21 Best Films Of The 21st Century By Genre

Just like the Horror genre, if even more so the case here, the Rom-Com genre has thrown out its fair share of duds amongst the occasional gem. For every The Big Sick there is a Valentines Day and New Years Eve, the overly cliched sickly sweet products often overshadowing those Rom-Com films that dare to do something different and profound.

Love Actually is one Rom-Com that will not be forgotten in a hurry, and will forever be in a battle with Die Hard as the greatest Christmas film ever made. The movie was exactly what the world needed at the time, a reminder that the world was actually full of love rather than the hate seemingly engulfing us all post 9/11.

Richard Curtis seamlessly mixes a range of Rom-Com tropes, but most importantly allows us to feel a range of emotions throughout the different storylines. We laugh at Bill Nighy's aged drug riddled rocker, cry at Emma Thompson's Karen staring down at divorce, and let our hearts flutter at Colin Firth's writer finally finding true love.

While Curtis welcomes and embraces each genre cliche, it is the film's ability to re-contextualise the audience's world view that is remarkable. The opening speech from Hugh Grant's British PM declaring airports as a place of love rather than hate is powerful stuff, while the deliberate choice to use every Rom-Com cliche in the book during the airport scenes really resonates.