Probably my favourite scene from this movie.
That whole birthday dinner scene, actually. But when Anna's asked about the meal, and she whispers with "I'm a vegetarian" and then the guy walks in and asks how it was, she responds by saying "best guineafowl I've ever tasted", I thought it was a really touching scene.
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"Sleep. Those little slices of death. How I loathe them".
I adore the whole sequence with the dinner party at Max and Bella's house, it's so lovely.
shareSaw this film originaly in the theater and watched it on Netflix last night. I love all the interactions between Max and Bella: the way he looks at her when she talks about not being able to have children, when he carries her up the stairs to bed, when he insists that she ride with them to the hotel at the end. Theirs is the secondary love story. And the actress that plays Bella is so stunning.
shareHugh Grant and Julia Roberts may be the big names here but I think Bella and Max and Honey and Spike "make" the moive.
shareI loved the dinner party scene, although wondering if anyone who has seen "My Favourite Year" thought there was any similarities. This is a film where a famous movie star (Peter O'Toole) gets to go to an "ordinary" family dinner as well.
shareThat’s what Richard Curtis does so well. His films and tv shows are special because he develops the supporting characters to be an important part of the whole picture; they’re not prsent merely to drive the action for the main storyline.
shareIt is a very touching scene, and funny too because she is speaking the truth.
shareI love the birthday dinner until the part where they make a sort of contest for the saddest story to win the last brownie and everyone thinks that Ana's pop star life is sadder than Bella's, who had an accident and is now in a wheel chair forever and cannot have a baby. That was stupid!
shareThey did not think her story was the saddest. They just aknowledged that is was put very convincingly. William won, by the way. And he's not paraplegic!
shareI liked the scene too, but the conversation takes some awkward turns. One minute everyone is joking about Honey’s job in a record store (everyone laughs) then the hostess lady says she can never have children (everyone glum), then they talk about William’s nickname Floppy (everyone laughs), then Anna says her career will be over as soon as her looks fade (everyone glum) then they all laugh again.
shareThat's what makes it such a delight. Conversation can go in any or many directions!
shareTrue, but the conversation changes too abruptly. The hostess lady really brought in some heavy sadness. It didn’t seem right to snap back to the jovial mood. It was a bit hard hearted.
But I did like it anyway. I like this movie. I miss these simple silly romance films. It was a more innocent era.
It was creepy, these people sitting around the table at a family birthday dinner whinging about their sad lives, and the wheelchair woman unloading her tragedy on everybody. Who the hell does this, especially in front of a total stranger?
shareIt was kind of weird but amusing.
It seems the Brits have some kind of self-effacing humor in movies, I have wondered if it's that way in real life. What is interesting is how they can state negatives in a dry way and by freely acknowledging it in that manner, they seemingly are able to deal with issues without a lot of additional drama.