spoilers please!
i'm very curious about this movie. it doesn't look like this is being released on dvd any time soon, so could someone just spoil it for me?
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MovieChat Forums > I'll Come Running (2008) Discussion > spoilers please!
WARNING--MAJOR SPOLIERS!!!
I started watching the movie a few after it started last night on the Sundance channel.
The Danish guy (who is called Millhouse--it's Simpsons joke/reference) hooks up with a Texas girl (called Lisa, again Simpson's reference) one night just 48 hours before he is to return to Denmark. They wake up the next morning and she is cranky but he is enamoured (for some unidentifiable reason) so he gets her to play hookey from work so they can hang out (and have more sex).
Millhouse really likes Lisa and tells her a lot about himself. Lisa seems indifferent. Millhouse leaves after 48 hours with Lisa, and on the way to the airport, Millhouse tells the taxi driver to turn around b/c he's forgotten something (we're lead to assume he was returning to Lisa). The taxi gets in a bad accident and Millhouse dies.
So what does Lisa do? Of course, she goes to Denmark. She breaks into Millhouse's apartment. Millhouse's friend Soren arrives to feed the cat and greet Millhouse only to find Lisa, who tells Soren of Millhouse's death. Millhouse is now referred to by his real name Pelle.
Soren introduces Lisa to Pelle's family and tells them (in Danish) that Lisa and Pelle were to be married, and implies that Lisa is pregnant with Pelle's child. Then Soren hits on Lisa. Lisa actually seems to like Soren, but Soren is...I dunno...Trouble? Unstable? An Alcoholic? Something, anyway.
Pelle's family takes Lisa in and includes her in the funeral ceremony/procession, where other Danes who had been travelling with Pelle/Millhouse tell Pelle's mom there is no way Lisa and Pelle were serious as they left/returned to Denmark just 48 hours ahead of Pelle and Pelle had not yet met Lisa when they left Texas.
Pelle's mother confronts/slaps Lisa, and his dad throws her in a taxi and tells her she has to fly home RIGHT NOW--directly to the airport from the funeral--and they'll send her stuff later (hello, passport?) Soren has been in a little fistfight/scuffle during the confrontation and he chases after Lisa's taxi, then gets in and they make out with Soren's bloddy nose betting blood all over Lisa's face.
The movie was pretty good--I watched it the whole way through, but had some plot holes. It was entertaining, especially since I live in Texas. Also, I always enjoy watching decent movies with no movie stars in the cast.
That synopsis is mostly correct (though interpretations can differ--for instance, I didn't find Lisa indifferent at all, just cautious and a little guarded; she was less able or willing to actually believe in or hope for more from this initially casual but increasingly intense encounter. I had a sense that she had probably been battered around emotionally more than he had, and was just all-around more jaded in a way).
Corrections: Pelle's two friends/traveling companions DID meet Veronica/Lisa at the same time he did, when she was their waitress at the Tex-Mex restaurant, so they knew how long (short) the 'relationship' had been.
Also, they did not leave for Denmark before Pelle; they were going to continue the sightseeing trip, in spite of Pelle's decision to cut it short and go back to Denmark early, to take up the job that Søren had gotten for him (and also because he was pretty disenchanted with Texas). Presumably, they ended up cutting their trip short to return for Pelle's funeral.
Also, Søren does not imply to Pelle's parents that Veronica is pregnant, only that she and Pelle had been very much in love, and planning to be married. It is only after the confrontation at the funeral that Veronica tells Pelle's mom that she is pregnant (which isn't true, but Veronica thinks it will be comforting to his parents).
Søren doesn't exactly hit on Veronica; they both kind of turn to each other for comfort, and end up have sex--they each represent to each other a precious connection to Pelle, so it makes sense. Although she tells him not to come inside her since they're not using any protection, he apparently does, then apologizes, then runs away. That's why, later in the taxi, one of them (not sure which) refers to the fact that she might actually be pregnant now. He says that even if she's not, they could "make it so," and have Pelle's child (presumably he would let Pelle's parents and everyone else believe that it was Pelle's, though it wouldn't be).
Pelle's mom warns Veronica about Søren, saying that though he's a good person, he's kind of trouble (don't remember exactly how she puts it). I got a feeling that Søren was kind of in love with Pelle himself, even if that never had or would have manifested itself physically (I'm not saying it hadn't or wouldn't have--that's one of those unknowables). Certainly they loved each other deeply.
Re. Veronica's passport: It's pretty common (far more so than not, I'd say) for folks traveling in foreign countries to keep their passports with them most of the time, so it's likely Veronica would have had hers with her. It still seems pretty mean the way they send her off.
Very intriguing movie, I thought.
I agree that Soren had somewhat of his own 'thing' for Pelle. The details regarding the timing and trasport of Pelle's companions' return to Denmark were covered before I tuned in to the movie.
I disagree about:
I think Soren implied Veronica was PG to Pelle's parents.
I think Soren hit on Veronica. Certainly he came on to her enough to get her into bed.
I personally keep my passport on my person when traveling abroad--even when living abroad, but Veronica's state of mind during her stint in Denmark, and especially at the funeral, did not strike me as the sort who'd be wise enough to have her passport on her person. I was acutally surprised she had a passport handy to make the trip to Denmark to begin with. Remember I live in Texas. Most folks in these parts have little interest in travelling abroad and thus do not have passports.
I live in Texas and have had a passport for over 20 years and have traveled to many interesting places in the world. :) Stupid generalizations don't help anyone or anything in making a point.
I found several lines from this movie objectionable as a person from Texas:
all women are fat in Texas, all there is to do is go to "cowboy massacre" sites, Texas is the "kitsch" capitol of the world, the Tex-Mex restaurant in Austin was decorated with "fake bright colors to look like Mexico" (huh???)and that we bomb innocent people, to which Veronica said "I don't do that". Sounds like the film makers have some anti-American problems.
Other than these little nuggets of wisdom, I enjoyed the movie.
Howdy again. Judging by y'all's screen names, it looks like a Dallas convention, since I'm a Dallasite myself.
elizdallas, that's a good point about Veronica actually having a passport ready to go in the first place. That could go either way; it wouldn't be surprising if she didn't have one, but she is obviously an educated, fairly worldly person in some ways, and might well have needed a passport for earlier travels. I've had a passport most of my life; unfortunately, it's currently expired and won't be renewed until it's specifically needed, 'cause those suckers are EXPENSIVE these days!
Anyway, I'll go back and watch this again when I can, and see if I rethink my idea that Søren didn't imply pregnancy to Pelle's parents. I will say that Søren may have hit on Veronica, but she was pretty damned receptive to him, so it seemed at least somewhat like a joint effort to me. I couldn't blame either of them.
khdallas, I think those Texas-stereotyping sentences were fairly typical of the kinds of attitudes of many young Europeans to the USA and specific regions of it (based on my experiences). Part of the point was how dismissive of Texas generally Pelle was at first, and how that began changing (though we barely got to see it). Anyway, most of their somewhat arrogant sniping was shown as silly, based on not much knowledge or appreciation. Veronica laughs pretty derisively at Pelle's "cowboy battlefields" (or whatever it was) comment, calling him on the inanity of it. I felt the filmmakers were bringing out that particular kind of dismissive attitude that the guys were displaying, and not to admire it. I mean, when young men can arrive for their first night in Austin, and all they find to notice is the kitschiness of a Mexican restaurant, that's just sad. I definitely did not feel the filmmakers were upholding all this as admirable, but as ridiculous. Callow youth.
I tend to concur with your versions here, ciocio. I've posted a review the other day here, just after seeing the film, which expresses the main themes I saw in the film (intentionally without spoilers) so I won't reiterate those here. But I write to say that my main difficulty with the synopses in this thread other than yours is that I felt they missed what to me was the tone of the film and the emotional context for all of what played out. There was much more subtlety of how people were drawn to each other and the depth of their connections - even when or especially when inexplicable to themselves. The film captured to me the essence of how a connection (one that goes beyond sex even if it starts out that way) can develop in the least expected places. That is what, to my mind, made all the initial anti-Texas comments by the Danish travelers part of the story - precisely to add another layer of how readily all those stereotypes got shelved or debunked once Pelle fell for Veronica.
One point I seem to have seen differently than anyone here: When Soren came to spend the night with Veronica, it feels simplistic to me to call it "hitting on her" because it was indeed so complexly wrapped up in the bond each of them already felt with Pelle (this does happen) ... One sees him aspiring to Pelle, to what Pelle had found in his last days of his life (Even when Veronica was wary and still saying - to herself even and to her waitress friend - that she hadn't fallen in love with Pelle, it seems quite clear to us that she had, that her trip to Denmark was not just a plot device, not just out of guilt (at feeling if not for her, he wouldn't have turned the cab around and then been killed) but out of an emotional pull to know more of who this person was she had found herself 'transported' by.
And my understanding in the moment that Veronica tells Soren not to call her Lisa, she herself is additionally realizing that the connection she had with Pelle cannot simply 'transfer' over to Soren as well as hearing in his calling her Lisa a warning too that Soren is perhaps unwittingly seeking to 'co-opt' the unique playfulness Pelle and Veronica had had - but now there's a cloud over any such playfulness and that too cannot just 'transfer' ... She has grown in relationship-wisdom in the course of the film, as I see it, and it falls to her to realize that Soren is not her future, it was Pelle who could have been. And it seemed to me that that moment when he calls her Lisa and she balks happened before their lovemaking had hit intercourse. I think Soren suggesting to her later in the taxi that they might have already made the pregnancy lie true (it strikes me as too soon anyway for Veronica to know - she might indeed have been pregnant by Pelle - she couldn't know that yet) was more about his desperation by now to want to believe that he could essentially carry on Pelle's life by loving his newfound beloved - he knew that Pelle turning the cab around to go back to her had meant Pelle was profoundly smitten, not "just for sex" ... But it's Veronica who knows - both her heart and her mind - that this cannot work.
Soren runs out after sex because he called her Lisa and she told him not to call her that. I think that it is because that is what Pelle's nickname for her was and she was separating the two different men. That is when Soren, who was caught up in the moment, realized that in his eyes Veronica was Pelle's girl. He was ashamed of crossing the line and having sex with his best friend's girl.
share"Also, Søren does not imply to Pelle's parents that Veronica is pregnant, only that she and Pelle had been very much in love, and planning to be married. It is only after the confrontation at the funeral that Veronica tells Pelle's mom that she is pregnant (which isn't true, but Veronica thinks it will be comforting to his parents)"
Soren does imply that Veronica is pregnant to the parents at the first meeting. It was kind of thrown out there in the jumble of grief, two languages being exchanged and the mistake of Veronica being thought of as being the cleaning lady.
I think Soren might have thought not only would it be a comfort to the parents but it was a way to keep Veronica invested in the situation. It seemed like a self serving thing for Soren to do, because at the end of all of it...the mother just wanted Pelle back without all the surrounding soap opera. Her crying out made me think, "You two people, leave this family alone! You will go on with your lives, but they will have this missing son forever."
I never got the feeling that Veronica loved Pelle. I think she was intrigued with him as he had shaken her a bit out of her heretofore jaded feelings about men and life in general. Maybe it could have deepened into love, but that would be another movie entirely!
I could see how Soren and Veronica could/would try to comfort one another sexually but the scene in the taxi to me was over the top and revealed something a little snarky about the oddness of both Soren AND Veronica.
I really enjoyed the movie, but I felt angry at the end. I felt bad about Pelle and his family but lost respect for the other characters. I could see why Veronica was unwise to hook up with Soren, but wasn'tshe playing with fire by tangling with someone who wasn't healthy and had the capability of doing something ugly to himself or others?