MovieChat Forums > The Door in the Floor (2004) Discussion > How would Ted have known?

How would Ted have known?

posted 12 years ago by Groveful
5 replies | jump to latest

One thing that bothers me, from both this movie and the book A Widow for One Year, is the unexplained notion that Ted already knew what Marion was going to do with Eddie. Hence why he hired the kid in the first place. I don't even question why Marion ended up having sex with Eddie. He looks like Thomas, and the conflicting grief she has for the loss of her sons...well, when trying to deal with loss, people will do crazy things. I just don't understand how Ted would have figured that would have happened from the get go. Sure, he must know his wife really well and it's fairly obvious having a kid who looks like one of their dead sons work for him as a writers assistant, would throw her for a loop...but to have hired him in advance knowing they'd have sex at some point? Any theories are welcome.

[–] kungming7 12 years ago

That's what she has been fixated on... Those images have been the only things to have elicited emotion from her. There's also something in the book about this potentially just being some gamble of Ted's in the hope he will be able to keep Ruth.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] Northerner335 11 years ago

I haven't seen this movie in quite a while, but didn't Jeff Bridges say something like, "I gave you to her"? My impression was that he didn't necessarily know that she would end up sleeping with him, although perhaps he did have some ulterior motive/hope that that would in fact happen (i.e. to give him a better chance at custody). I really can't remember. My recollection is that this was almost like a parting gift to his wife because she was so despondent over their loss.

[–] Northerner335 11 years ago

Mark1985: well, I don't think it was necessarily an incest fantasy. I don't think she was imagining that he was one of her sons. However, didn't she discuss the fact that she wasn't sure whether one of her sons had ever had sex, and that she figured he probably hadn't? It seemed like perhaps she was trying to give her son what he couldn't have since his life was cut short. Which, yes, is quite bizarre given that she is his mother, but as another poster said, people do bizarre things when in the depths of grief. That was my take on it.

EDITED TO ADD: I just read another thread that explains this issue quite well, with reference to the book.