MovieChat Forums > A Little Help (2011) Discussion > It would take the school people 2 second...

It would take the school people 2 seconds on google


To figure out her husband wasn't killed in a 9/11 and wasn't even a fireman.

And why does she keep getting in deeper by going and talking at the school and doing events?

reply

Maybe they're just too good natured to look. Also, this was the year immediately after, so perhaps not all the info had been released yet. Not everyone had been accounted for yet.

I think she went once to back up her son, and then after that, she couldn't say no to doing more stuff when the school asked her.

anyway, maybe unbelievable, but I didn't get too hung up on it.

reply

Google wasn't in 2002 what it is now...

reply

i always liked altavista myself...

reply

The movie is set 10 months after 9/11. The internet wasn't quite like it is today. I was still rocking a 32kb dial-up modem then and webcrawler was the search engine of choice. People still got the majority of their news from TV or newspapers back then.

reply

If someone tells you their Dad died in 9/11, you first instinct is to Google it to find out if they are lying?

I think his classmates and teachers just took his word. Why wouldn't you? Do you assume everything people tell you is a lie?

She knew her son screwed up, but she knew how much worse it would be if they were to find out that he made up that lie. So she went along with the lie to protect her son. Probably not the best decision, but she obviously has been making many bad decisions.

reply

> And why does she keep getting in deeper by going and talking at the school and doing events?

Right. That was my biggest problem with the movie. Once she found out about the lie, the better strategy would be to sit down and talk with Dennis and explain that what he did was very wrong but now that the damage is done, he needs to keep the damage to a minimum.

Tell him not to speak to anyone further about his father and if anyone asks to say, "That's too painful to talk about."

Then, the kids and teachers will all keep assuming that the father died in 9/11 but he won't be digging the hole any deeper.

When the story finally breaks down he can just say that he made a mistake on the first day and was too embarrassed to correct it. No one could get too mad about that.

--
What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?

reply

The lie was wrong, of course, but it ironically saved his mother from committing adultery with her brother-in-law. When the lie was exposed she disregarded meeting with her brother-in-law and raced to the kid's party (or whatever it was).

Once away from the temptation she came to her senses and decided that screwing around with her sister's husband was a foolish choice for all involved and, in fact, would put her on the same unfaithful level of her dead husband and the woman he had an affair with.

reply

Ironically it also seemed to provide a real catharsis for both of them. The son finally broke down and cried, and I am going to assume it wasn't just for being uncovered in his lie but also for the tremendous loss he had suffered. Also, he finally was in a place where he really wanted and needed his mother. I thought it was a real breakthrough in their relationship, followed by their lounging on the grass together, both looking peaceful and "on the same page" in the cleansing and bonding they had just experienced.

I however felt the film ended too abruptly: the scene with the lawyer was silent; did she take the $150,000? or did she reject it all? And I very much wanted to see the scene where she sees her son off to his old school where he will be much happier, and she won't have the long stress of the trip every day. Also would have been good to see them packing up to move to a smaller but dog-free apartment!

reply

Most people were still on dial up then. DSL existed but was not cost effective for most people. We were still paying for Internet by the minute, like phone service. We would buy packages, but God help you if you went over your minutes. Yahoo was still the most popular search engine. And unless you knew exactly what you were looking for, it was still hard to find things.

reply