Love Actually Plotlines Ranked By Sadness

Courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Jamie and Aurelia

Most of the Jamie/Aurelia tears I shed are based in the utter pain and simultaneous bliss of this particular depiction of loving someone. They meet when she is hired to do housework for him as he writes as an otherwise recluse in his French cottage. Having just been cheated on by his partner, he’s a total sad dude, and Aurelia’s company is more than wanted, though their inability to communicate in the same language makes for a fairly insurmountable (AND ROMANTIC AF!!!) barrier. Jamie is the most awkward, but also he’s fragile. Aurelia is lovely, skeptical, and warm. They both think about and feel deeply for each other, but cannot find a way to tell each other. Like, physically. But also emotionally, I guess.

Their story is riddled with tiny moments of absolute beauty, from the two of them jumping in a lake to retrieve pages of his novel to the last time he drives her to the train station. But the real kicker, the ugly-cry part, is his grand gesture. Once back in England, he realizes how much he loves her, and starts to learn Portuguese. In their finale, he flies back to France and runs through her tiny village until he finds her and professes his love for her in his (admittedly) terrible Portuguese, only to find that SHE LEARNED ENGLISH FOR HIM. He proposes, she accepts, and Colin Firth continues to be the most transcendentally romantic and lovely man in any country he steps foot in.