This Deleted Scene From ‘Love Actually’ Is Much Better Than The Rest Of The Movie

Christmas is coming, which means the annual Thirty Days of Argumentative Love Actually Thinkpieces are coming with it. Arguing about whether Love Actually is a touching classic of the holiday season or a deeply retrograde pile of sexist garbage is a time-honoured Christmas tradition, right up there with drinking in the morning and barely tolerating your extended family.

But a scene that didn’t make the movie’s final cut is due to give Love Actually lovers some much-needed ammunition, and with good reason. A deleted scene, included in the DVD release for the movie, shows a subplot love story between two women — the headmistress of the school where Emma Thompson’s character’s children go, and her dying partner. It’s a rough cut, but the short scene tells a quietly lovely and affecting story of same-sex relationships in what was otherwise an overwhelmingly heterosexual film.