Danish Aslam on saying a lot with a single word in films

Of the romantic comedies I’ve seen, one of the scenes that left an impression on me is from the 2003 film Love Actually. The film doesn’t really have a story; it’s just moments strung beautifully together.

One of the tracks is about Juliet (Kiera Knightley), who’s marrying this guy and his best friend Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is in love with her. Throughout that track in the film, he is antagonistic towards her. She assumes Mark has feelings for his best friend and that he hates her for taking him away. In vain, she keeps trying to get him to be civil to her.

This particular track starts with Juliet’s wedding. Mark is shooting a video of the ceremony but all he can focus on is Juliet. After the wedding, when she sees the video, and finds that she’s the subject of the entire film, she realises that he doesn’t hate her at all.

In the last scene of the track, the day after she finds out about Mark’s feelings for her, he goes to meet Juliet. Through message boards, he expresses his love for her, and apologises for ignoring her friendly advances. Then he turns around, says “Enough” to himself, and walks away. That’s the only word spoken in the entire scene — one word that’s symbolic of the closure he finally gets.

This scene is so beautifully executed that you walk away from the movie thinking about the sacrifice he’s made for his best friend. Mark has said what he has to without actually saying anything, and can now finally move on with his life.

This scene is brilliant because it’s the climax of a love story realised with only one word of dialogue. Richard Curtis is one of my favourite rom-com writer-directors because of the way he executes scenes like these.

— Danish Aslam, writer-director of Break Ke Baad, spoke to Geetanjali Jhala