Marvelous film. An incredible study in the effects of guilt. One thing I have trouble buying: Why did she have sex with Claudy? It didnt seem like her at all. The guy was pathetic.
Also, do you think they were really going to kill her? Maybe the guy just wanted cheaper gas and her thinking they were going to kill her was just part of her freaking out.
i think her sleeping w/ claudy was part of her trying to stop him from wanting to go outside and meet the dealer. plus she felt bad for him.
shareIt not "seeming like her" to me is part of the point. Claudy showed she had a conscience & she actually was willing to risk her own situation to take care of him. This in return felt good as we saw when she smiled when he last saw her and said he'd come to see her as a goal to set during the day. The sex came when we saw she truly cared for him, kept him from having drugs again, and it could be seen as a sign of that compassion etc. as well.
Also, I'm not sure how pathetic he was. He was not willing to hit her; he was a drug addict. Lots of people have problems with drugs. This doesn't make them all pathetic. In fact, his desire to fight his addiction showed his strength. If he was just a loser, it would have been easier for her to not help him. To not actually care about him.
Cheaper gas? Lol. Maybe. But, she was no way off base to fear that they were. She clearly couldn't be trusted and probably a bit unhinged. She was a liability.
Thanks for the reply. I guess I just didn’t see enough of anything good in Claudy that would make Lorna want to have sex with him. I guess she was just a nice person and their relationship must have been better in the months before the story takes place.
I guess maybe you’re right to not dismiss Claudy as pathetic. I may be biased against heroin addicts because I have lost a lot of friends to the drug (one on xmas eve this year) and that, in turn has made me less compassionate towards people without a strong enough will to control their lives. But yeah, he seemed like a nice guy that was trying. But the scene when she comes home and he is all high eating in her bed listening to his Discman rung so very true that is disturbed me. Jeremy Reiner deserves huge praise for that incredibly nuanced performance.
As to the last point- she was defiantly a liability but it seemed like they had known each other a long time and killing her would be kind of extreme. I think there is a possibility it was all in her head. Baton one I have mentioned this to agrees. Either way, the scenes of her in the woods were magical realism at its finest. Just incredible filmmaking all around.
No, there was no sign of a "better" relationship. The movie opens with her being upset at him and not wanting to bother with helping him. I'm unsure why "she was just a nice person" because she didn't want him to OD or be murdered, which after all was the plan. Are only "nice persons" the sort who don't want people they live with die like that?
He did want to control his life -- he struggled to get clean. He had ready access to money and someone who didn't want to be bothered, so it took his own will; he is the one who begged her for help. So, that doesn't apply either. People who are hooked relapse. Also, he wasn't a friend or family member, so the dynamic was different. The history is not the same. Yes, if she had to deal with addicts before, she might have handled things differently.
It's quite possible it was all in her head, but as a liability to the mob, how "extreme" is it to kill someone who repeatedly broke the rules and cost them money? Are they hard up for money that they need "cheap gas?" The scene of taking some liability in the woods somewhere and killing them is pretty standard stuff.
I agree with the magical realism. In reality, she would have either taken the car or at the very least her bag with her.
I think that Claudy was the only person who she felt really needed her or cared for her-that everyone else was just using her.
sharethere was also that moment of invisible silence when claudy was asking for the money to buy drugs after she came back from telling fabio the divorce was approved. when claudy said , you got the divorce , you got what u wanted [pause].
she didnt smash her head against a wall to let him prove her wrong, her hope of redeeming claudy and preventing his murder.
i think she was surprised with herself after she threw the key out the window. after getting undressed when she went over to him, not necessarily to distract him, she encouraged/embraced him , before kissing him., which i interpreted as a feeling of giving life/birth, a sort of perfect love. (i hear)
he was not on drugs at that point, he realized that she didnt have to help him, theyd made plans for dinner and he didnt want to be abandoned/used/divorced.
its not unusual to bite more than u can chew, when youre running from something/albania.
*also , no reason to believe she was pregnant . guilt caught up, and part two wont look half as pretty.
Also, do you think they were really going to kill her? Maybe the guy just wanted cheaper gas and her thinking they were going to kill her was just part of her freaking out.If Spirou was just going to let Lorna go her merry way at the end of the car trip, why wouldn't he let her take her bag with her when she left the car?