The Unreliable Narrator

This film is a perfect example of literary on convention of the Unreliable Narrator (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator).

The whole story is essentially Emily's explanation to her son of why she has to kill them both. So you end up with a narrative that is very fantastic (in the literary sense of the word). Her parents all but ignore her, there is that perfect mother-surrogate who mysteriously disappears, and Paul is conceived in Emily's one night of perfect love and passion.

It is only when you get to the part of the narrative that Paul would remember that we see how out of control Emily's actions are.

This is my take on what really happened:

1. I think that Emily's parents were very much in love with each other and showed a lot of physical affection. To a 10 or 12 year old, Mom and Dad kissing can seem gross and inappropriate. I suspect that her father was sick for several years before he died and it seemed as though her mother spent an inordinate amount of time catering to him. While she imagined her parents leaving the talent show because they were ashamed of her, they probably left because of her father's health but in her delusional mind it was all about her. Finally, we don't really have any evidence of *how* Emily's parents died, just her version of events. We know the way it's presented makes no sense, the police aren't going to let a child just walk around a crime scene.

2. I think Emily built her relationship with the neighbor up to be something much more that it really was. Mrs Harker probably never said more than a handful or words to Emily but built it up top be something much bigger so she could twist those few words into whatever message she wanted to hear.

3. I think her recollection of Paul's conception was Emily's way of covering up her own promiscuity in her mind. He was literally a married salesman in town for a convention; She's depressed, drunk and half asleep when he leaves yet she remembers enough to tell her son that his father felt that had been his one night of real love. I'm not buyin' it.

4. I don't even believe the realtor was breastfeeding Paul; I think that Emily's jealousy made her see that. She and the neighbor were both made to look buffoonish but again that was as they were seen through Emily's eyes. I think the reality of the end was that Emily knew that after her outburst, she was paranoid enough to think (maybe correctly) that the school officials might call social services to investigate her parenting skills.

Yeah, if you look at this movie through the lens of an Undependable Narrator, it becomes a whole different movie.

Darling, I am trouble of the most spectacular kind!