MovieChat Forums > Love and Other Impossible Pursuits (2010) Discussion > Lisa Kudrow's character

Lisa Kudrow's character

posted 10 years ago by Blairocity
3 replies | jump to latest

Her character was absolutely AWFUL. I know all the other characters had many flaws, but at least they also had some good qualities. She was just a terrible, heartless, mean person.
I mean, I totally understand her resenting Emilia for cheating with her husband, and of course her husband, but she took it to the extreme.
I felt so bad for Will having to listen to his mother scream about him getting into a school or saying Emilia doesn't care about him. Geez, way to scar the kid even more!
And when she told Emilia that it wasn't her fault Isabel died. I mean like I said, I could understand why she wouldn't like her, but she was still cruel about it. She basically told her she thought she was completely incapable of taking care of her baby in the first place. It probably killed her (Carolyn) that Emilia didn't smother Isabel.

- Jeremiah 29:11 -

[–] greenfairyXO 8 years ago

yeah she seemed like an unhappy, combative, aggressive person to begin with. cold and jealous and arrogant, even before the affair. its just who she was. i do however think she redeemed herself when she called emilia in to her office to tell her that emilia had NOT killed her baby. she was rude at first, its hard or her to keep in her aggression towards her and really towards to the world---but she ended up speaking very logically, and professionally to her. she even seemed sympathetic as a woman and new mother. and realized william cared about emilia because he asked her to tell her this and find out what really happened. i think that made her a little soft too when she realized even will liked emilia and missed her. then she said ill leave you alone now--and she squeezed her shoulder.

she isnt a likable character by any means and wasnt supposed to be. that is a huge reason jack fell out of love with her, and fell in love with emilia. but that scene actually made me tear up a lot. not just because of how emotional emilia gets but because carolyn was just so awful the entire movie and finally puts her guard down and talks to her woman to woman about a child's life. and at the end, she said "why is emilia here?" but not in a mean way kind of in a funny lisa kudrow way like "seriously? oh whatever we have to go hurry up" kind of showing she was over it. she had a baby and was about to get married, i dont think she resented emilia as much anymore at that point. i love the ending of the movie. it showed that all the characters pretty much overcame the extremely sad and difficult situations they were all in.

[–] always_keep_fighting 8 years ago

I agree. She WAS a cold, bitter woman. Buuuuut...Have you ever been cheated on? Look at it from her POV. She's got a husband, son, both of them (she and her husband) are very successful in their fields. They probably had problems; most marriages do. Then he leaves her for a younger woman, and they're pregnant. She's cold. My husband would be LUCKY to get "cold." He'd be likely to find a copperhead in their bed one night. I don't play.
So she's a shrew through most of the movie. Then she does this incredible thing. Despite the way she feels about her, she calls in this woman who has, in her eyes, torn her family apart, and takes away her greatest pain. She isn't all gooey about it, but she did it. She even told Amelia that she would keep repeating it until she was sure it was understood. And that squeeze she gave Amelia on her way out of the room was incredibly touching...pardon the pun. I think that that very simple touch was when she started to soften towards Amelia. Not "Phoebe-soft," but it was a start. That scene alone was reason enough to watch the movie. It was amazing.

[–] ToHelenBackAgain 8 years ago

She's complicated. I think she's a dreadful mother, but I find her fury understandable, albeit misdirected. And despite her hatred for Emilia, she did tell her there was absolutely no way the baby'd been smothered, which allowed Emilia to begin moving on. I agree she was unnecessarily cruel about it, but she didn't have to do it at all. The act itself was a genuine kindness.

I'd have liked to see her out of context just once. I wondered, what is she like with other people? I'll bet they see a whole different person.

"You were dead. Now you’re not. That’s completely fυϲking mad."