Daily Dialogue — December 25, 2018

Rufus: [gift wrapping a gold necklace] Let me just pop it in the box. There.
Harry: Look, can we be quite quick?
Rufus: Certainly sir. Ready in the flashiest of flashes! [he ties a ribbon around it] There.
Harry: That’s great.
Rufus: Not quite finished…
Harry: [Rufus pulls out a plastic bag] Actually, I don’t need a bag, I’ll just put it in my pocket.
Rufus: Oh this isn’t a bag, sir.
Harry: Really?
Rufus: This is SO much more than a bag…

— Love Actually (2003), written by Richard Curtis

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Gift.

Trivia: Rowan Atkinson’s character was initially supposed to be an angel, and disappear as he walked away from Liam Neeson’s character in the airport scene.

Dialogue On Dialogue: How to make a scene about buying a gift entertaining? Pressurize. Here Richard Curtis accomplishes that in two ways:

• Harry (Alan Rickman) is in a hurry to purchase the gift for his soon-to-be mistress while his wife is off on a quick shopping errand. Hence, all his looking over the shoulder moments.
• On the other end of the transaction Rufus (Rowan Atkinson) is not just any salesman, but a finicky artiste who is seriously into the gift-wrapping process, e.g., “This is so much more than a bag.”

Together, these dual dynamics create a pressurized scene that is both dramatic and comedic.