Satire in Movies - Part II - "Love Actually"

Since it is Christmas soon I thought that it would be a good idea to write about satire in Love Actually, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Christmas movies of all times. For those of you who don't know anything about the movie I can say that it consists of several different "love stories," and that it takes place around Christmas (it starts a few weeks before Christmas and ends a few days after (if you don't count the epilogue)). There are two prominent examples of satire in the movie, which I will now go on to discuss.

First of all, there is the example of how the song Christmas is All Around manages to become Christmas no 1 even though everyone knows that the song is really bad. This is mainly due to that the person who sings the song (Billy Mack, beautifully played by Bill Nighy) is prepared to do anything to reach no.1, including singing naked on television. This can be seen as satire of the music business, which has grown to care more about the artist and performers, and their reputation, than of the music it produces.

Secondly, there is the example of how the character Colin goes to America in the hopes of finding girls that want to sleep with him; something which he ultimately succeeds in doing. Colin bases all his beliefs about the US on stereotypes and prejudices, thinking that all American girls find British guys hot and attractive. Of course we (the audience) would regard this idea as bizarre, but when Colin reaches the US and walks into the first American bar he sees he is immediately surrounded by girls that want to have sex with him (four in total). This is clearly satire, since it exposes the absurdity of the stereotypes Colin believes in by showing how weird and unlikely (absurd) the situation Colin finds himself in is. The audience understands that what happens to Colin would probably never happen in "real life," that the movie is exaggerating, and thereby people understand that the prejudices and stereotypes about American girls most likely don't hold any validity.

I am going to go on a short Christmas break now, but I will be back in January with more satire. 'Til then, stay cool and Christmassy. If you haven't found your Christmas spirit yet, perhaps this song from Love Actually can help you.