MovieChat Forums > Woman Wanted (1999) Discussion > I'm a bit confused about Emma (spoiler)

I'm a bit confused about Emma (spoiler)

posted 17 years ago by Filmophile_B
12 replies | jump to latest

overall a great character study. I love anything with Keifer in it anyway.

Some confusion about Emma.....

When she is drunk in the dinning room w/ Richard & Wendell, she asks if she's going to be fired, told no & says oh good, I'm tired of being booted out of places. What does this mean? What had she done in the past to get booted out of places? what secrets is she hiding? we don't know much about her ex only that his was Bi so that is why they didnt have a child.

another confusion...Emma befriends the neighbor woman with the dark hair. They seem to be close, she gives Emma crystal for her bday, yet when Emma leaves she does not let her girlfriend know.

then she calls her "Dad" and says she wants the house in New Hampshire. ?? Did she come from a wealthy familyl? she is a very frugal individual & her mother taught her how to salvage old worn out sheets. ??

another question...
did she take the job specifically to enchant the men & get pregnant?? Cause in the beginning of the movie, Richard says some stuff to her as employer to employee that most women would not tolerate. She just responds to both of them with kindness.

Any opinions to these queries? anyone else confused about these issues?

Keifer darling, if you're out there, please enlightem me. btw...
Jack Bauer Rules. Please have his character get with Chloe already.
^^^smile^^^

[–] Hmmingbrd1 17 years ago

I liked the movie overall until the end. She seemed so nice and kind towards both men, but ended up breaking both their hearts and causing so much more trouble between them than before she came. She used both of them, got herself pregnant then left them broken hearted to fend for themselves. I just could not believe it. What confused me more tho, was the picture at the very end. Both men are kissing the baby .....so she told them? Guess they both think they are the father, wonder if they will be setting her up for life or what. I think she is just a user of men, yet she is portrayed as this nice, young, innocent girl. What a mess she left their lives. I am a woman, not a bitter man, although I sound like it.

[–] Screenwhizard 17 years ago

I agree about Emma's character... she surprised/ disappointed me as the movie went on. Did she love the father -- or not? They seemed stable and she seemed committed to him; she also observed proper "boundaries" with the son. Then suddenly, BAM! She sleeps with the son, an act seeming simultaneously unplanned and thoroughly premeditated.

I too was bothered by the several loose ends that were never explained or resolved... her wanting to go to church, getting the NH house, her friend who gave her the crystal and was never seen again, etc. My sense was that the book was not properly adapted to screenplay. Transitions were sometimes abrupt and some threads didn't seem necessary to the main arc of the story.

[–] mrocco-1 17 years ago

I'm confused by your observations of this movie. I saw it as the opposite. Emma coming into their lives was the catalyst that finally allowed father and son to bury their past and start a new life. As far as her sleeping with one and then the other...I didnt' see it as her jumping from bed to bed. I saw it as her disappointment in the father not getting 'who she is' and trying to change her by pusing her to pursue a college degree(remember the comments to the maid next door?) while the son clearly 'got' her. Then she realized the father wasn't going to propose so she was planning on leaving. I didn't see her sleeping with the son as anything more than timing and not a means to her desired end (getting pregnant.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

[–] pug32 16 years ago

[–] soulnhartcupie 16 years ago

I agree she brought more upheaval to their lives, however, yes she was also the catalyst....through her they were both able to open up and express their feelings, and have a full blow out, in order to begin healing and in the end they did resolve and perhaps put the past to rest, forgave each other, and moving on.
As for Emma, I guess she intended on getting pregnant all along, after she decided to leave I think she slept with Keifer as her 'way out' to say to the father, 'I've been unfaithful, so I have to leave'...she figured it was the easiest explanation. She didn't seem to fit with the father in the first place, I don't know if she was pretending the whole time.

[–] peace_n_love 16 years ago

I guess these were three hurting people, lost souls, really, mysteriously drawn together for the inevitable transformation they each so badly needed. They all had a need to learn how to accept themselves as they are, but so far (until she arrives) could not have done it alone. Babies are the ultimate message of love and hope in the world, no matter what the circumstances of their birth. Look at Juno.

Film is such a powerful medium for teaching and healing, and can contain info and insight that some would not seek out any other way. Asclepius, anyone? The Greeks used theater for healing, to take the audience out of their own lives for awhile, putting them through every emotion for the release of their own... the best theater and films still do this.

Incandescent performances all, that slowly creep up on you. The score didn't work for me at all, however... too 'made for tv' kitsch ~ songs were good, tho.

[–] saxon57 16 years ago

I just caught this movie on Bravo. The performances by the three lead actors were outstanding and I have to admit that the story did capture my attention. As much as I can see that the implied outcome is that Richard and Wendell were finally able to become closer and that Emma apparently got what she desired..a child; I found the ending still rather disturbing. I appreciate that the father/son relationship was extrememly complicated with fault for the ditance lying on both sides; but still the means to repair the connection seemed cruel. Emma told Richard that she "loved him." I was shocked that made the decision to be with Wendell and leave them both seemingly so easily. Richard had explained his difficult history and she never really tried to assure him that things could be different, but rather seemed to have pre-planned her exit. Her exit left me rather indignant at her decision.Beginning to repair the father/son bond was fine, but it seemed to me that Richard truly thought that he had found an end to his lonliness and I found myself angry at Emma for once again sending him back to his sad existance.

[–] CitizenLen 16 years ago

At face value, Emma seemed like a home-wrecker, but the home was already wrecked to begin with. Emma was searching for someone, anybody to appease her loneliness and want of a child. At the end, she became both the villain and heroine so to speak. The father and son needed to confront each other and Emma was just the catalyst or even the device to bring them there. Emma was also quite passive that it seemed like an act. Hell, if you find out your husband was gay, I guess sleeping with your boyfriend's son is a walk in the park for Emma. Although it does break the moral compass.

In the beginning, she already had lots of questions about the ad and was too busybuddy. Her planning Wendell to leave the house, suggesting to the Dad to have Marion's things remove after they first slept together, giving Wendell's poems to a professor, telling him to get a job all seemed calculating. It makes you wonder what was really on Emma's mind.

As you can see in the ending from the picture of the men kissing Emma's baby, they were no longer sad. Richard mentioned to Emma that he always wondered why Marion never nuzzled Wendell like how other mothers nuzzled their babies. Richard didn't know how to compensate for that to Wendell. Emma finally becoming a mother, a loving mother compensated for all the years that they lacked affection. The two men found a way through Emma to forgive each other and show emotion again or have a second chance with the new baby.

Was Emma their salvation? Or did Emma used them to have a baby? If she really wanted a child, she could have just gotten knocked up with any men, but she also was hoping for a ring.

BTW the house was from her divorce settlement. Funny, I usually cringe and shout obscenities on scenes like that, yet I wasn't grossed out with Emma and Wendell sleeping together. It was shot quietly. Like the whole movie, was done quietly. Kiefer kept the consistency in acting and storytelling.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] KAnnD86 15 years ago

I was also quite confused by the movie. The characters were so weird. I didn't really understand anyone's motives or decisions. It was an interesting film but I'm afraid I didn't quite get it.

Tomorrow's just your future yesterday!

[–] Filmophile_B 15 years ago

Thanks for commenting. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[–] speedo58 12 years ago

The name "Emma" made me think of Jane Austen's Emma, who was quite a busybody. I also thought of a weird but funny farce called "Cold Comfort Farm" in which Kate Beckinsale, left gentile but poor by her parents' death chooses to go to live on a farm with distant relatives and tries to change life on the farm to her sensibility, what she calls "bringing them to a higher common sense". I think that is what Emma in "Woman Wanted" did. She said that she led a bohemian life while married to the actor, who probably didn't make much money, therefore she had to learn to be frugal. I disagree that the baby could have been either man's, because Richard was out of town during the crucial fertile period if you count back from her making love with Wendell, who, it was apparent, was in love with her the whole time. There is more joy in a grandchild with none of the responsibility, and not wanting the responsibility for a child was what estranged Richard and Wendell. When Emma realized that Richard had no intention of giving her the baby she wanted, when Wendell, elated by the news of the acceptance of the poems, which Emma brought about, wanted to thank her in the most profound manner possible, it seemed to me it was true to Emma's previous experience to accept Wendell's love. I believe that she saw the act as one that would bring them all together, but on her own terms, in her own house. She didn't want to be made into something different as Richard wanted. She had a very strong sense of who she was and what she wanted, which was a baby. This was much like her character in "Raising Arizona"!