My take on Jack

My sentiment exactly. From the get-go, I felt Jack's love was highly prosaic and not incestuous on Rose.

Like you Motox, I didn't have any "IT'S INCEST!!"-reaction but I still found Jack (and the film) dubious.

First Jack perplexed me, then he started to scare me. To me, he seemed like a manipulative and selfish person, and this shone through his “expressions” of love and engaged commitments.

What kind of love is that one feels if one conceals so much from one’s loved ones as Jack did to both his daughter Rose and to his girlfriend Cathy?!
None of them were part in deciding about living together, nor did they have time to come to terms with the idea of such changes in life. He decided everything on his own. And that convenient check-book of his, with which he could “arrange” Cathy’s life (as she was working and living with her children in her parents’ basement) to come and live with him and Rose.
He simply told Rose to see Cathy and her sons' coming to live with them “as an experiment” (he saw much of his life in terms of “experiments” – the failed alternative life-style community etc.).

Jack needed Cathy, he often repeated to her. And Cathy needed to be needed, as her son also said (fusty gender-roles they show...). But when Jack realized he and Rose only “needed” each other, and that there was no room for anyone else in their lives he could send Kathy off as conveniently as she came, with the help of a big check.

His commitment to nature, his struggle against the building of the new houses nearby felt like a lonely lunatic’s project. I found it scary that he was so engaged in that while at the same time so blind for how he was “structuring” the lives of his loved ones.

I hoped that the film would take a different turn when Rose had had that bizarre (and sad) sex with Cathy’s son. When she hung the blood-stained sheet with the written message “Just an experiment” in front of her dad, I felt a pang of relief.
Now, I thought, now she has shown the bastard what it means to name horrible deeds “just an experiment”.
…Jack’s reaction was not was I hoped for: “You’ve been ruined”, he said, and then he went on being disappointed with her and furious with the boy who “did this to her” (again in the problematic, but traditional father role).

He showed no insight of his own responsibility, no remorse, nothing. And apparently this was how it was suppose to be, because neither did Rose think differently of him after that episode.

…this is getting way too long... The film was “interesting” to think about now, afterwards. But, I can’t see anything beautiful or moving in this film (except for Cathy’s elder son – what a wonderful person he was). I'm glad to come back to discuss the film, or explain something I've said.


- Is it possible to call for help ironically — and really mean it?

[deleted]

I totally agree - although the whole incest theme is debateable, I think its more about two people loving each other more than life itself. Jack can't bear to let that love go and is tormented by the thought of it, but Rose looks at it much less emotionally, saying she will commit suicide once her dad is gone. Throughout the film I think both learn how to live (or in Jack's case, die) without the other.

I agree with you. When I came on this board, I was surprised to read that so many people thought it was about incest and every scene in the movie was interpreted that way by them.

Children of any age can become jealous when their mother or father has a lover or a new partner, it doesn't mean it's about incest. Her anger about her father not telling her that he has a girlfriend, who is moving in with them, is normal. It's a big change and you want to know such important details about people you love and especially if such decisions have influence on your own life.

A father can become upset if his daughter has sex at a young age with someone who isn't even suitable for her, without incest having anything to do with his feelings for his child. That boy who slept with her, was perhaps one day to become her stepbrother, and even if that would never happen he was still the wrong choice for her. They weren't in love, the reason for their sex was wrong. Enough for any father to become upset.

After living together in that place with almost no other people around, for years, they were closer than most fathers and daughters are. Yet, it was still nothing more than a parent/child relationship. Rose was confused about love. She even asked Gray if he would kiss her, just to know what it's like. His answer that her kiss should be with someone she loves, must have confused her. Her love for her father must have been confusing for her, she wasn't completely aware of the difference between paternal love and being in love with a boyfriend or a girlfriend for example. Most teenagers living in what we call, more normal circumstances, are even confused about sexuality. For Rose it was even more difficult.






http://beknown.com/sahdia-khalid

http://tadjurba.blogspot.nl/