Barbara Hershey ... confused ... - 11:14 (2004) Discussion

[–] jgl2003 17 years ago

Just saw it last night so it is fresh in my otherwise confused mind...
She chases him around the yard and says he killed her daughter. He mumbles daughter??? as he realizes this was a different accident or he was totally mistaken about the long haired face gone corpse.

She is there to add that connection to Cheri thru her husband and the additional confusion of the second accidental death. And, I suppose, to add the reason the officer with 2 felony perps in his car would be diverted to a deer accident - she was friends with the chief and the dispatcher indicates to the officer the chief wants it looked into.

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[–] goodbear40 17 years ago

I guess I totally misheard her first lines in the yard regarding "my son." Maybe I was as confused as Henry Thomas was, because I knew he'd nailed a male corpse, for some reason! Trippy flick, man...

I also suppose I was expecting more screen time for her; I'm old enough to think of her as a "Big Name" in a small film. It just seemed like she got lost in the shuffle as events unfolded.

I only wish I could recommend this movie to friends that I work with, but they're mostly retarded and would hate it, I think! Oh well, too bad for 'em...

Thanks for clarifying,
Goodbear

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[–] underdawg87 17 years ago

you werent confused at all. i just saw this movie and am pretty sure she said "my only son" and then right before this part of the story ends she screams "you killed my daughter!" and then he says "daughter?" and his part of the story is over. the reason i thought he said "daughter?" was because the first thing she said was "son" and now shes saying daughter...and the fact that the guy that he hit had his face obliterated...with long hair could be either male or female.

EDIT: wow, i rewatched this part of the film to make sure i was correct, turns out i wasn't...she doesnt say "my only son" she says "my only child"..whats strange is how me AND you both heard son, when throughout her whole scene there is no mention of the word "son"....

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[–] hugh-paterson 17 years ago

anyone else find it strange that the guy at the start didn't recognise the old lady, as she was Cheri's mother and he was involved in the extortion plan with Cheri??

surely they must have crossed paths at SOME point before that night...?!

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[–] Can_a_bitch_get_a_donut 17 years ago

No... I don't find it strange at all. The girl has two boyfriends, is cheating on them both, getting them both to give her money so she can skip town with some random older guy. Why would she bring random older guy home to meet her parents?

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[–] neonkore 17 years ago

woahhh i sooo heard "my only SON" and then i rewatched it and she did say "my only child" thats so odd that we all thought that. I think the fact that he says "daughter?" at the end makes us beleive she said son at the start and the fact that we just saw a dead man and not a dead woman, so naturally we think son..

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[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mherring-1 16 years ago

I just watched it - my roommate and I both thought she said something about her son. Weird.

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[–] singular_critic 16 years ago

I thought she said son as well. This is just plain bizarre. I think we have all made the connection to son because we were all thinking the way the drunk guy was and then we all get confused when she says daughter. It's so mad how our minds work....

"When all are one and one is all, to be a rock and not to troll....."

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[–] singlechickadeenz 16 years ago

I heard something about her son to, but this could of been because we know the person he "hit" was a male so could just put 2 and 2 together and get "my only son"

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[–] that_heiress 16 years ago

I just finished watching this movie. And I swear to God Cheri's mother said "my only son". That's the prime reason why I come on here was to find out what happened to the son. I was so confused when she said daughter at the end. I'm still convinced she said son.

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[–] pondhawkdragonfly 16 years ago

I think most people thought they heard the words, "my only son," because it is natural for an audience to fill in the blanks for themselves until proven otherwise; Giving an unnamed child a gender helps the audience try to recognize with the characters in question. It is unusual for people to refer to their only "child" as such because we, as a society, are used to assigning gender to clarify ourselves when we talk to other people ... An over-share of information.

*shrugs*

The writer was deliberately not giving a gender to the child mentioned of Barbra Hershey's character, Norma, to make it ambiguous and to try to toss a little curve at the audience. It was known to the audience by the time Norma drove up that Henry Thomas' character, Jack, had hit the fallen body of an unidentified male. The only child in question is given a gender at the end of Jack's story to confuse the audience as much as it was confusing to the character Jack.

I think it was brilliant.

"Hysteria is only possible with an audience."

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[–] vntrlqst 16 years ago

I heard "my only son", as well. But like the above poster said, I've found myself many a time throughout life assume a boy is being described whenever someone says "child" or "kid".

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[–] Villi2 14 years ago

I agree, great writing. The audience can truly relate to Jack's confusion in that scene.

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[–] tripleo 14 years ago

Add another "I swore I heard her say her son". That's what I came here to clarify. Crazy mind is crazy.

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[–] bah_humbug 13 years ago

Amazing, I was convinced she said 'son' and so i spend most of the film thinking the body in the grave yard was her son, cheri's brother. who she had sex with! Ugh!
Coincidently I recently watched an Horizon documentary on how we can be easily tricked into seeing and hearing things that are incorrect. Seriously trippy, makes you doubt anything a witness says.

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[–] MegGirl311 16 years ago

I thought I heard son too! So weird, but kinda neat. I'm glad there was this message board to clear things up!

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[–] ManicMuse 14 years ago

i think that's a sign of good writing.

"WHO'S ON TOP & WHO'S ON BOTTOM NOW, huh?! WHO'S ON TOP & WHO'S ON BOTTOM NOW!"

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[–] The_Great_Pantubo 13 years ago

It's been 3 years since this thread was updated, but I just watched the movie, and I heard "son" as well. Amazing.

This was a great flick. I had never heard of it and I DVR'd it on a whim. Very glad I did. So much overhyped garbage out there -- bravo!

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[–] jara0779 16 years ago

I just watched the movie and I heard her say "son", too. I was confused as hell when he repeated "daughter" after she said "You killed my daughter!" Maybe Barbara has mush-mouth...or maybe we're all just crazy. :) I'm gonna rewatch the beginning to see...

Btw, the filmmakers should've rewound the clocks to go back further so Cheri and Frank have more time to do everything they did before 11:14. Great movie!

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[–] xxHighMaintenancexx 16 years ago

Hahaha that's crazy! I thought I heard "son" too!!

Lena <33
Learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow.

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[–] djsnafu23 11 years ago

crazy i heard son too though i was aware that his confusion came from hitting a different man!

....

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[–] steve_otheninja 16 years ago

What the hell? You're all confusing me

I could have sworn she had said 'My only daughter' a few times
or my only child

never son

just that the officer said 'you hit her pretty hard'
jack: her?
officer: *later* (refers to victim as male)

that's the only time his victim was mentioned as female

Here's how it is

She got hit by a car at 11:14, and Jack got the body thrown on his hood at the same time.

But she didn't know he 'hit' a male
She just knew he was lying about hitting a deer
and led her to believe there was only one accident, the victim being her daughter

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[–] alucard1-1 14 years ago

Damn I hate finding old threads I want to comment on... oh well...

steve_otheninja, you wrote:

just that the officer said 'you hit her pretty hard'
jack: her?
officer: *later* (refers to victim as male)

At that point, the cop still thought Jack had hit a deer.. and was commenting on how "she" had no antlers... The cop was under the impression that Jack had killed a deer, and stuffed it in his trunk to slaughter for the meat later on... hence the part where he said he "knew venison was expensive..."

Hope that, although much delayed... clears that up...

I think it was a very slick "curve-ball" for the writer/director to use the words Barbara used... The audience, subconsciously, "fills in the blank" when child is said first.. that way the audience and Jack both share the WTF moment shen she screams "YOU KILLED MY DAUGHTER!!!"

Priceless!

Peace

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[–] LLkoolmom5 16 years ago

She was the one who called the police for Jack making him scramble in his drunken stupor to hide the body. If she wasn't there to call the police, Jack would've had more time to think through what he was going to do; she just sped up the process...

Then when they (Thomas and Hershey) are looking for Frank and she talks of the phone call about her only child being killed in a car accident just a few minutes after she left Jack and the supposed deer, she puts 1 & 1 together and assumes that he's the one that hit her daughter...

Her character was needed to support Jack's sloppy decision.

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[–] hubcap18 13 years ago

Am I the only poster on this thread who actually heard "child" the first time I saw the movie?

Being inconsistent is better than being consistently bad.

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[–] coolmacpaul 13 years ago

yes you may well as be.

That scene was written and handled well. The pause at her sigh before saying "child" had the audience brain filling in the blanks and ignoring what she said due to anticipation

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[–] midnight89 12 years ago

WOW. I was just watched it on netflix and I could of sworn I heard "my son", rewatched it and she said "my only child"..... mind blown :O

Maybe I'm not leaving... maybe I'm going home.

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[–] Arjunaz_Putera 12 years ago

yeah..that's right..maybe we're confused when we see it for the first time & hear she said like "my only son"...but the true one are "my only child".

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[–] Getalis 8 years ago

Am I the only poster on this thread who actually heard "child" the first time I saw the movie?

No, there's two of us!

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[–] DarrenDirt 10 years ago

Grunch, but when I first heard her shouting "what did you do to Frank" or whatever I think it was clear that Frank was her husband ... and then when she later said "what did you do to her" or whatever I felt a bit confused, until I realized later that when Frank left it was likely that the mom (Hershey) got a phone call saying her daughter was killed... So it made sense why she switched her accusation.

But I don't remember her ever saying her "son", just referring to Frank (or maybe it was "him" -- perhaps implying either husband or son). Ambiguous and double-meaning dialog is necessary in movies like this that reveal pieces of the puzzle bit by bit :)

- - -

Chipping away at a mountain of pop culture trivia,
Darren Dirt.

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