I watched Notting Hill again recently with a friend. It's one of my top ten favorite movies of all time and I am always moved when I watch it, but usually for different reasons. This time I was blown away by how much Anna longed for normalcy. She was a famous actress who was more than willing to be Will's date to his sister's birthday party where many of his friends were gathered. Will seems to be stunned by this. Why in the world would someone who has dined in upscale restaurants with famous people want to spend time in a "normal" person's home while eating a bad home-cooked meal peppered with seeming mundane conversation about things like the stock market and personal failures?
The simple answer is because she doesn't know or understand normal. She doesn't know how it feels to have people to eat with who love her, not her image. She doesn't know how it feels to be one of the crowd rather than the focus of it. She doesn't know what it means to have friends you can laugh and cry with. The funny thing about this dinner party is that it is full of quirky people.
Will's sister Honey is convinced that she is destined be Anna's best friend even though they've never met until her birthday party. Bernie is a struggling stock-broker who seems to have made peace with the fact that he may never really reach his full potential. Max is the chef for the evening who burns everything he cooks, including the ginny fowl, the main course for the evening. Then there's Bella, Will's former girlfriend and maybe the least-quirky person in the group, who is now married to Max and wheelchair bound due to an accident.
The group eats, jokes, chit-chats, laughs, and touches each other while Anna looks on. Julia Roberts, who plays Anna, is fully convincing in the role as she stares longingly at the group. She feels herself being drawn into normalcy as she begins to laugh and take part in the jokes.
The DVD is worth the price just for the brownie scene that takes place around the dinner table, during which Anna gives an incredible speech about why her life isn't nearly as enjoyable as people might think. Here's how she ends it: "One day, not long from now, my looks will go, they will discover I can't act, and I will become some sad middle-aged woman who looks a bit like someone who was famous for a while."
As Anna becomes just one of the group, maybe for the first time since she became famous, a certain irony creeps in. In real life, nearly everybody seems to be searching for a similar sense of normalcy, but we seem to think it's not achievable because the people we know are quirky and fully of problems. But in reality, quirky, problem-filled people are the norm. And the idea that you and I believe that we aren't just as quirky and problem-filled shows how easily humans deceive ourselves.
