December is the month of great dinners, meetings, excesses? But it is also the month of classics and traditions that seem to repeat themselves year after year. We install the tree, the nursery, we just hope for “good things”, we eat nougat, we say goodbye to the year, we have dinner as a family, we drink champagne and we review the movie Simply Love.
Looks like Curtis’ movie is already a Christmas tradition, a classic, doesn’t it?Everything I want for Christmas? The cinema, the Christmas emblem that floods the small screen. And so, year after year, since its inception in 2003, already distant Simply Love surrounds us with its love stories imbued with the Christmas spirit.
- It is true that there are other titles that appear on these dates.
- But Simply Love seems to be the reference title.
- The film that much of the population decides to see again at Christmas.
Richard Curtis has managed to assemble a successful cast, build a network of stories that reflect the different stages of love and build a kind of Christmas myth. In this article, we will show some curiosities of your success.
Richard Curtis has enjoyed success as a screenwriter with titles such as Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001), Notting Hill (1998) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). They all fit into the genre of romantic comedy and all have Hugh Grant, the actor who became one of the kings of the genre in his youth.
Grant returned to work with Curtis on Simply Love, a film of which he, in addition to being a screenwriter, was a director. The actor has joined other successful faces such as Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Colin Firth and Liam Neeson.
Curtis has achieved the impossible: reuniting British actors of the “moment. ” There are already established artists like Alan Rickman, who was recognized in the last century, and new stars, like Keira Knightley, who would begin to shine for their beginnings. of the new millennium.
Thus, a well-known cast was consolidated, a cast in which the stars of romantic comedy, such as Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, stood out, and which ultimately guaranteed the success of the film.
So it’s no wonder that Just Love devastated the box office, which audiences gathered to see the Christmas movie of the century.
However, true success came much later, thanks to word of mouth and television; one way or another, the film would eventually become the icon of an era, of romanticism and, therefore, of the Christmas spirit.
After a hearty Christmas meal, what appeals most to many is sitting on the couch and relaxing, having something in the background that encourages us, that revives the Christmas spirit, but that doesn’t make us think too much.
This is exactly what Simply Love promises, a romantic comedy, innocent but witty.
Simply Love, in fact, doesn’t want us to think too much, it’s not tedious, it’s light, it’s soft and soft, it brings a lot of smiles and it also reminds us of first-person stories What’s the key to your success?Tell a series of love stories from different perspectives and steps.
We have the young tteenscent who lives his first love with great intensity; marriage that, after many years together, begins to suffer the harm of infidelity; the enthusiast of the friend’s wife; boyfriends who, even if they don’t speak the same language, can be understood, and even a dancing prime minister who will do anything to convince his beloved.
On the other hand, the comics and the musical note are at the controls of Billy Mack, a pop star who will be the irreverent character of the film.
Curtis understands this by showing the most varied love stories. When everything seems “too sweet,” another more tragic or informal story emerges.
Thus, Curtis avoids the mellow, tragic and absurd that could have become a film that portrays the thousand faces of love. The interesting thing is that it uses a language that we know perfectly, puts before our eyes stories that, although exaggerated, connect to our reality.
For example, we have the young man who does not succeed with women in his home country, but when he moves to the United States, he realizes that his accent is admired; we have the exhausted marriage of Thompson and Rickman and even a young woman whose family problems do not allow her to have a life of her own.
It is true that some stories attract a little more and others, over time, can be reinterpreted. This is the case of the young man in love with a friend’s wife who is now seen more as a stalker than as a romantic.
Time has become the classic Christmas it is today, but it has also set aside some contemporary values.
By this we do not mean that the film has aged badly, its message is still as simple and clear as in its beginnings, however, if we analyze the film from an updated perspective, we will notice the small number of lines. who possess the female characters and the fact that there is no representation of the LGTBI collective.
Curtis seems to have thought of a story between two people of the same sex, but ended up giving up the final version. Certainly, if Simply Love had been filmed today, we would have one or more of these stories, there would be more diversity. and women would have another highlight.
In a way, it seems that 2003 is a long way off and the film shows us how our perspective has changed since then. What we consider norm and even romantic, today can be criticized.
Despite this, the film continues to triumph, its message remains universal, showing that love is everywhere, in every corner, and there are so many stories that any viewer can recognize in one of them, therein lies precisely one of its keys: in the possible recognition that the viewer is reflected in a character or in a feeling supported by a simple and natural discourse.
Simply Love draws stories full of feelings, adorned with Christmas lights and, although sometimes it becomes unlikely, appeals to love in general, that feeling we all know.
Perhaps one of its keys is humanity, the lightness of its comedy and the universality of its message that culminates in the classic airport scene. Also, is this scene a true reflection of what airports are at Christmas: places of passage, but of reunions, hugs, tears? Perhaps the best reflection of what love is.
“Whenever I feel pessimistic about the world, I think of the landing gate at Heathrow Airport. The general view is that we live in a world of hatred and selfishness, but I don’t understand it that way. Does it look like love is everywhere??? Love simply?