It's been a while since I read the book this movie was based on (I never read Little Altars so I don't know about that), but Buggy is presented in a far more sympathetic light in the novel. She was treated really horribly by her mother and sister, who, IIRC, was initially engaged to Thomas Abbott. Somehow Buggy nabbed him instead. I think she may have always been pretty pious and just retreated into her religion as the abuse and her life became more and more miserable.
Also, regarding her reaction to Vivi getting that ring from her father, I think it was not SUCH a huge leap to imagine that he might have been making sexual advances toward her. That is actually quite typical of abusers to shower their victim with gifts either to groom them or guilt them into silence. Buggy, however, was wrong to assume that Vivi was the perpetrator, but that was actually a pretty common attitude in those days and even still: that a girl somehow "seduced" her abuser. But anyway, all that to say Buggy's idea that something sexual or inappropriate may have occurred between father and daughter is not necessarily far-fetched, especially considering that Vivi's father typically ignored or beat her. Actually, Callie Khouri in the DVD commentary gave a direction to Cherry Jones (who plays Buggy) during the scene, something to the effect of, "It's as if he's marrying her [Vivi] in front of you."
"A half-finished book is, after all, a half-finished love affair."
reply
share