I thought Vanessa couldn't read?
But she walks into the Hi-Way Diner and reads the menu after she shoots up Bob.
Oops!
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MovieChat Forums > Freeway (1997) Discussion > I thought Vanessa couldn't read?
Well I was listening to the commentary and apparently that was one of the worse nights of the shoot. Apparently Reese wasn't in a good mood and the blood on her face was making her break out. The director said that was the only night he had a problem with her. Maybe the moment was improvised without consideration for the prior scenes in the film.
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Did it actually show the menu? If it's anything like Denny's drunk-friendly menu where you can just point to a picture and say, "That one", I doubt she would have issues. She would at least check for pictures just in case. If she had started reading things verbatim out loud then that would be totally different.
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This is just an off the mark theory...but I had an older friend who could not read. She would always pick up a newspaper or a menu and just "look" at it. To be like everyone else. It hid her insecurities and lack of abilities from a lot of people. At a restaurant she'd just order something she knew they would have like a burger and fries looking over the menu the whole time. It's not entirely impossible that people who are illiterate try to mask it by behaving completely normal.
Just a random thought. Its probably just a goof but I thought I'd throw the idea out there.
hehe
Excellent point. You might also consider that when we read we are actually remembering the words and with this being a menu they are probably things she recognises and has seen many times before.
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I think she didn't want to look dumb so she pretended she was looking at the menu and then just said something she would order normally and just hoped they had it.
shareHe-man?? Not very hard. If she could put together "The Cat Drinks Milk" she can put together he-man.
sharewell the super he-man breakfast or whatever is pretty special sounding, not generic like a burger and fries but she probably had been to one of those restaurants before and just knew what they had.
shareI assumed the Diner was supposed to repressent a place like Denny's, so it would be a place she probably ate before. I don't think her family did much cooking so she probably ordered that breakfast many times before.
shareI wonder if she can't read how was she thinking she'd be able to make it to her destination... she obviously never got there before.
<I Will Make You Hurt>
I actually wondered if she could read all along and was pretending in that class that she couldn't - maybe so she could stay with her boyfriend who was also in the class. She was very bright (and I know people who can't read are often highly intelligent), but she seemed to take pleasure in fooling people. Many people made the mistake of underestimating her and learned to their cost that they shouldn't have. Just a theory.
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This happens on both sides of the counter. John Belushi on Saturday Night Live used to do skits based on his family's diner. They were immigrants and spoke broken English. One counterman (Bill Murray?) was a later immigrant couldn't read or speak English. That's why he would pass orders to the cook saying "cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, Pepsi, Pepsi."
I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else
I also thought she might be faking the severe literacy problems she shows in the first scene, because her friends, including Chopper, were there. She is later described as semi-literate, which suggests an ability to read sentences more complex than "the cat sat on the mat" or whatever it is in the opening scene.
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."
I also thought she might be faking the severe literacy problems she shows in the first scene,
I think this is the most likely explanation for it too and I actually remember a few children who used to fake being bad at English and Math when I was in High School just so they didn't have to do it or so the teacher would give them easier work so it is not that farfetched.
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It don't matter if it's raining
Nothing can phase me
I make my own sunshine
And if you think you can break me
Baby, you're crazy
I make my own sunshine
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Yes, Vanessa is quite cunning and tries to work the system as best she can although she knows it is stacked against her. I didn't buy the huge struggle with "the cat drinks milk" and sensed an ulterior motive of some kind. Apart from Chopper being there, I had a feeling she had a bit of a leadership role with a certain clique there because of her street smarts and force of character (qualities more obvious later in the film) and she did not want to get transferred to another class.
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."
the warden lady said in her report that she was semi-illiterate..she could read a little but not well. doesn't matter anyway because when she wears those boots and skirt together she doesn't need to know how to read she just has to find a guy like me.
shareMaybe the menu had photos.
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