthodox Nativity scene (with Barney as the baby Jesus, a whale, an octopus and some lobsters) and Joanna singing Mariah Carey's synonymous Christmas anthem "All I Want for Christmas is You."

My dad's almost never into rom-coms, but that caught his attention enough where he had to look up Olivia Olson. And when it plays at Christmastime, he refers to it as "that Mariah Carey song"... definitely a candidate for the most current Christmas classic we have.
(Ironically, not a single Christmas album we own includes it)

Granted, the scene where Sam rushes through the airport to catch up with Joanna (who's going back with her family to America) wouldn't have happened in this day and age with all the 9/11 precautions... and this movie does take place post-9/11. Chalk it up to movie magic or paying homage to "The Graduate"... either way, Sam does what he set out to do. Joanna does know his name and she likes him back.

It's a tough call... who I'd rather end up with, Colin Firth or Hugh Grant in this movie. And this is discounting the fact Hugh Grant is the freaking Prime Minister :-P

Hugh Grant's the better looking one, but I feel a kinship with Colin Firth because he's playing a struggling writer.

His storyline starts rather horribly... he finds out his girlfriend had been cheating on him with his brother. So he retreats to a cabin in France for relaxation and to get some writing done. There, he slowly falls for his Portuguese housekeeper Aurelia. Despite their language barrier, they get along famously. Even more romantic, both of them learn each other's language and the season ends with him proposing to her.

I don't know if that's romantic or the fact Hugh Grant literally went door to door to declare his feelings for Natalie, a new member of his household staff.
One scene I can never get over is seeing his dance throughout his headquarters to "Jump (For My Love)" by the Pointer Sisters... if you haven't seen it, you gotta YouTube it. It's super cute, if not extremely hilarious. Either way, great for a smile.

Their love story hits a brick wall when the American President comes to town.
First of all, Billy Bob Thorton is our president? In addition to the models playing the American girls Colin gets together with, what does this guy playing our president say about us?
That the office of U.S. President is a joke to the Brits?

I'll let the politically inclined folks debate about that one.
But because of this newfound friction with our President, with Natalie caught in the middle, Hugh Grant decides to "redistribute" her so they don't have to see each other again.

Her Christmas card ultimately gives him enough incentive to look her up where she lives. "At the dodgy end." Only in the movies would a Prime Minister go door to door to find the girl of his dreams... not to mention Hugh Grant, probably one of the best looking British actors, actually getting elected to such a prestigious station.
Aside from getting to the end, the coolest highlight is when a couple girls ask him to sing carols and he does "Ol' King Wenceslas" with his chauffer.

Just great fun, this movie. I discovered "The Holiday" as the perfect holiday movie to cozy up with with a hot beverage. "Love Actually" is even better... kinda like a soapy TV Show you and your girlfriends would watch together and enjoy with ample drinks and sweets.