Eddy didn't know when Richard would decide to spend a night in his house, so how did he know when to hire a hooker for Richard to sleep with? Has she lived in Eddy's house ever since he made the offer to Richard, waiting for him to make up his mind or what?
shareIf I'm understanding what you're asking correctly, I guess that Eddie could have tracked down a hooker who resembled Kay a long time in advance. But he could have just established a time with Richard when they were both supposed to come outside, cross over to each other's bedrooms and be with each other's wives. He would have told the real Kay to drive the car away and prearranged for the hooker to show up before Richard was outside of his house and ready to "swap." So after Richard and Eddie agreed on a day/time to be outside their houses, Eddie told the hooker to show up in his bed a little before that so that Richard wouldn't see her arrive, but she'd be there when he came into the bedroom. Then Richard had sex with the hooker, thinking it was Kay, and left. Eddie never went to Priscilla's room, then came in and killed the hooker.
But if I understand the movie correctly, what I don't see is how Richard could have believed that the hooker was Kay. Other posters have already said that this kind of swap would be a stretch even if they were all swingers, but an even bigger stretch is that the women don't know it's going to happen that night, but yet in order for Richard not to know the woman wasn't Kay (which I don't get), they couldn't have said a word to each other. Wouldn't Richard at least have expected "Kay" to say, "What are you doing here?" or have said to Kay, "Eddie's next door with Priscilla. We all want this. It's okay" or something along those lines.
And then the next morning, even with that taboos about what they did, wouldn't Richard have recognized that Priscilla didn't carry any hint that something unusual had happened the night before, that she didn't even know of any "swap" or any sex? That's what I don't get. I understand not talking about such taboo desires to some extent, but that nobody lets on to the point that Richard doesn't know he's not having sex with Kay, and then the next morning it's not clear to Richard and Priscilla that he's carrying an air of "We were naughty last night," and she seems not to have any sort of "morning after" aura about her?
I didn't know the movie was a murder thriller before I watched it, and I enjoyed it up to that point. I thought Eddie was clearly a scammer, but I thought whatever he was up to was going to revolve around the fact that Kay and Richard had sex, but Eddie didn't even go over to Priscilla's room after he set up the whole "swap." Then it became implausible and went downhill.
Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. You say Richard and Eddie agreed on a day/time to be outside their houses, but that's exactly what I asked about. Unless I didn't watch the movie too carefully there was no such agreement (no letter, phone call or direct conversation), so Eddie couldn't know in advance when exactly Richard would spend the night in his house. To me it looked like Eddie was taken by surprise - one night Richard just came outside his house and went to his friend's bedroom.
shareYou weren't unclear. My fault. I just misunderstood because I somehow made the assumption that they'd made an arrangement when I watched the film. Eddie kept pressuring Richard. Then it was happening. I assumed Richard had given in, and we were supposed to infer that they had an arrangement from the scene. But that's probably because it didn't seem to me as if Eddie was surprised to see Richard, maybe acting surprised that straitlaced Richard was going through with it, if anything. I read the general emotion between them as awkwardness about what they were doing. I might have misread it entirely simply because I was already sure at that point that Eddie was a master manipulator, the kind who really controls other people's behavior more than they know and would only look off guard or ill-at-ease with someone else's behavior intentionally to cover that fact up.
But no, there was nothing I remember in the film where they explicitly made an arranged the date/time of the "switch." I assume that they had set something up because Eddie would have to hire the hooker for a precise time. But maybe it's one more thing in this movie that doesn't make sense.
When I watched the movie not knowing what was going to happen either, I got the impression that Richard was showing up at a prearranged time too, but I remember that you are both correct that it never came out and said there was any arrangement. But whichever. . .it makes no sense either way because how does Eddie make whatever arrangement he does with the hooker, whether she shows up for a prearranged "swap" or lives with them for a while? He'd have to get the exact hooker that looked most like Kay. And what kind of gig did he propose to the hooker to hire her: "Hi, my neighbor wants to have sex with my wife, and instead I want him to come over and think he is having sex with my wife but really be having it with you instead, so when he shows up, I want you to play like you are my wife and pretend he woke you up by surprise in bed and has sex with you, okay?" Hookers probably hear some weird stuff, but for the one who looks just like Kay to have no gut instinct that there was something funny to agree to that when it makes no sense? Who buys a hooker for his neighbor to come over, wake up like she's sleeping in his bedroom, and have sex in his bed with in the middle of the night? The hooker wouldn't smell a rat? And the hooker couldn't have been more in on the plan than that because if she knew why they were doing this, she would know Eddie planned to kill her. Yet she has to know she is playing like she is Kay when she is in bed with Richard or she would blow it. Huh? This movie was full of holes. The whole hire-a-hooker-in-your-bed-for-your neighbor is a stretch, especially since he has to get one just like Kay? Then Richard thinks it's Kay while he has sex with her? They must really look alike. Plot holes the size of black holes. Nothing with the hooker part makes sense.
shareI think we are to assume Richard and Eddie made the arrangement off-screen in advance. If Richard turned the lights on for sex, Eddie's plan would have been foiled fast.
shareThe less you think about such things in this movie the better. It's not like it's one of those numbers that makes sense... any sense at all. The 'really' unfortunate part, however, is that it's got very little going for it in other departments as well.
facts are stupid things - Ronald Reagan