Why Emma Thompson’s Love Actually scenes hurt (and what the data sees)

I analysed Emma Thompson’s iconic necklace sequence in Love Actually using 3,144,427 data points to decode the 'maths' of great acting. What the data shows is fascinating: multiple, competing layers of emotion mapped onto a single face. I went a bit overboard trying to measure the unmeasurable here: tracking every frame, running facial emotions, and pulling apart the subtext to see what’s actually going on under the bonnet.

Let’s understand what a complex, layered performance actually looks like in raw data and why certain actors work the way they do.