Haunting image...

Carrie is in her room, trying to get ready for the Prom, anxious as all get out. And Mama is begging her to not go to the Prom and stay home with her, instead. Mama is just as frightened as Carrie.

Then a car honks its horn, and both women go to the window to see who it is. Mama is terrified that it will be Tommy and Carrie is terrified that it won't be.

The shot of these two women, Mother and Daughter, bound together by love and hate and resentment and loyalty and guilt and sentiment and all the things that can make parent-child relationships so difficult and painful is beautifully captured in that one brief, dim glimpse which lasts all of 3 seconds. And notice the two women are looking out the same window, but they are looking in opposite directions.

Mama is scared to death that Carrie may be turning into her own person while Carrie wants more than anything "to try and start to be a whole person before it's too late" for her. And the way that fleeting moment is lit could not be more right. The image is befitting of a painting. I think it's a beautiful shot and haunting in what it says so simply. I've never heard anybody mention it before, but I think it's a universal truth and never so sad and hauntingly portrayed as it was here.