I will start off my review by saying I love Love Actually...I have in fact watched it more times than I can count just this year (obviously a certain movie channel has been playing it on repeat).

I found this book really funny and refreshing and I laughed out loud plenty of times throughout.

I am aware that the film is problematic with some themes but have never thought of it as fat phobic....having always been on the bigger side. .thats just how society is. The fact that people DO actually think the gorgeous and thin Martine is plump just underlies that fact and is almost making fun of how ridiculous it is that anyone thought that. All the fat jokes to me in LA underline the opposite, that its ridiculous people think like that, rather than that they actually hate fat people and I was very surprised the author did not explore that idea.

I am glad he hated Andrew Lincoln's character as much as I do and was also disappointed in the Laura Linney storyline ending up like that.

With the Laura Linney storyline I think he was again very harsh on Richard Curtis. I didn't see it as being bad about mental health but in fact showing that sometimes the family of sufferers have to give up so much....I always took it as a sympathetic look at carers and their lives.

The one thing I cannot believe he didn't mention though (which would have got a 5 star review if he had!) Was that Emma Thompson's Karen changed her appearance in the final scene...for her cheating husband. That always makes me rage as it always said to me Harry wouldn't have cheated if Karen had made more of an effort...which is a) often thought and b) absolutely outrageous.

This book is enjoyable whether you love or hate Love Actually and is very witty and although I did not agree with all the authors opinions, I very much appreciated the depth he had gone into and the analysis.

This is a really funny, different book and I would highly recommend it to anyone. I will definitely be reading more by this author...as I loved his tone and humour.

This would be a terrific gift - so stock up for next Christmas as it is bound to cause alot of laughter and discussion with family and friends!

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A thorough analysis of Love Actually which highlights ominous storylines, misogyny, lack of structure and so many more aspects.

As a lover of Love Actually I still enjoyed this critical point of view. And I agree with most of the points made.
It’s highly questionable how and why the film is such a classic and I will certainly look around for another Christmas related film to replace Love Actually as festive must-see.

Ok it's quite clever and it's interesting to read another persons in depth review of the film, but I found it joyless, nit-picking and quite annoying!

It didn't stop me from enjoying my annual watch of the film a couple of days later, and I must admit that I did point a few of the writer's observations out to my daughter while we were watching.

I loved Love Actually when it came out, but as time has gone on, I'm more fond of some of the characters than I am about the whole thing, and there are definitely elements that have not aged well to say the least. Now I didn't come out of this a full-on convert to the Church of Hating Love Actually, but this made me think - as well as making me laugh - and I suspect that next time I come across the film on TV, I'll probably change channel rather than hang around!

I love this film, but was invited to read the book by NetGalley, and thought I would try it.

Very disappointed, the book tried too hard to be funny and fell flat on its face for me. Rubbish book!

"Love Actually" is a movie I could (and did) watch again several times. Maybe not every year, but surely every third year I would say. And until now I found nothing wrong with that, or the movie itself.

Reading this book made me see some things in a different light. To be honest, I have never noticed the casual misogyny before. And while I don't agree on all the examples the author brings for that here, I do see his point.

Some things I just haven't questioned as much as the author does, for example how unappropriate it is when your boss tells you to finally make a move on the hot co-worker. But on the other hand - this is the only scene that makes me see Alan Rickman's character as a 'nice guy'. In all his other scenes he is looking a bit like Grumpy from "Snow White", and Gary Raymond is completely right when he writes that "he's looked narrow-eyed the entire film". I have never realised that before, but it's so true!

Gary Raymonds dismantles the whole film, scene by scene. And in almost every one of them he finds something at fault. It's just like when you know that you don't (want to) like something and then you are looking for every tiny tittle that supports your theory. Sometimes he has a point, but often it's just overdone in my opinion. For example complaining that all the people in the movie are WASPs, which firstly is not true and secondly it's like complaining that in "The Full Monty" are no wealthy characters or in "Trainspotting" no clean ones.

Although I didn't agree on everything he critizes, I still liked reading Raymonds thoughts on the movie, because he writes in a very entertaining and often sarcastic way. And I do question some of the things now. I also have to agree that the movie is not really about Christmas that much! It's just set in the weeks leading up to that and features only a few Christmassy things: a Christmas song, Christmas shopping, a Christmas Office Party and the Christmas concert + nativity play at school. Not so much after all...

Nevertheless, I'm sure I will watch this movie again (and again, and probably again after that).

Well researched but actually joyless.

I like Love Actually. It's not my favorite Christmas film ever but I watch it on occasion. I started this book expecting to laugh a little, maybe even agree with some of the points made. I did neither.

To give the author their due, they've presented their argument well as a scene by scene analysis of the film with references and footnotes that shows they've put thought into their writing. However, the tone of the book is too arrogant and condescending.

As both a feminist and a queer person, I feel the criticism sometimes veers too far into white Knight territory - jokes.and dialogues are labelled offensive when I certainly found nothing to be offended by although I'm supposedly the target of the joke.

The style quickly wore thin for me and by the halfway point all I felt was annoyed that the author was making judgements about every little aspect of.the film, but not in an amusing, engaging way. The writing oozes with an arrogant tone (as.preciously mentioned) and I think while this may have worked as a short form essay or as a chapter in a longer work analysing various Christmas film's, at over 200 pages this book ran far too long.

Ironically enough, something the author frequently chastises Love Actually for doing...

An interesting look at the movie. It was nice how it was broken down and easy to follow. I can see how it was done, but I think it was not as fun as I thought it would be. Not so much an entertaining read, but more of a break down on social norms. I guess I was defensive a bit because I love the movie and it’s just suppose to be a fun movie, and we understand that a lot of movies and entertainment don’t always think of social justice. This was also back in the early 2000s, and the changes in society since shows the age of the movie.
This is definitely not a book for everyone, but it was an interesting one and the right audience will enjoy it.

Thanks to Parthian Books and Gary Raymond for the review copy of the book.

Ok, this was always going to be a gamble. I LOVE Love Actually, Like really love it - I am one of those people who watches that and The Holiday every single Christmas without fail - so a book that was essentially ripping it to shreds was always going to be a bit of a risk.

Despite loving the film, I am able to see its flaws - the blatent sexism and fatism towards Martine's character, the innate anger I STILL feel towards Harry for being so easily influenced, and just how highly inappropriate it was that Harry made a pass (albeit a silent one) at his best friends new wife.

How Love Actually Ruined Christmas is Gary Raymonds scene by scene critique of the film which highlights its flaws and certainly gives food for thought, but does so in a humorous and sarcastic manner. Whilst some of the time I could see his points (and did laugh out a few times), I have to be honest in that I did not finish this book as it simply wasn't for me. I found the use of footnotes a bit to over zealous for my liking (which made it very tricky to read on the kindle) and essentially when it comes to the crunch, I still love Love Actually warts and all - isnt that what true love is really about?? :)

A funny reflection on the film but not my usual style of book so not for me personally.

I count Love Actually as one of my favourite movies ever, a perennial run-through to Christmas every year. I was a bit worried about someone who would go in to bash it all up...but I shouldn't have been. Oh, it does bash, plentifully so, but omg, the laughs and the wit and the irony and the glib writing! I couldn't help but nod along with the author because there's so many dynamics he nails on the head for what they actually are (Daniel and Sam! Karen! Harry's expressions) and I never really worked out the whole kerfuffle with the timeline and how it's all set up - eye-opening, that one.
But this was such a hearty laugh, so silly and yet on point, rude at times (which shaved a star in its rating for me), and absolutely the kind of light stuff you just want to ease into around the holiday period especially on such a difficult year

A well-crafted critique of a film I would admit to being one of my guilty pleasures. Many of the comments are spot-on, and there are some laugh out loud moments.

A very easy read, and perfect for this time of year.

With thanks to Parthian Books and NetGalley for sending me an ARC.

How Love Actually Ruined Christmas felt like it was written for me and echoes sentiments I wholeheartedly feel.

Love Actually isn’t a Christmas film. It is totally against everything Christmas should stand for. The author, like me, grew up in the 80s and tells the reader what Christmas means to him.

“Of course not, it’s not what it was. I grew up in the eighties, a decade that had enough problems of its own, but one that seemed to do Christmas the way I liked it. Toys were precious, and you know mum and dad had to work hard and save hard to buy them, but they weren’t unattainable, they weren’t driving anybody into debt, and they weren’t encouraging brawls in the supermarket. Christmas was special because it didn’t start in October but waited respectfully until the school broke up before the sound of carols or Phil Spector echoed in shops or the sparkle of street decorations lined the main drag through town…Christmas is about putting a soft focus on the past and creating a fireplace in front of which we can curl up and reminisce. Your memories of childhood Christmas don’t need to be historically accurate. They just serve to inform the tapestry of the good things growing up.”

Love Actually is cruel, misogynistic and poorly plotted. It is mean spirited and totally against what Christmas should stand for.

“Love Actually has nothing to do with Christmas. It just attaches itself to Christmas like a parasite and feeds off its sentimentality whilst pumping the host full of schmaltz.”

This book made me laugh out loud more than once but one of my favourite lines came when discussing the worse line of the movie.

“I think that anyone who finds warmth in the line ‘Lets go and have the shit kicked out of us by love’ probably deserve to have the shit kicked out of them by hobnail boots.”

As the author argues,

“It has a cold heart, it doesn’t understand anything about Christmas, and it falls well short of being a classic kind of anything.”

The appeal of Love Actually is lost on me but the appeal of this book certainly isn’t.

I was the perfect candidate for this book. I held the title for being the only one of my friends and acquaintances who had never watched Love Actually. I asked my 21 year old daughter if she’d ever watched it and the reply came swiftly “Yeah. It was sh*t” I do love how pithy the youth of today are!
So I set myself the challenge of watching the movie and then reading this book. I’m not sure I would call the film sh*t with the same vehemence that my daughter and the author have but it certainly isn’t the amazing classic that people think it is and viewed through the lens of 2020 it’s is hands over eyes, peer through fingers cringy in the main.
So, Mr Raymond’s book; I don’t agree with him on every point, some I think he’s got a valid opinion that I just don’t share and sometimes I think he’s reaching so far he may unbalance and topple over but regardless this man can write!! Every point made is with wit and the book flows so quickly I read it in probably a similar time to how long I sat through the film. I spent a good deal of time disturbing my daughter from her endeavours by reading bits out and chuckling to myself. I think ALL books about films from henceforth should be written scene by scene as Raymond has done here. It meant I managed to keep the narrative thread (such as it was!) of the film in my head and didn’t get to a chapter and think “which bit is he on about now?” this vehicle also heightened just how silly the timeline of the film was which increased my enjoyment of Raymond’s snarky commentary.
I think everyone should probably read this book. If you love the film and think it a romantic tour de force then you need to read it. Like, really, need need. If like my daughter you hate the film then you will love chuckling away and agreeing with the author and if you are like me and had no preconceived ideas about the film it is an enjoyable read that will help you decide actually how you feel about it and which parts.

HOW LOVE ACTUALLY RUINED CHRISTMAS (or Colourful Narcotics) by Gary Raymond is an in depth critique of the movie Love Actually. I really liked how this book goes scene by scene in order to give a detailed description of the movie along with Raymond’s thoughts and notes. I definitely agree with him in how this movie unnecessarily used fat jokes and misogyny to portray humour. I’ve seen the movie before and enjoyed some parts of it but it’s not one I would rewatch. After reading this book I’m in the mood to watch a *good* Christmas movie!

Since being released in 2003, 'Love Actually' has been branded a Christmas film classic. It is a mess of storylines and borderline nonsensical but I had yet to find a person who could not name at least one thing to like about it... Until along came Gary Raymond with his brutal takedown in 'How Love Actually Ruined Christmas'.

Going in, I thought he would be a lover of the film, using this book to critique the problematic elements. Woah was I wrong! Raymond detests this film, the book acting as a scene by scene takedown of the movie, highlighting every tiny problematic moment as he goes. Some of his points are absolutely fair enough and explain some discomfort I feel when watching the film (What is with the cruelty and fatphobia towards Martine McCutcheon's character?). However, I thought others were a bit of a stretch (Let's just say, an analysis of Hugh Grant addressing Margaret Thatcher's photograph got connected to a cruel reference to her being allergic to sauce - is Richard Curtis really such a clever wordsmith to make this jump?).

Overall, I did enjoy Raymond's sarcastic takedown and it gave me food for thought about what is now a thoroughly outdated film. I just wish the footnotes had not been so erratic - he does not pull this technique off as well as Adam Kay! A quick but forgettable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I chose this book to read as an antidote to all the other 'romance' Christmas novels. Plus, I quite enjoyed 'Love Actually', so was intrigued to read another's perspective.
Well! Another's perspective is definitely what I got! Just rather too much and too longwinded.
What this is, is a detailed (oh, so detailed) description, scene but scene all about what is wrong with a film that is beloved by many. Most of the one's who enjoyed it, probably voted Brexit, but, I'm not bitter!

The book is well written, very well researched and entertaining in parts. I just found he 'doth protest too much' at something that isn't worth the time, quite frankly.
Having said that, it did maintain my interest, although all the side references that required half a page of notes, did try my patience somewhat.

All in all, if you are interested in a decent and thorough critique of a film many love, this is for you!

Overall, for me, a 3* Good Read.

As someone who loves "Love Actually" but has friends who hate it, I was really intrigued by this book.

It's a fun, short read, written with wit and humour. While it did get me thinking about the film, it wasn't enough to change my mind about loving it - I don't agree with all of the author's interpretations, but then the world would be a boring place if we all shared the same opinion.

Worth reading if you hate "Love Actually" and are looking for validation and worth reading if you love it but want to understand why it's such a Marmite film. Overall, it was a great way to kill time in an A&E waiting room!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

When I saw this book's cover on Netgalley, my immediate reaction was, 'Finally!' This is a book that has been needed for years. Raymond mentions mid-way through that this is his 'lockdown book', not because it has anything to do with coronavirus but rather because due to the pandemic he had the time to sit down and write it. So ... I guess this is one of those silver covid linings? As most good thinking people know in their hearts, Love Actually is a horrific film, a cuckoo in the nest of legitimate festive entertainment, a leech on your Christmas tree. To quote its opening scene, Love Actually is 'solid gold s**t'. As we work to build a better world post-pandemic, let's start as we mean to go on. Read this book and remember. Christmas is better without Richard Curtis & co.

In How Love Actually Ruined Christmas or Colourful Narcotics, Gary Raymond provides a scene-by-scene critique of the original film. He analyses each of the nonsensical plotlines, badly-drawn characters and nauseating schmaltz, while also highlighting every instance of open bigotry. There are many. Raymond also manages to do all of this while also being hilarious. As with any other conversion mission, this is key since otherwise you risk alienating your audience. The people love Love Actually. The people need to see the truth.

I should make a confession here. I did not always see as clearly as I do now. In 2003 when the film was released, I went to see it twice. My mother bought the DVD with excitment and I even watched the DVD commentary. It was funny! It had Bill Nighy singing! Hugh Grant danced! There was romance and music and slapstick humour. But. Even then. I remember frowning when Bill Nighy's character made a crack about having had unsatisfactory sex with Britney Spears who would have been twenty-two at the time. I thought it was seriously strange that Liam Neeson's character was ready to start dating a mere five weeks after the death of his apparently beloved wife. And was it really fair for Laura Linney to get abruptly dumped for having a mentally ill brother? Yet when I queried it, people just tutted and told me off for nit picking. So I decided those things clearly didn't matter so much and that yes, Love Actually was a fantastic film. What can I say? I'm a constant work in progress. There was also once a time where I willingly read novels by Philippa Gregory.

As recently as 2013, I was still describing myself as a fan of Richard Curtis films. But then a few things changed. I read Hadley Freeman's Be Awesome and she pinpointed the various issues across Curtis' back catalogue. Even in his best movie, Kristin Scott Thomas is rejected by Hugh Grant's character and as a second kick in the teeth ends up with Prince bloody Charles. Most of Curtis' films are centred around a male protagonist's personal journey which is then rewarded by him 'getting the girl' who is often so lacking in interiority that she does not even notice whether or not it's raining. And now isn't the right time to get into the skullduggery Curtis committed over Yesterday. Badly done, Mr Curtis. Badly done.

But while I can still enjoy Four Weddings and even still half-close my eyes at the awkward moments of About Time (no consistency on time travel theory, sexism over only men being able to do it, manipulative lead character), Love Actually is different. As Raymond explains, Love Actually is pretending to be something greater. It thinks that it's teaching us something. It thinks it's teaching us about Love. The book's subtitle 'Colourful Narcotics' comes from Raymond having misread a review of the film many years ago. It actually described the cast as containing 'colourful neurotics'.  For Raymond, the initial reading was perfect. The 'colourful narcotics' is a drug that 'dulls the critical senses, clouds people's judgment, making those susceptible to its hallucinogenic powers think they've seen a funny warm-hearted, romantic film about the many complex manifestations of love'. And that is not what we have here. One of the quotes from the book that has stuck in my head since reading is that it's not just that Love Actually is a bad film. It's that it is bad for you.

There are a lot of reasons for that. First of all, the writing is incredibly lazy. Billy Mack is selling a Christmas single based on the song 'Love is All Around'. This song became more popular due to featuring on the soundtrack to Four Weddings. Hugh Grant also points out that one of Kris Marshall's scenes was his own audition scene for Four Weddings. So rather than finding fresh inspiration, Richard Curtis has essentially dug around the back of his wardrobe to pull together a film. There are discarded storylines left and right. Rowan Atkinson cameos but was originally intended to play a wider role as a Christmas love fairy - to be honest, without this element, his appearances don't make another sense. There are a multitude of discarded plotlines from the fart jokes by Emma Thompson's son to Thomas Sangsten's gymnastics to random references to African aid work. There was also supposed to be the really tired cliche of a lesbian couple where one of them dies - because this always happens in films written by straight white men - but then Curtis cut this out too. Objectively speaking, this is a hot mess of a movie. It has absolutely no place as a Christmas 'classic'.

There's also the rampant misogyny. Throughout the film, Curtis' writing repeatedly hails supermodels as the standard of beauty. It gets really weird when Liam Neeson makes lots of inappropriate references about this to his ten year-old stepson. Martine McCutcheon is consistently referred to as fat. She isn't. I hope that Gary Raymond's next book gets stuck into that weird trope of fat-shaming non-fat women. It's as if the lazy Richard Curtis has sat down and thought, 'You know what's fun and makes everyone laugh? Fat jokes! Let's make some fat jokes! But it would be rude for us to call a fat woman fat. It would hurt her feelings. So let's cast someone who's an average size and call her fat instead. How the lols and laughs will roll in'. This really irritates me because it has a noticeable trickle-down effect into society. If you're reading this and you think I'm making a fuss over nothing, believe me - I'm actually not. The normalisation of these nasty little digs encourages women to hate their bodies.  Again, this is not just a bad film. It's bad for you.

For Curtis, Women seem to exist solely as orifices. Colin goes to America and is immediately seized by on by slobbering females. Colin Firth 'falls in love' with a woman who he cannot actually speak to. Alan Rickman's personal assistant puts on a really repulsive seductive display - it was so good to read Raymond tearing that performance apart. What is with the way she sits on the office chair? And why does she wear devil horns to a Christmas party? There's also the odd way that Curtis goes out of his way to not name various female characters. Colin Firth refers to his cheating ex girlfriend as 'the lady of the house' rather than actually call her something. Liam Neeson's dead wife is only belatedly named as Joanna. These are striking omissions when barely a single background male character goes unnamed.

There's something so deeply depressing about the way that 'love' plays out in this film. Sarah seems to accept as her lot thats she will never be with Karl because she has had the audacity to have family complications. Martine McCutcheon's boss asks her inappropriate questions and then has her removed from her post because the President of the United States harasses her in the workplace. Keira Knightley is supposed to be flattered that Mark has made a creepy stalker video about her presumably for masturbatory purposes. And then rather than telling her husband that his best friend has made a creepy stalker video, the two of them are still running in the same circles in the final airport scene with the suggestions of a continuing emotional affair. The message throughout the film is that the male emotional life comes first. The men deserve to be happy and it is the duty of the women to accommodate this. And lest we forget, that is the basic manifesto of the incel community.

I remember talking to a male friend years ago about past relationships. He mentioned still having a 'pang' for a girl who he had had feelings for at university. She had declined his advances and so he 'kept on trying' since he thought that was what you were 'supposed to do'. But then eventually a few of her male friends intervened and told him to back off. This was a tale he told to gain sympathy about being 'unlucky in love' and so I nodded along while feeling a cold chill about how unnerved that poor girl must have been. A few months later, I saw a Facebook update where the same guy bemoaned that he was on a bus with a bunch of flowers - he had gone to ask out a girl and she had rejected both him and his bouquet. I would add here that this bloke was a reasonably pleasant person and functioning member of society. On both those occasions, he sincerely believed that he was a Nice Guy going about dating as a gentleman and that it was unfair that the women were not responding in the way that they were 'supposed to'. We need to teach our sons that they can ask a girl out but if she says no, that response is a) final, b) to be respected and c) not to be taken personally - any number of factors could be at play. You nod and you move on. Films like Love Actually where Liam Neeson encourages Thomas Sangsten to keep on trying since eventually he would get the girl ... well. We're back to the key point. This film is not just bad. It's bad for you.

Love Actually  is a classic case of death by a thousand paper cuts. Any single poor joke might be dismissed as a momentary slip. But it's not a momentary slip. It's relentless. And it's really disturbing that Richard Curtis believes this is funny. The jokes about the Brazilian transgender prostitutes while they're at the wedding. The fatphobia. In a deleted scene, Bill Nighy's character asks a female record executive if she's ever given a really old man a blow job. Raymond muses on why these characters use 'such bullying, cruel, misogynistic language?' The answer is that they don't. Richard Curtis does. This is the same guy who looked at the 9/11 attacks and felt it was another sign of love being all around. To quote Raymond again, 'if you have ever experienced love and have cherished that feeling, then this film must leave you very confused'.This is not a nice film.

What's striking too when we look at it in 2020 is just how far its ideas have translated into the real world. Bill Nighy's seedy jokes sound like things that Trump said on the Access Hollywood tape. They certainly don't sit well in a post #MeToo world. Hugh Grant's Prime Minister character is very similar to the current occupant of Number 10 Downing Street. And if you don't think that Boris Johnson would be capable of changing important foreign policy on the fly due to a squabble over who gets to frisk the tea lady ... you're naive. And it's definitely true that when people cheered Hugh Grant sticking two fingers up at Billy Bob Thornton, we little suspected that this 'kind of fuck-you attitude [would find] a more damaging real-world form of expression in the Brexit vote'. We were complacent back in 2003. We thought this was 'just a film'. But it wasn't. It isn't. It's a nasty and poisonous bit of propaganda for how sufferings of entitled men are not of their making. Love Actually belongs in the bin. Not the kitchen bin but the outside wheely bin far at the very bottom of the drive.

To credit Raymond, he clearly sets out to be as fair-minded as possible. He even puts together an intriguing counter-case for Alan Rickman's character who he suggests is actually in the grip of depression. How else to explain why he is the least enthusiastic adulterer of all time? He spends a grand total of three seconds picking out the scandalous necklace but actually did buy something for Emma Thompson that was based on what he knew of her personal tastes. Viewed through that lens, the whole affair is no more than a desperate cry for help. Maybe.

Most pertinently though, Raymond ponders whether Love Actually is just a giant joke played on the audience. We see Billy Mack going through the motions to sell his 'solid gold shit' single which soars through the charts solely because it is tied in to the festive season. Everyone knows it's not very good but they wave it through because 'Uncle' Bill's funny jokes bring them a good belly laugh even if they are a bit inappropriate. A metaphor for the film as a whole. And we've been eating it up for seventeen years. Well. Enough is enough. Lazy, derivative, insulting and misogynistic. In the closing pages, Raymond remarks 'if you respect any living thing other than white men, this film must be a depressing watch'. It is. It really is. I make the commitment now to never watch this film again. I hope that I am not alone.

Colourful Narcotics comes highly recommended as stocking-filler this year - let's make 2020 count for something and ensure that Love Actually never ruins Christmas again! 🎉📽🎄

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

The book title explains itself what this is about. Gary Raymond basically explains, scene by scene, why the film Love Actually isn’t actually that good. He explains why the film is more of a “colourful narcotic” designed to give the viewers the warm and fuzzy feeling, whilst showcasing some quite unpleasant messages - usually about women. I have always loved the film and watch it again and again - even when it’s not Christmas. And this book has lessened the love a little bit.

Gary made the book witty, humorous, and insightful - the book opened my eyes to some of the things in the film that I have always found funny but now looking at it I can see that some of the scenes are a little tasteless. A great book for fans and non fans of the film.

This book went through all of the scenes of the movie, Love Actually. If you have been a fan of the movie like me, you still will.enjoy reading how the author feels about each character and what happened in each scene. It is like you are watching it with a friend that talks throughout it about their feelings. I would recommend that you have seen the movie, or you will not.understand the book.