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We’re still a couple of months away from the holiday season taking complete hold of the world, but when that happens, we can be sure that a lot of people will revisit their favorites by watching some of the best Christmas movies around. Among those will be the modern classic, Love Actually. The film tells numerous beautiful and heartbreaking stories, but one that seems to get more attention every year is the controversial love triangle between characters played by Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, and Chiwetel Eijofor.
Lincoln plays a man in love with his best friend’s new wife. It’s not a position any of us would like to be in, but over the years, many have suggested that even letting the woman of his dreams know his feelings is a terrible thing – and Eijofor agrees. He recently told Comicbook.com that he has even told his co-star to his face that his character is a terrible best friend. He said,
I mean, I think undoubtedly. I may be biased, I may not be the jury, but I’ve said it to [Andrew Lincoln’s] face. But yeah, definitely, I think if there was a conversation between the two of them afterwards, it could become heated.
One of the most famous Love Actually scene features Mark (Andrew Lincoln) silently professing his love to Juliet (Kiera Knightley) via cue cards while Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) aloofly believes she is enjoying the performance of some door-to-door carolers. It’s intended to be seen as a cathartic moment for Lincoln’s character; now that he has unburdened his soul, he can move forward with his life. But as Ejiofor points out, the film never deals with the aftermath, which surely would have been significant if the husband/best friend ever discovered what happened.
As Love Actually has become a regular holiday season tradition, it seems more and more people are coming around to this way of thinking. Even director Richard Curtis has said that while he didn’t see the problematic nature of the scene originally, he has since come to understand what’s wrong with it and why people take issue. Even Andrew Lincoln has said he was afraid he’d come off like a “creepy stalker” while filming the movie.
To be fair, the “stalker” issue isn’t even the only bad part of the relationship. Keira Knightley was only 18 years old when she made the movie, making her barely an adult, and Lincoln is more than a decade older than her. Knightley is closer in age to the children who co-star in the film.
All that being said, Love Actually is great because it tells so many different stories about the different ways love can manifest, and unrequited love is certainly one way that happens.