I just recently saw bits and pieces of this movie. One scene that I did see was when the realtor turns around and we see her nursing the baby.
What exactly was the point of that? Was it to show the mother's reaction?
It was to show the realtor was a nuts. For some reason, I knew what she was doing before it was exposed.
shareImagine you are totally obsessed with your only child, to the point where you isolate his existance to others in the world. Her world revolved around her son "Loverboy"... and then to see her baby being breastfed by another... that, to her was such an invasion... almost disgust to her... that was meant for her and her only. Just as she was scrubbing Loverboy in the tub afterwards...to cleanse him. Just my 2 cents. (and yes, I guess the realtor was a little nuts... would I ever do that? NO)
shareI would have reacted the same way had I seen ANYONE breastfeeding my baby! I also didn't blame the mother for not wanting her son to go out fishing with Matt Dillon's character. They just met the day before. Other than that - the mother was WAY over protective (obviously).
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I agree. He kind of bull-dozed his way in that situation.
"The cha cha is no more ridiculous than life itself." - Metropolitan
Tigerlilly,
That is exactly what I was thinking. I would have reacted the EXACT same way if someone did that. So I couldn't understand why it was even in the movie unless it was to show how nuts the realtor was. Because although the main character was over protective in every aspect of the boy's life, I didn't think she overreacted to this situation.
Who does that?!!!
"The cha cha is no more ridiculous than life itself." - Metropolitan
This scene was completely obnoxious. It takes a real freak to do something like this to someone else's baby.
Disgusting. As a mother, I'd kill her.
By the way, was the realtor a lactating mother, or a real freak just to put him to the breast? Yuck.
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Ok I missed it...I thought that was the realtors baby... I am so confused...wasn't she still pregnet in that scen?
shareI saw it as a part of the story's artistic strategy of keeping the audience on the edge whenever possible.
I, for one, didn't have to wait for the ending to decide that I really, really, didn't like the narrator's utterly insane obsessiveness, but the novel (which I hope to read soon if I can; you can find sample pages on the book's Amazon site) and movie are playing a very difficult game of showing us insanity from the inside.
In order for this to work at all, we need to be reminded that, at times, there's a certain reasonableness to the narrator's point of view. Yes, she's right to be concerned by the realtor's brazen act of boundary-crossing, not even asking permission to breastfeed Paul. She's also right to be concerned as all get-out when the Matt Dillon character, whom she still doesn't know all that well, seduces Paul into defying his mother and going out on the boat.
...But then, look at what she does about these events. In the breast-feeding episode, she doesn't just snatch her child back, she becomes germophobically nutso about trying to "undo" the supposed "damage" the realtor did to her boy. Fact is, it's not the boy who was damaged, it was the mother's sense of security, which depends on her complete control of everything going on in the boy's life.
In the boating episode-- a far trickier scene-- she is torn between the saner part of her outlook, the part that knows that sooner or later, she's going to have to let Paul have more independence, and the obsessive/compulsive impulse to shut Paul off from outside influences. It's not, however, at all an easy choice to make, because as another poster on this thread noted, the Matt Dillon character really is coming on a bit too strong, and that boat doesn't look all that safe.
Torn between two fairly reasonable propositions-- let Paul go on the boat, don't let him-- she doesn't decide, she lets Paul go on the boat only because she's outnumbered, two against one.
But of course, she anxiously regrets her non-decision and the feelings of powerlessness that it evokes, and watches over the boating with an eagle-eyed tension- just as she watched her parents' constant fondling over each other with the exact same feelings. With the parents, she didn't have much choice, but with the boating incident, she doesn't even suggest the obvious option of joining Paul and Dillon's character on the boat. Why? Because the thought of including herself on the expedition never once crosses her mind. That kind of thought just isn't part of her repertoire.
An additional effect of these two incidents is that they help to establish just how charismatic little Paul really is, that two relative strangers are almost automatically drawn into wanting to nurture him.
There were plenty of other parts of the movie that I thought weren't any too well done, but if the rest of the movie had been rendered as well as these two scenes, I would've liked the film a lot more.
"I don't deduce, I observe."
Yes, she was vulnerable to predators, I think, because of her isolation and/or indecision. Not making a decision is often actually making one. I think you hit the nail on the head about the Matt Dillon scene. She never should have let him go with someone she didn't know that way, but should have let him go to school (unless appropriately homeschooling, but that's not why she kept him home). I got the feeling she's been molested, and have posted that somewhere on this board. I think her relationship with Sandra Bullocks character could have been sexual and certainly with the way her parents behaved she could have been molested by some of their friends. I read the book looking for more insight, but got none.
"Norma...please...paint something cool today." - Mrs. Bronson
I like the way you have analyzed the movie, but for a small detail, She as a last ditch effort, asks to join them. The Dillon character explicitly states that this is a "guy" thing. In truth, I can see any mother experiencing a "red flag" moment, and yes even using a spy glass if she had one. Standing on the shore waving was beyond the protective instinct. As it gets clearer in her mind that her son is growing, The issue of separation beclouds almost everything else. Her Halcyon days are behind her.
sharei agree completely with Petronius
i think that the boat scene was showing how she is confused how motherhood really works. she doesn't even think of stopping matt dillon's character from taking her son because she acts more like a jealous woman rather than as a mother. she is resentful that her son wants to spend time with someone else but can't stop him, she just can't say no to him or give him reason to hate her.
Hi, i've been reading about this scene and it sounds sick :(
i'd feel violated too if i saw my child nursing on another woman.
Anyway, the movie is being shown on youtube for free and i was wondering if you could tell me where the scene is? i'm not sure that i want to sit through the entire film and it's difficult to fast forward with all of the breaks.
it's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRQK4fTXfBM
thanks!
Glad to see others saw that scene the way that I did. It was completely nutso of the realtor to breastfeed someone else's child without asking permission. If someone did that to my child, Emily's reaction would have been thought of as "nice" compared to mine.
shareIt's very hard to find a full service realtor like that. I've been looking and I've come up dry.
shareI would become enraged if someone else breastfed my child! No mother in her right mind would take that one sitting down. Unless my child was starving and I couldn't get to him, I would NEVER allow that. I would b*itch slap to hell anyone who tried. To a mother, that's as bad as walking in on your husband screwing someone else. The mother and child bond is an intangibly deep connection. Don't believe me? Try to go near any animal's cubs, etc. Their mothers will tear you apart. ]
We are human animals and as such are the same. This is the only part of Kyra's character that I understood completely.
And see I thought that whole scene was just an example of the mother's insanity. I thought she hallucinated the breastfeeding and that the relator was just holding him.
Darling, I am trouble of the most spectacular kind!