and the rest of his family wasn't too supportive either
When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...
yeah maybe there's something behind the girls being so awful towards their dad.When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...
They are just spoiled little white girls. Typically behavior on their part. He was doing the best he could. One of them wants to go and sleep with a guy she has only known for three days and the oldest one talks back like that there is no tomorrow. If these were girls from any other race they would classify their behavior as uncalled for but because these girls are white its okay because their mother died.
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They were brats! No way would I tolerate that. I understand the circumstances, but they were still unnecessarily rude and inconsiderate of their father and his feelings.
shareI definately think the 2 older girls were bratty too. But we also don't know the entire back story. And remember that they are girls between the ages of something like 12-16?!?! Kid of a volitile age for girs. I don't know a single girl who didn't treat their parents like crap at that age. Parents are the enemy when you're a young girl with crazy hormones. I remember just trying not to treat my parents badly for no reason at all.
As for the rest of the family, we as the viewers knew what was going on with Dan. But the family has no clue what was going on with him. They were just doing their summer vacation together as usual, not knowing the crazy new turmoil that was going on with him.
"But we also don't know the entire back story."
How is that our fault? The writer and director should have let "us" the audience know the backstory so we could understand why they were acting that way. If my daughter was secretly with some guy on our family vacation in a room in the house we were staying, i would not be so kind as Steve's character was. And the moment she called me the murderer of love she wouldn't see a date until she was 18. Biggest brats ever.
In a novel the writer can give you a back story. However, in a film the director has to create the ability for the viewer to infer or perceive it. I believe Peter Hedges was able to convey the "back story."
Furthermore, what one views from the outside is not always as easy as what takes place in real life, hence the title of the movie. Dan was rudder less without his wife. He tried to do the best he could under the circumstances. The three days theme is evident throughout the movie. Dan's life changed in three days. He also learned to understand his daughter's more in those three day. When Dan finally let go of all the feelings he had for his wife and how he saw her in each of his daughters, they also saw their father in a different light and I believe this changed their relationship going forward.
The irony in the movie is the youngest daughter showed the most compassion for Dan. While the older daughters were more rebellious, this could be explained as a deeper reaction to their Mother's death. Dan tried to conceal his feelings through his writing and became detached. Lily enjoys his humor and in a scene which was cut, even tries to match Dan up with one of her teachers. Marie is the bridge that finally allows Dan to open up and move out of the past and back into real life. The scene in the credits would appear to suggest that Dan and his children were happy and comfortable with each other.
I thought the older one was ok, the Younger one was sweet and very cute.
Cara was just a slut, plain and simple. But then again pretty much all 13-16 year old girls are these days, they are getting cheaper and cheaper and easier and easier, I dont mind them being sexually active but Seriously have some f@#$ing self respect. She wanted to screw someone she met after 3 days. Pathetic.
Wow. That was a really racist remark.
shareHe wasn't the nicest to them either, so. Especially him ignoring the youngest one.
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"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything." -George McFly
I don't like his family either. They made him sleep in the laundry area? After driving for like a thousand miles, not to mention, him, being a mother and a father to his 3 daughters, they made him sleep in that crappy room!
shareThe kids were bratty and mouthy for sure, especially the middle daughter. I agree with a previous poster in that Jane and Lily were fine, but Cara was basically crazy.
That said, Dan wasn't exactly perfect, either. His biggest problem was talking down to them and struggling to accept that they were growing up. For instance, why couldn't he just take his oldest daughter driving? She was clearly really excited about it. She wanted him to take her, and it could have been a nice bonding experience for them, but he just shut the idea down completely. Then there was Cara in the scene where her boyfriend showed up, and they were sneaking around. Obviously, Dan needed to set some ground rules, such as sleeping in separate rooms and Cara cleaning up her attitude, but there's no reason why he couldn't have bent a little and let the kid hang out with the family. He could have used the time to talk and get to know him better, but no effort was made. There was that scene where Cara tried to open up to her dad and tell him how she felt, but Dan basically just laughed at her. I don't excuse her bratty behavior, but her frustration was understandable in moments like that.
In short, Dan was a very good and loving father, but he didn't handle difficult situations very well. The one part where I did understand Dan's viewpoint more was when he was supposedly "blowing off" Lily. He had spent the entire trip trying to reach out to his kids and spend time with them, and they were the ones who kept shooing him away every time. He may have ignored little Lily at the end, when she kept trying to give her picture to him, but to be fair, he was dealing with something at the time, and he had tried to connect with her many times before that. Remember when he said "You know where to find me if you have trouble sleeping" and she basically rolled her eyes at him?
That said, I think the film did a good job of showing those little awkward moments between family members, and how we don't always handle them the way we should.
Reminds me of the kids in It's Complicated, always butting into their parent's business. I hated watching both movies because of the kids!!
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something in your life-Winston Churchill
Cara was a bratty little beast. disliked the whole family for treating him bad.
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i agree. Cara was a brat. I cant believe she was acting like that in front of her father about a boy.
My father would have beaten me if he caught me trying to kiss a boy at her age. and then if i dared to yell at him by saying i loved a boy. he would have beaten me more.
oh lord, and the boy following her to rhode island. i would have been in huge trouble about that too.
agree, especially cara. what an annoying twit.
~ TAKE the ticket!