MovieChat Forums > Merci pour le chocolat (2000) Discussion > why drugging father and son??

why drugging father and son??

posted 21 years ago by deca76
24 replies | jump to latest

I couldnt find the answer at comments.
In the film, Mika usually (well, every night) put some sleeping drugs in her chocolate that she servers to her husband - and his son. But I'm not really sure why?
Obviously they want both sleeping, but what is the use?
In first place, when she kills Mrs. Polonski, it seems she wants to be with Polanski... But then, Jeanne comes.
Once Jeanne is there, Mika shows the picture of Mrs. Polonski (which is remarkable similar to Jeanne), but Mika doesnt want Jeanne to drink the same chocolate she servers to Polanski's son - indicanting she also drugs Guillaume every night. Why drugging the son if she wanted the father? Also, it seems Polonki sleeps heavily every night, due Ropynol.
Even though she shows some interest to Jeanne, Mika doesnt want her - at least, not as Polonski's daughter - and plans to kill her. She doesnt seems to be jealous about Polonski, but about Guillaume. She seens strangely interested in Guillaume. And, maybe fearing their parents could change the kids again, she wants to kill Jeanne - well, that's my theory. Mika might abuse Guillaume at night, while he is doped.
I see no other explanation, but I would like to hear other opinions, because none ever mention what is Guillaume's situation in the plot, except than "reglected son".

Deca

[–] bedtimestoryNYC 20 years ago

OK this movie, is full of questions for me!!!
First WHY did her husband, Polonsky didn't react angrily to her attepmts to murder both Jeann and Guillaume??? Was he always aware of his wife's pervertious desires? Was he not surprised???
Why would she want to kill guillaume and jeanne? OK i understand Jeanna, she suspects that she is his daughter, but Guillaume? Why did she drug him?

[–] Jade_Monkey 20 years ago

I didn't think she drugged them both, the thermos was put in Guillaume's room and there was one scene where she told him that she was taking up his chocolate and he said that he should make her less because he could only manage half of it last time. I have no idea why she drugged him though... The father pretty much drugged himself.

[–] Anaxareta 20 years ago

I think she enjoys doing this. Mika does not have any duty, she almost has nothing to do, and this kind of life makes her want to be "evil" (as she says at the end of the movie). Remember that she drops the boiling water on Guillaume's foot and that's not an accident. She considers Guillame as a kind of toy.

[–] snucker 20 years ago

maybe it's because guillaume suspected mika killed his mother and is at times cold to her. both son and step-mother have this surface relationship that seems pleasent, but is tense and suspicious underneath. i think she drugs guillaume because he is a threat to her.

[–] waldenpond66 9 years ago

And I was under the impression that Mika dropped the boiling hot water intentionally on Guilaume's leg in order to keep him safe at home while she already planned to ask Jeanne to drive to town to get André's sleeping pills. However, Jeanne did not drink much of it and was younger and stronger than Guillaume's mom, so the drug effected her less and she managed to at least reach the town and not go over the cliff.
Any opinions?

[–] hiccough 19 years ago

At the end of the movie she says she feels like a nothing, a hanger-on. So maybe she's trying to destroy all the Somethings around her. But it's anybody's guess. I guess someone'd have to read the book to really know.

[–] SarahBellum 17 years ago

It was advertised as a "Hitchcock-like thriller". Mika was pretty strange. I wonder if she was doing the drugs too? Too bad we were never given an explantion for her actions. What was the deal with Polanski? He was like a zombie throughout the film. Maybe it was from the drugs. Strange film.

[–] sara9347-1 16 years ago

i thought the reason she dropped the water on his foot was so that he wouldn't be able to go out with the girl for the pills. also, i thought it was her intention to just drug the girl, since she only made the coffee for her and was serving chocolate for everyone else. it was by chance that guillaume refused the chocolate and took coffee instead.
i do agree that she's being evil simply because she really has nothing else to do. it was a good film and i liked it but there are many unexplained things in the plot. for instance, when she served everyone the drugged chocolate she always had some herself. why would she drug herself? it also doesn't make sense that she should drug her husband (who then later takes a dose of the pills on his own) and there's no reason to drug the son at all, especially since she seems to genuinely love them both (even if its in her own twisted way).

[–] andersonarthur 13 years ago

I agree with sara 9347-1. Exactly what I thought, "she dropped the water on his foot was so that he wouldn't be able to go out with the girl for the pills. also, i thought it was her intention to just drug the girl, since she only made the coffee for her and was serving chocolate for everyone else. it was by chance that guillaume refused the chocolate and took coffee instead."

[–] theairburns 16 years ago

She killed the wife, but had to wait untilthe son turned 18 to kill him.

[–] pounce44 16 years ago

Agree with theairburns.
But also, as someone else says, she does all this evil simply for the thrill of it. The dvd's bonus features mention *perversity* and that certainly fits my impression of Mika.

[–] christcrucified 15 years ago

I agree. there is no real motivation for Mika to do the things she does other than the simple fact that she is the personification of malevolence or perversity. Though perhaps such a simple point of view ignores some obvious questions. For instance, why is she crying, sobbing eventually, during the closing credits? Is she selfish enough to lament her own half-assed job at murdering two innocent teenagers, or is there more depth to it? What is the source of her grief and remorse at the end of the film?

[–] louise_mothersole 13 years ago

I think Mika spilled the boiling water on the son-in-law's foot in order to bandage it, to recreate the details of the night his mother died (his leg was bandaged then, too, from when he tripped down the stairs).

My theory is that, perhaps, it was an accident the first time round. That she really did love Guillaume's mother. It wasn't planned that she'd go out in the car - but chance. Perhaps she always drugged the drinks before bed-time, to create the perfect night's sleep at the end of the perfect day she'd striven so hard to achieve; and this one night, Guillaume's mother unfortunately had to - out of the blue - take the car out.

Perhaps Mika then blamed herself and saw herself as innately bad.

Then, to exorcise her demons, when the opportunity (again, by chance) arose - when the 'daughter figure' Jeanne turned up, who so closely resembled Guillaume's long-lost mother - Mika set up the same situation again. She relived the tableau of the night in which her suspicions about herself - that she can never achieve great things, can only do wrong - were confirmed. And she has since convinced herself that her greatness, her gift, is her intricate plotting, when in fact it is mostly down to chance.

Just a theory. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, because I want to sympathise with Mika's character.

Another theory could be that she really did plan everything to the last detail. She somehow planned for Jeanne to find out about the mix-up at birth. She knew the girl's mother worked in forensics. She spilled the son-in-law's drugged chocolate on purpose so that Jeanne would see, be suspicious, and take it to her mother's lab. So that Jeanne would tell the son-in-law, so he would be suspicious and swap drinks (coffee) with Jeanne...

However, that all seems too complex a plot. There are too many variables which could bring about its downfall. (And, of course, if this was the plan, it did fail - the two survived the crash.)

Liz Lemon: Chocolate chocolate chocolate! AAACK!

[–] NumeroOne 10 years ago

That's an interesting theory. I think that one detail makes it clear that she intended to kill both times: the way that she washes the cups the same way on both occasions, as if performing a ritual.

"Under strengths... You just put 'Accounts.' That's just your job." ~David Brent, The Office

[–] NumeroOne 10 years ago

The murder plot might be a bit unrealistic, but, for the most part, Mika is a very realistic depiction of a psychopath/sociopath. Many "crazies" are neither helpless victims nor cold-blooded killers. They often have low self-esteem, are very numb, and will do perverse acts just to feel something.

I know somebody like Mika and when she sees the harmful results of her actions, she begins to grieve, but also lights up in a strange way, just like Mika does when she says, "They're dead?"

In the last scene of the movie, I think that Mika was lamenting her failure at getting away with it, but also was, in a way, relishing the fact that she got to finally feel something.

"Under strengths... You just put 'Accounts.' That's just your job." ~David Brent, The Office

[–] bostonfilmfan 12 years ago

I think the fact that she was adopted and felt all her life like she belonged nowhere added to her "strangeness", but I can't quite understand in which way exactly. Also, it's important that she says: "I say "I love you" and people believe me". She doesn't really have any feelings for anyone. It's still unclear why we should be interested...

[–] Dmoody36 13 years ago

Mika is mentally ill.
Towards the end she mentions how her mother never saw as a genius, that she was a late edition; how she gives and gives but can never ask; how she doesn't really love, she just says she does and people believe her...Well you get the idea.
In other words she never really felt loved, and tries to express love in ways that make sense to her. She wanted Andre back, but has to eliminate the competition first.
Andre is already hooked on Rohypnol, and she wants to ensure that Guilliame sleeps well too, so she puts the Rohypnol in his chocolate each night. She knows that Jeanne will get suspicious, so she drops the chocolate so he doesn't drink it.
By burning Guillame's foot she get's to play the loving mother, which is why she doesn't want him to go with her near the end.
When Jeanne is staying with them, Mika wants to ensure Jeanne sleeps well too, so she put Rohypnol in her drink. As Andre says "You're good at putting people to sleep"
We see some signs of compassion in her when she first thinks that Guilliame and Jeanne are dead. It's only at the end that she begins to realise the consequences of her actions, such as when she says "Everything I do is bad." and with the mention of the police been there soon, she faces time in prison.

[–] NumeroOne 10 years ago

I don't think we're seeing true remorse or regret at the end when she cries. I think that, like many psychopaths, she kills - and cries about the results of her actions - just to feel something.

"Under strengths... You just put 'Accounts.' That's just your job." ~David Brent, The Office

[–] Rheli 10 years ago

Please remove the spoiler from your title.

[–] funnygurl 10 years ago

My interpretation was that she wanted Polanski all to herself. She drugged his second wife with drugs she knew would be around (because she had once been married to Polanski she knew he took Rohypnol). Then she remarried Polanski. But there was still the problem of the son by his second wife. So she begins to drug him too in the hopes that he'll get behind the wheel or take a fall or something that looks accidental.

She also drugs herself so she can drink the same thing without suspicion (which she knows she's doing and is presumably careful to stay in after she's drank the chocolate) and Polanski (who knows he takes Rohypnol and would be aware of the risks) so it doesn't look like she's doing anything different with Guilaume. He would be the only one who doesn't know he's been drugged and therefore the one most likely to have an "accident".

However when Jeanne comes along there is the possibility that she is Polanski's daughter by his second wife. Mika can't be sure which child is Polanski's so she drugs them both and sends them off in the car together in the hopes that an accident will occur and they'll both be killed. That way she has Polanski all to herself with no reminders of that pesky second marriage.

Other things that she does: spilling the water on Guilaume's foot for example, are simply sadistic. They're ways of creating disorder beneath the ordered surface of her world. As she says at the end, she can just say "I love you" afterwards and people believe her. It's sort of a game she plays with herself. But it's that game that tips off Jeanne (with the spilled chocolate in the beginning) and Guilaume (with the boiling water).

[–] velli10501 10 years ago

TY funnygurl==really helped