I recently reviewed the movie “Love Actually”, from 2003, written and directed by Richard Curtis. The movie has an amazing cast, with names such as Hugh Grant, Liam Neeso, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompsoon, Keira Knitghtley, Alan Richman and Rowan Atkinson. The plot is simple: the films tell love stories from many couples. One of the couples is Jamie and Arurélia, Jamie portrayed by the Oscar winning Colin Firth, and Aurélia played by the Portuguese Lúcia Moniz. Jamie is a writer. His girlfriend slept with his brother and, crush by this news, Jamie retires to his French cottage where he meets the Portuguese housekeeper, Aurélia. Aurélia only speaks her native tongue, Portuguese, and there is a instant attraction between the two of them. After they say their goodbyes, Jamie goes back home to England, and realises that he loves Aurélia, which has also returned to her country. He then spends some time learning Portuguese and goes back to propose to her.
And here is the reason why I decided to write about “Love Actually”. Yes, the movie was nominated for several awards, and yes, with the quality of the cast it was already expected. Yes, the movie is a quite good romantic comedy, and yes, it was a success – with a total box office of $246,942,017. But the movie has a epic fail in the characterisation of the Portuguse comunity. Aurélia isn’t a bad character, she appears as the typical next door girl, shy and more or less happy. Her character grows in the movie, is developed, by the end of the movie, when she talks in English, her confidence is way higher than during the complete film.
And now the reason that led me to write about his movie: we, Portuguese, are nothing like the portray that Mr. Richard Curtis did of us. This is why. We shout as the normal person does, but we don’t talk loud all the time. We are not all fat and we don’t have a hillbilly look. Oh, and the father of a bride never kisses his daughter fiance in the mouth – that is simples not what we do. Yes, we have some neighbourhoods were people are very at ease with everyone, but we never go to the extreme portrayed in the “Love Actually”. I love my country and my fellow citizens, so I thing that a movie created by someone who doesn’t have the slightest idea of what it is to be Portuguese, or what are the qualities of a Portuguese, should be better informed not to insult a whole country. We are not a bunch of hillbillies and that is the main thing that I cannot stop talking.
In spite of that, Lúcia Moniz does a great job as well as Colin Firth and his Portuguese. The movie was good, and seen by the critics, but this is the one thing that the director did very wrong.
