"These days, the opening lines of Love, Actually feel especially apt: “Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere.” I agree with Hugh Grant’s voiceover: Airports are often where we find unfettered displays of affection and warmth, sensations I think we’ve all been missing this year. I was, in fact, supposed to be traveling to Heathrow this month, on a trip to London with my fiancé. The sweet but melancholy holiday movie, which takes place almost entirely in the city, transports me to the gleaming glass cases of Selfridges department store, where Harry (Alan Rickman) buys a necklace for his ill-fated work crush, or the charming St. Luke’s Mews in Notting Hill, where Mark finally drops the act and tells Juliet (Kiera Knightley) that he loves her with a series of hilarious poster boards. True to its word, this heartening film does make you feel as though love, actually, is all around—and that even for a moment, you’re living in it. —Betsy Blumenthal, associate editor" - CNT Editors
