Something That Makes Me Smile

Cover of You've Got Mail

Today’s postaday2011 prompt is to write about something that makes you smile.  Tom Hanks makes me smile, and that’s all I have to say about that.  Okay, you know me well enough by now to know that that’s not true; I just like quoting Forrest, Forrest Gump.

I love his movies with Meg Ryan.  I was watching You’ve Got Mail for the zillionth time last night (can you believe there was ever a time with dial-up?) and I finally got around to writing down one of my favourite movie quotes:  Meg Ryan in her pre-serious lips-pre-serious roles days as Kathleen Kelley:

Once, I read a story about a butterfly on the subway and today I saw one.  It got on at 42nd and off at 59th, where I assume it was going to Bloomingdale’s to buy a hat that would turn out to be a mistake, as almost all hats are.

I love the idea of a butterfly shopping in Bloomingdale’s; it makes me smile every time.

What’s your favourite movie quote?

RIP, Mr Postlethwaite

You may have seen in the news yesterday that the actor Pete Postlethwaite died, aged sixty-four.  The media has been full of his movies and his Academy Award, but his most memorable performance, I think, was in Lost For Words, a tv movie from 1999 in which he played a son dealing with his mother’s dementia.  He was superb.

Postlethwaite was born in Warrington, just up the road from Runcorn, where I grew up.  I never met him, of course; I just thought I’d throw that in.   He started his career at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre, where my own one-act play was performed (starring students, not Oscar [copyright]-nominated movie stars).  I did pass him on the street once, however: he was appearing as Prospero in The Tempest at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.  I badly wanted to go but couldn’t afford a ticket (to see why I didn’t throw a hissy fit about that at the time, read today’s post on my other blog).  I was in Manchester for the day, for a thing Spud did with his school at The Royal Exchange, and PP passed us as we entered the building.  Amazingly, his nose was bigger and more purple than it looks in the photos.