MovieChat Forums > The Poker House Discussion > Mother with the knife scene

Mother with the knife scene

posted 12 years ago by scott-bergstrom
9 replies | jump to latest

In the scene where Agnes pulls the gun on the pimp who just raped her, and her mother in turn grabbed a knife and told her to leave the house, was the mother actually trying being motherly and protective in a weird sort of way?

On the surface it looks crazy having a mother pull a knife on her daughter, telling her to get the hell out after she had just announced she had been raped. But, if you think about it, it is possible that the mother was doing that for a reason. Perhaps she knew that Agnes was in danger if she stayed and that getting her out of that house at all costs was the right thing to do. So her threatening with the knife might have been her way of pushing Agnes out the door and to safety.

[–] matias-vidal-lynch 12 years ago

After watching this movie three times... Sorry, but no. Maybe, if someone had shown me that scene before I watched the whole thing, it could've been. But once you realise her mom is batshoot crazy...

[–] wercide 11 years ago

For me she did it to protect Duval.
She sees him like a protector that is impossible to live without, so if Agnes shoots him, in her mind her life is gone.

[–] dxtreme66 11 years ago

Sadly in these case she is protecting her pimp and in her own mind herself and way of living.

Agnes's mom is so far up into drugs and alcohol that what Agnes is telling her doesn't connect; Agnes turns to be the aggressor and the one disturbing her "safe haven"

It's so sad that this is the reality of a lot of young people that have to go through and live with parents that are drug addicts.

[–] kcolli11 11 years ago

Since there's absolutely nothing in the film to support her as a caring mother, I think she was protecting her pimp.

[–] Squeegie_Beckenheim 11 years ago

The homework scene where the mother says she's going to have to start bringing in money aka prostituting, then after the rape when her daughter is reaching for her, the mother knew what had just happened and she ignored it.

She was protecting the pimp and herself, but the side benefit of her selfishness is that she was out of that house. It is only luck (perseverance too - would be good if they did a movie on how she made it to success) that she didn't end up on the street or dead.

[–] RRPounder 10 years ago

The mother's eyes did look sad as if she was being forced to make a choice that she didn't want to.

[–] amazingm08 10 years ago

those kids would be dead or in jail if the oldest hadn't take the responsibilty of being the parent

[–] normkerr123 9 years ago

Movie watchers are so conditioned by the "Dirty Harry" solution to movie problems ("kill the *beep* that it is sort of amazing when a director choses to portray a situation as charged as that one (Drug Addict Whore Mother. Rapist Pimp. Raped and threatened by prostitution little girl. The girl has the gun).

What would have been temporarily satisfying, but which would have lead to no end of other life problems would have been for her to have done something just then out of revenge.

What is far more powerful is to let that scene play out like it did. To give each character time to convey their true nature, and for the girl to be able to see beyond the horribleness of what just happened and how it had been multiplied by the abject lack of caring that a drug addicted parent can only provide. That goes way beyond the typical "Hollywood" action.

Cudos to Petty for being able to take a moment like that and be able to portray it on screen like that.

[–] Seth_Rogue_One 9 years ago

Even if that was the case the mother was a piece of sh!t who should have lost the rights to live or at the very least the right to "raise" any children a long time ago

A wrong decision is better than indecision