Chapter 229: Would This Work?
Chapter 229: Would This Work?
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After finding their seats, Elizabeth looked around and complained, “This is all your fault. You insisted on choosing this movie, and now we still have to wait several minutes.”
Eric shoved the popcorn and Coke he was holding into the woman’s hands. “You were the one who suddenly decided to watch a movie. Waiting a few minutes is better than coming in halfway through and only watching half of it. Besides, this movie is pretty good.”
“You’ve seen it?” Hearing Eric’s comment, the woman asked.
Eric nodded. “Sort of.”
The woman rolled her eyes. “What do you mean, sort of? Either you have or you haven’t.”
Eric ignored her retort. He could hardly say he had watched it in his previous life. Speaking of which, when this movie first came out, Eric had specifically told Nicole to watch it and study Meg Ryan’s acting style.
However, as he sat here now, idly thinking during the few minutes before the movie began, Eric discovered something rather interesting.
The screenwriter of When Harry Met Sally was a female screenwriter named Nora Ephron. Although this female screenwriter and director had created many very successful works, her fame was very low. For movie fans, when her works were mentioned, people usually thought of the male and female leads in the films, not her as the director or screenwriter.
Of course, that was not the interesting part.
What Eric discovered was that at least among Nora Ephron’s works that he had seen, the female leads all shared one very common trait: sweetness.
The reason Meg Ryan received the title of America’s Sweetheart was because of Nora Ephron’s When Harry Met Sally. In Nora Ephron’s other works, the female leads were all given the “sweet” attribute as well. Aside from Meg Ryan, the cool and aloof Nicole Kidman became sweet in Bewitched, the plain-looking Lisa Kudrow became sweet in Lucky Numbers, and even Meryl Streep became sweet in one of Nora Ephron’s early films, Heartburn.
Appearance reflected the heart. Perhaps this female screenwriter was originally a little woman deep down, which was why she gave the same attribute to many actresses with completely different styles.
The lights in the screening hall went out. After the silent credits, the camera revealed one of this movie’s most distinctive features: elderly couples with white hair facing the camera, recalling how they had come together many years ago.
Although the elderly couples in the shots were all actors, the stories they told were real materials the screenwriter Nora Ephron had obtained by interviewing real-life couples. Eric listened with great interest, but Elizabeth beside him looked a little confused. “Eric, what’s going on?”
“Don’t rush. Just keep watching.”
As they spoke, the shot had already shifted to the University of Chicago campus. The young male and female leads, about to step into society, met for the first time. On the shared ride to New York, they held firmly to their own views on life and argued endlessly the entire way. Neither could persuade the other. They freely displayed the last traces of youthful arrogance before finally parting unhappily.
Five years later, they met again. The female lead had found a lover, and the male lead was about to get married. Perhaps because they felt their lives were about to become complete, a person at such a time was always the most peaceful and tolerant. So they tried to interact and felt perhaps they could become friends.
Another five years passed. The male lead divorced, and the female lead broke up with her partner. Under fate’s teasing, the two people who had fallen to the same end of the world met again and became true good friends, at least in their own minds.
This time, time no longer hurried to flee. It began to jog slowly. As they spent more and more time together, they became close friends who talked about everything. They also thoughtfully introduced their respective best friends to each other, trying to patch together two marriages.
They succeeded. At least, they succeeded halfway. Their best friends smoothly paired up, met, understood each other, fell in love, and were about to get married.
While offering blessings, the stubborn man and woman still held to their own insistence, believing that since they had decided from the beginning to be friends, they should not destroy that relationship.
Through coincidence, or impulse, or perhaps because matters simply developed naturally, sleeping together became unavoidable.
Although when they woke the next morning, they began panicking, became full of worries, and avoided each other. On a lonely yet noisy New Year’s Eve, the male lead finally could not hold back and confessed. Then, amid tears, they kissed passionately.
The final shot stopped on that classical-style sofa. Sitting there were no longer the white-haired elderly couples, but the two of them after marriage, chattering endlessly as they described everything. Of course, arguments were unavoidable.
Twelve years and three months. Beautiful youth burned away, exchanged for a lifelong companion.
The lights came on. The movie ended.
In the jostling crowd, the men and women who had come to watch the movie seemed to have turned into conjoined twins, sticking to each other as they whispered and walked outside. There were even quite a few couples still staying in their seats, kissing as though no one else were around.
Elizabeth held a tub of popcorn from which she had only eaten a few bites. After being bumped several times by passing people, she finally squeezed over to Eric’s side and searched for something to say. “This movie was pretty good.”
“Yeah. The director’s shots were all excellent, especially the depiction of the seasons. The scene with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in the woods could be called beautiful. The drifting maple leaves were like life blooming gloriously and recklessly at the final moment before another reincarnation. Oh, and the eyes. I don’t know whether it was intentional or not, but we can always see the protagonists’ eyes very clearly, with the whites and pupils sharply distinct. You know, the saying ‘the eyes are the windows to the soul’ isn’t just empty words. Through these shots, a lot of emotion can be conveyed to the audience unconsciously. Maybe I can use this more in my own movies in the future…”
After they walked out of the theater, Elizabeth listened to Eric still prattling on with his analysis. For some reason, the woman suddenly became very angry. She forcefully threw the mostly full tub of popcorn into the trash can with a loud thud, drawing the attention of nearby passersby and making Eric, who had still been explaining, stop.
“Uh…”
Seeing the woman’s action, Eric shrugged and did not continue asking for trouble.
After getting in the car, Eric watched the woman silently fasten her seatbelt and confirmed again, “You’re going to Julia’s place?”
“Mm.”
Elizabeth nodded, then said, “Julia’s place is still pretty far from here. Why don’t we drive to your place first? After you get out, I’ll drive back myself. You definitely don’t only have one car anyway, right? Just take another one to work tomorrow.”
“No problem.”
Eric calculated the route and found that this was the most convenient arrangement, so he did not object and started the car.
The drive to the front of Eric’s mansion took more than thirty minutes. During the entire trip, the woman, who usually liked chattering and asking questions, strangely did not say a single word.
“Well then, see you tomorrow?”
Eric stopped the car and unfastened his seatbelt.
“Hmph…”
Elizabeth gave a soft snort and stared at Eric, as though trying to sweep this hateful man out of the car with her gaze.
The atmosphere froze for several seconds.
Eric turned off the engine and all the car lights. In the darkness, he fumbled forward and reached over to pinch the woman’s delicate pointed chin.
“All right. Would this work?”