MovieChat Forums > Sunshine State (2002) Discussion > Question (SPOILER WARNING)

Question (SPOILER WARNING)

posted 15 years ago by BruceUK
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I enjoyed the film very much but one plot point left me slightly puzzled. Why was Gordon Clapp's character trying to kill himself?

OK he probably didn't have a particularly satisfying relationship with his wife (Mary Steenburgen's character), he appeared to have an on-going gambling problem and, through his position at the bank, he had got into some kind of shady deal with the two property developers who were competing with Tim Hutton's company. But were those reasons enough to make him suicidal?

Any views?

[–] Local Hero 14 years ago

Bits and pieces of information creep out along the way. Slowly, we can piece together that he has a long, ongoing gambling problem, even though he has convinced his wife that it is an episode from the distant past. This makes him feel all the more ashamed of his problem, and it gives him no outlet, no one to talk to about it or get help from. In desperation, he has embezzled money from the bank where he works, and eventually we see him take a bribe from the development company to win his vote on the board.

Sayles talks about this man a little on the commentary track, pointing out that his suicide attempts are rather lame in method, suggesting that he only half-desires to end his life. Sayles also suggests that if anything will save him, it is his wife's insistence, in their final scene together, that he is her rock, that she needs him so much.