Original subtitles

Love is like a butterfly, soft and gentle as a fly. The

multicolored moods of love are like its saddened wings.

Love makes your heart feel strange inside. It flutters like soft wounds in

flight. Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing.

Leonard? Leonard!

Hello.

Hello.

I knew it was you.

I know that now.

How have you been?

Fine.

And you?

I got your letter. It got lost and I... Oh, it's a long story.

Six months.

Six whole months.

If this was a film, we'd be running towards each other in a raging passion.

It's not a film.

No, I know.

It's life.

Is he still alive? Your husband?

I just thought, with your cooking...

I've missed you.

I want to hold you.

It's a nice time of the year to be home.

They've planted a lot of trees.

Oh, and the little cafe.

They've changed the tablecloths.

They're yellow now.

Why don't you use your glasses?

I can see, it's all right.

You'll get lines on your face.

Oh, God, I hate growing old.

You'll never be old.

Lines, glasses, what next, I wonder?

My breasts are having a hard time staying in mid -air.

My stomach keeps wanting to go on ahead of me.

Even my knees are starting to look like...

Puff pastry.

It's all in your mind, as they say. Oh, it's not in my mind.

Seventeen in my mind.

My mind wants to run and skip and play.

Then you must do what your mind wants you to do.

I can't. My body will fall over.

Mate, listen, Mum.

Look, am I putting on weight?

Where are you?

Clearly, Adam.

Of course you're not putting on weight.

All right, then. Look at my face.

What's the matter with your face?

Well, it's losing its gaunt look, you know? Look.

I mean, it's getting more and more difficult to look brooding and

you know?

I'm surprised your face can move at all. Blood supply is practically cut off by

your jeans.

Well, if it gets any fatter, I'm just going to have to learn a whole new set

expressions. He's suffering from being young.

I'm suffering from being old.

What do you suffer from, I wonder?

Oh, I did all my suffering years ago when I tried to push start their car one

morning.

They shot off, leaving me lying prostrate in the drive.

And I thought, as I lay there like a bare rug with asthma, I thought, this is

it. We are entering the go -slow era.

We just couldn't see him once we'd gone into the road, you know.

Although Russ did mention you seemed to disappear at one stage.

I'll get it.

Hello.

Yeah, well, I sure hope it's the number you want.

I'm Adam.

Right.

No, that's my brother.

Well, yeah, I mean, he's kind of better looking in an instant sort of way, but

after a day or two, my magnetism takes over, and then his baby face features

kind of take on a faded look, you know?

Yeah. All right, I'll get him for you.

It's for you, Dad.

Hello?

Who?

Amanda, good heavens.

I'm fine.

It would be lovely to see you, too.

Just a minute. I'll take that down.

Amanda.

Yes?

63729.

I'll call you.

Sometime during the week, yes.

Lovely.

Amanda Collins. We were at university together.

She's been living in Spain.

Madrid. Well, you heard it all.

No, I didn't. I was doing the word game.

Well, well.

Amanda.

You get stomach trouble rushing your lunch like that.

My stomach is indestructible.

After years of mismanagement, it has developed the strength and durability of

builder's kit.

Relax. Why isn't he stiff sitting here?

Is there a law against two friends sitting in a park, then?

Talking?

How was New York?

Oh, rather like a loony bin.

The inhabitants suffer from an assortment of derangements, ranging from

eccentricity to total and unabashed insanity.

And in between doing a deal, one spends one's time getting run over.

You.

And you.

And I... Must go home to make lunch.

I know.

Are you going to nag me again?

Look, can't he get his own lunch, for God's sake?

Yes, he can.

Why should he? I'm his wife.

Little else to do.

Doesn't that alarm you?

Everything alarms me, Leonard.

No, I mean, don't you ever come out of that little capsule you live in?

Don't you ever feel the need to do something different, like travel across

Turkey on a donkey, or fly to Paris for lunch?

Or keep pigs?

Or have an affair?

Oh, God, and now the quiet stare.

It's a habit women have acquired from snakes.

They do it to rabbits before they annihilate them.

I love the smell of the park, don't you?

It's a curious mixture of soil, things growing.

Yes, the weather's good, too.

You've changed.

Yes.

You should try it sometime.

Funny how you can spend hours looking forward to something, only to find that

looking forward was the best part.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry too.

For being married.

Look, I don't care about you being married.

Then you should care, Leonard.

You should care.

All right, I care.

I care about you being married.

Now, where does that get me?

Have you met someone else?

You find it impossible to believe that I love my husband, don't you?

I find it impossible to believe that any woman could love any man who comes home

for lunch every day.

I must go.

It's late.

Go on, back to your little capsule.

You mustn't stay out in the big bad world too long. You might do something

exciting, and that will never do, will it?

I love you, Mrs. Parkinson.

Look, I won't be home for lunch.

But, Ben, it's already.

Oh, sorry, but I have been trying to reach you. I'm actually at the

now. Oh, well, without shopping.

I'm having lunch with Amanda.

Might as well get it over with.

Fine.

Come on, that's not like you.

I just live in a capsule.

That's what I do.

You what? A capsule.

I never do anything different, like...

Crock turkey on a donkey or go to Paris for lunch or keep pigs or... Oh.

I'll see you tonight.

Did you get it? Yes, yes. Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Oh,

I have looked forward to seeing you.

Yes, well, if I'd known I was going to see you, I expect I'd have looked

to it too.

When Frederick died, I wanted to come home immediately.

Spain was him somehow, something gone.

You must have felt very lonely.

For a while, yes, but it's strange. I feel as though my life is composed of a

book with two stories in it.

Frederick and Madrid was one, here and whoever is the other.

So you see.

I've still got a story left.

What about you?

Are you happy?

Oh, I'm about as near to it as one can get, yes.

A conventional wife, two kids, nice house, good job kind of existence.

Oh, the plot might seem conventional, yes, but the characters aren't.

Except one, of course, me.

You always were the straight man.

Boring old sod.

To the old days.

Days of squandered youth and hopeless dreaming.

You never told me why you left me.

I didn't leave you. Not even a letter or a phone call?

It all just stopped.

Not for me.

Amanda, you have me at a disadvantage, apart from the fact that I'm married,

this restaurant is full of my neighbours.

You still don't know how to cope with romantic situations, do you?

How on earth did you manage to father two children, I wonder?

I muddled through.

Isn't it boring?

Living in a suburban house where all the trees grow to attention and people

clean their cars every Sunday.

Don't you ever want to do anything exciting?

Hello?

Could you tell me the cost of a return flight to Paris, please?

Coming back the same day.

Oh.

Thank you.

I find it impossible to believe that any woman could love any man who comes home

for lunch every day.

Well, well.

You phoning me?

I'm not chasing you, Leonard.

Oh, no, no, of course not.

Heaven forbid that you should contribute anything to our wild and unleashed

affair.

I wanted to... Oh, I don't know what I want.

I had a bird once.

A canary, I mean.

When I opened its door, it used to fly around the room once and then get back

into its cage.

That's what you want.

What do you want?

Nobody opened my cage door.

I had to hack my way out.

I want somebody to fly with me now.

Leonard, it's no use talking about canaries and cages.

We are people.

I want to spend a night with you.

And then what?

And then another.

You mean you want me to lie and deceive?

If that's what it takes, yes.

Supposing I can't?

Then I'll take it you don't want to, and we'll call it a day.

I have an urgent appointment.

Tomorrow?

I do apologise.

Yes, yes, Thomas, it's all right.

Well, this is it.

This is home.

Until I find a place.

And it was lovely to see you.

The next lunch is on me.

There will be a next lunch, won't there?

Of course. Of course.

Isn't time a nuisance?

Yes.

I'll call you tomorrow.

are aren't you a job would come in handy yeah i mean apart from my physical

splendor and your acne what do we got to offer i'm on the lookout for a 35 year

old divorcee they usually come with a house and car kids

Annie was the best one.

You blew it with her, didn't you?

All that enigmatic crap.

Well, at least I didn't make her pregnant.

Sorry.

I'd have settled for getting married. She just didn't want to know.

When is it?

Any moment.

She might just let me know if she thinks about it.

We could open a restaurant.

What with?

Yeah, I won't live.

Hey.

One with the ponytails for me.

Wait and see, sunshine.

Wait and see.

Oi!

Put some effort into it. I can't cope with two of them.

Where did you get your tan?

Been on holiday?

L .A.

L .A.? Yeah, yeah, we've got a yacht out there.

Very nice.

Have a nice day.

We've cracked it.

One thing at a time, sunshine.

One thing at a time.

Don't say any more. Your mother's obviously had a bad day, the less said

better.

It's jelly.

You, uh... You don't have to explain, Mum. It actually looks like

jelly. Yeah, I mean, I definitely feel that this is jelly, you know.

Yes,

jelly.

There's some custard, but it's got an identity crisis.

It thinks it's still milk.

tomorrow with some more custard powder.

So, what did we all get up to today?

Well, um, we went to a job centre and a social security.

Then we threw a frisbee around the park.

You know, all the... usual mind -blowing thrills.

Oh, we did pull a couple of girls in the park. Oh, yeah. Oh, good. Very good.

I pulled one today, too.

Wow.

Yeah, wow.

Is that the final accolade? Yeah, wow.

And I deserve more than that.

I guess we're just not used to our father indulging in the ordinary,

things of life.

Yeah, especially the red -hot search for flesh and passion.

It was all a little more subtle than your conquest, of course.

She didn't leap at me like a Japanese wrestler.

She phoned first, suggested we had lunch.

We knew each other a long time ago, you see.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a rekindled job, is it?

You wonder what these old flames did?

One wrong move, you'll have to call the fire brigade.

I resisted.

You self -contained devil, you.

And what about you?

What have you been doing today?

Nothing I do ever come to anything.

No handsome prince offered to die for you today?

I'll make the coffee.

We'll wash up for you. Save a build -up of tablecloth.

Oh, yes, it's all very funny, isn't it?

Mother's having one of her turns again. She's putting... Tablecloths over the

dishes. Ha, ha, ha.

Let's all laugh. It'll save having to ask why.

I'm sorry.

It's just... It's just what, Mum?

This job I have being a wife and mother.

I feel as if I've been a wife and mother for thousands of years.

Being concerned with your needs.

your future and not seeming to have one of my own.

I mean, it's not as if I can go on strike or hand my notice in.

Not as if I'll ever be made redundant.

And if I do it properly, what then?

You'll go out and get married and have children.

Your father will strike up a perpetual relationship with his armchair and his

butterflies and...

And I'll be back where I started, doing your babysitting, making bottles,

changing nappies.

Because that seems to be the plan for women like me.

Women like me were born to help the women you marry escape.

And I know all that, and it's not what I want.

And what makes it all worth it, I don't know what I want.

Maybe if I'd come home for lunch, I'm sorry.

Come on, man. We all think you're great.

Yeah. Good -looking, too.

The reason we're not married yet is because we can't find girls who are

look like you when they... Grow up.

Grow up.

Right.

Clear the table, you two.

Yeah.

Cuba. You're in, Derek.

Take it away, my son.

You said clear the table.

Hey, who cracked it today, then?

I, uh... love you, Mr. Parkinson.

Oh, I forgot, you two better make your own arrangements for tomorrow, by the

way. Your mother and I are going to Paris.

For lunch.

Well, I haven't time to cross Turkey on a donkey, and I hate pigs.

Love makes your heart feel strange inside.

It flutters like soft wings in flight.

Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing.

Love is like a butterfly, a rare...