Nora Ephron’s movies are on my mind today, specifically You’ve Got Mail. There were a few moments I thought about Sleepless in Seattle too, but that was just because I confuse Greg Kinnear and Bill Pullman. Neither movie (or supporting actor, for that matter) is worthy of a blog post, nor even thought, cinematically speaking, but yet, here they are on my mind and in this post. These two movies blend into one for me usually, because not only do they have the same co-stars with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, they have the same plot. (The plot is: Hmm. No. Maybe? No, we couldn’t. Okay, let’s.) Coincidentally, or lazily, this plot is only a slight variation on the one she offered up in When Harry Met Sally, too. (No. No. Maybe. Let’s be friends. Yes! No. Okay, let’s.) The woman found her goose and is content with squeezing golden eggs from it, I suppose.
Regardless of the movies’ quality, there are moments in all her films that resonate with me, as much as I hate to admit it. But, let’s face it, I am her target audience. What was on my mind this morning as I woke was the scene in You’ve Got Mail when Kathleen and Frank decide their relationship is over. Frank tells Kathleen that he is attracted to another woman and Kathleen wishes him well. He then asks her, “What about you, is there someone else?” And Kathleen replies, “No. No, but…there’s the dream of someone else.”
And that is the tear jerking moment for me in that film. There is the dream of someone else.
That particular movie has been on my mind because my life has become a little like You’ve Got Mail. I am connecting with and learning about and adoring people I only know online. One person in particular has captured my interest and I find myself acting a little like Kathleen Kelly, rushing to the computer the moment I get home to see what the next message might be. “What will NY152 say today, I wonder. I turn on my computer. I wait impatiently as it connects. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You’ve got mail. I hear nothing. Not even a sound on the streets of New York, just the beating of my own heart. I have mail. From you.”
It is at once an exhilarating and restless feeling. But, at least I am feeling. It has been a long time since I could say that.
The dream of someone else. It keeps me going.
