How to fix Love Actually for its 20th anniversary

polygon.com:

This essay on the much-debated problems with Love, Actually and how to fix them was originally a Christmas piece. It’s been updated and reposted for the movie’s 20th anniversary re-release.

Richard Curtis’ Christmas classic Love Actually just turned 20, which means both that it’s getting a 4K Ultra HD re-release (available Nov. 21) and that we’ve now had 20 full years of discussion about how the movie is incredibly problematic. The thinkpieces and listicles about what’s wrong with it have already been done to death. Turns out, a lot of plot elements in this romantic comedy just don’t hold up decades years later.

Still — I love it. I love romantic comedies, because I’m a sucker for a good love story and a happy ending. I love anthology stories, because I love seeing webs of characters interact and affect each other’s lives. And I love this movie’s rosy-glasses view of London at Christmastime, because I grew up reading a lot of English children’s books set in similar circumstances, and for some reason, nothing sounded lovelier than shopping at Harrods on Christmas. And in spite of all Love Actually’s widely critiqued problems, I love it in the same way I love one of Curtis’ other famous rom-coms, Four Weddings and a Funeral. It’s that particular kind of love that comes fromknowing how to fix a movie’s issues.

Honestly, a lot of it comes down to some simple fixes. Some of the movie’s plotlines hold up much better than others, and they wouldn’t need anything more than a cast update. Others would need a little more tampering. The main problem withLove Actually can be boiled down to the fact that very few of the plotlines are actually about love. Love Actually could be called Sex Actually — or, at its worst points, Uncomforta