Love Actually/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Did Harry and Karen separate at the end of the movie or decide to brave on? And we never find out how far Harry went with his secretary. As Karen points out, she doesn't know if it "was it just a necklace, or sex and a necklace, or, worse of all, love and a necklace?"
  • Karl. He's supposed to be this really nice guy, but he treats Sarah more like a one-night-stand than anything else.
  • Arguably, this applies to every single relationship in the movie. Since Mark is still in love with Juliet, it's possible that his friendship with Peter will deteriorate. Jamie and Aurelia barely know each other - a marriage that's very likely to fail. Ditto for John and Judy. David and Natalie are from very different backgrounds and it could be that their relationship won't last because of his job.
  • Most of Billy Mack's appearances, especially his sequence with Ant and Dec; as well as the 'drugs' gag mentioned below, there's the casual one-liner:

Billy: Thank you Ant or Dec.

• • • WE'VE GOT SMALL PRICKS
  • The Prime Minister ringing doorbells to try and find Natalie.

Resident: Aren't you the Prime Minister?
PM: Yes. Sorry things have been so bad. It's my cabinet, they're useless. We'll try to do better next year.

• Crowning Movie of Heartwarming
• Crowning Music of Awesome: There are three main love themes in the movie, all of which are great:
  • The Glasgow Love Theme, a very poignant, lovely piece on piano.
  • The Portuguese Love Theme, a subtle, romantic tune.
  • Last but not least, the Prime Minister's Love Theme, a soaring, exciting orchestral piece which occasionally becomes Recycled Trailer Music .
    • Additionally, Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell is a touching song that represents Karen's story perfectly.
    • And God Only Knows by the Beach Boys sets just the right mood to end the film.
    • The Beatles' "All You Need is Love" from Peter and Juliet's wedding, as performed by everyone who attended the wedding.
    • Don't forget Eva Cassidy and Norah Jones, with “Songbird” and “Turn Me On”, respectively.
    • And the Pointer Sisters' "Jump (for My Love)" is perfect for the Prime Minister's moment of glory.
    • Olivia Olson's performace of "All I Want For Christmas Is You." And she could actually sing it even better, except that Richard Curtis worried that people would assume she was dubbed so he instructed her to insert breath pauses she didn't really need.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Americans Love Colin Frissel (so Colin hopes, after failing miserably with British girls).
• Harsher in Hindsight: Liam Neeson plays a man whose wife has recently died. His performance at the funeral especially is very hard to watch after Natasha Richardson's death, especially since they didn't have "a long time to prepare for this moment."
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Billy's storyline mirroring Rage Against the Machine's surprise number one six years later.
  • Sam and Joanna's actors currently do voices for the cartoon Phineas and Ferb...as a boy and the older girl he has a crush on. Possibly an intentional Actor Allusion.
  • The Prime Minister's first name is David - and the film was released well before anyone could have realised David Cameron would become the next Tory PM.
• Magnificent Bastard: Billy Mack never says a positive word about anyone or anything, cynical even about himself. This attitude fuels his comeback.
• Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: "'True love' and 'happily ever after' are possible, but you need to take charge of your own life to achieve it." All three characters with bittersweet endings could be argued as taking the easy way out -- or doing nothing at all -- to be with their beloved. In Sarah's case, the message seems to be that duty to one's family is more important than romance. Or that love of family can be just as or more important than romantic love.
• Tear Jerker: The scene where Juliet watches Mark's wedding video to find that he's only filmed her. He manages to stay in composure until he leaves the house. Her face when she suddenly understands why Mark is so cold to her is so heartbreaking.
  • Karen opening the present and realising Harry has given the gold necklace to somebody else. Then her in her room listening to Joni Mitchell while tearfully looking around at pictures of her family.
    • And the fact she's trying so hard to hide it from the kids and forces herself to put on a cheerful face so they don't have to watch their mother break down...it's hard to watch.
• Toy Ship: Sam and Joanna. Not too bad, because they're about eleven.
  • Given what Sam does to actually make this canon. ( His dad drives him to the airport, he uses a distraction to sneak past the boarding gate, jumps over a guard through a metal detector, gets chased to the boarding gates, uses another distraction to get through the final check, and THEN speaks to her before getting carted away), I'd say he earned it. And the small kiss he receives after makes it all the sweeter.
• Unfortunate Implications: Sarah's plotline seems to say, "If you have a mentally ill relative, you can't have a life outside of taking care of them."