When Kate comes back in her lingere, Jack is only pretending to be asleep. After Kate turns out the light, the camera shows his face, and he opens his eyes as if he is in a very serious moment of reflection.
Initially, he is ready to have sex with her. As their kissing becomes more passionate, he suddenly stops and looks at her. He then says, "My God, you're beautiful." After telling her what a beautiful woman she has become, Kate asks, "How can you do that, look at me like you haven't seen me every day for the last 13 years?" When she says this, his expression dramatically changes. I interpreted this as him really hearing his conscience, realizing there would be something unbelievably wrong with taking advantage of her. Along with this, I also wonder if, on a very deep subconscious level, he also truly loves her but he can't quite process this yet.
Even though he comes across as a completely self-serving person at first, this scene reveals, to me, his capacity for thinking about others and not just himself.
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jaydub99
14 years ago
That's what I thought, but that's weird because later on, he is willing to have an affair with that other women, and he doesn't care because he thinks none of it is real. So if he thinks that, why not have some fun with his hot "wife"?!?
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tw_sm
14 years ago
This is a good point, and it further reveals that Jack has a lot to learn. He is still very self-centered and willing take advantage of others. And, even though he tells Arnie the rules don't apply to him because this is not his "real" life, Jack is rationalizing on a couple of different levels. Everything that is happening to him feels absolutely real--to the point that he eventually forgets about Cash and embraces this as his real life and his former life as some kind of dream. So, I think deep down he knows he would still be doing something dishonest and hurtful. This is why Arnie's response to him at the bowling alley is so important and why it makes Jack never go forward with the affair. Even though it is a glimpse, it is real on a certain level.
On another level, Cash tells Jack that his glimpse will last as long as it takes for him to figure things out. He is starting to figure things out, but he doesn't want to give up his old ways so easily. Like most of us, Jack doesn't fully embrace what he is learning about living with integrity right away. It is a slow process, influenced a lot by how Kate treats him with so much love and self-sacrifice--such as when she searches for and buys the suit for him for their anniversary and when she is willing to move back into the city with him.
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