SPOILERS AHEAD....
So let me get this straight. Paige's entire future destiny, and hugely different life choices, are completely dependent one one single event: her father's affair? The knowledge of this one event sets her life in completely different directions... not just once, but twice. What?
Sure, it would be a tough pill to swallow. But her parents are portrayed as uptight a$$holes her whole life... why such dependence? Didn't buy it.
I think it just so happened that she forgot the past 5 years of her life, which was when she decided to leave her family, rebel, and change her personality.
shareNo, because she forgives him for it the second time around - and still ends up changing. I think that moment was what the movie would call a "moment of impact." It was when she realized that there could be more to life - obviously there was something lacking in her father's life, and unless she wanted to end up like him, she should follow her heart rather than instinct.
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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
--Oscar Wilde
I got the feeling that her change had begun prior to her learning about the affair. From what I could tell, she began to change and pursue her own idea of life and her family, especially her father, was not supportive of these changes. Then come to find out daddy is having an affair and it was not just the affair itself that caused her to break off contact completely but rather the idea that a man who kept telling her to live a certain way wasn't even honorable to begin with. She broke things off with her mother because she was disgusted that mom didn't leave her husband. The breach probably had more to do with her trying to claim her own independence during the time all this happened. When she found out the second time, she was learning the value of family and how easily things can go awry. She choose to talk it out with mom and dad and forgive - putting hte family first. It was simply a different choice the second time around. The affair didn't cause her to become an artist and all those choices the first time or the second time.
shareIf you take a curve that progresses from A to B then C, D, E, F and finally G then remove that curve you end up with just the contrast that is just A and G.
I hope that helps. kthxbai
I think you know what I'm gettin' at Mr. President. We're gonna kill us a mummy.
My agreement is with the Hampster. Everything Paige appeared to have been doing with her life up until the "impact moment" of learning about that affair appears to have focused on one of exactly two things: doing anything and everything her father ever wanted her to do, which included following in his footsteps by attending law school to become an attorney, the other thing being that she only really ever tried to cultivate anybody's friendship when her father appeared to approve of them, and keeping everybody else at arms length, or farther. The only two people not in her family that she appeared to ever try to get very close to were her fiancé, a man her father apparently quite heavily approved of.... and that best friend of hers... that her father also quite heavily approved of... but for a vary vastly differing reason.
Paige appears to have begun wondering whether all that paternal sponsorship was really all that worthwhile.... and began doubting whether the rewards of always doing what her father wanted was actually going to be worth it, when she learned of her father's affair with that best friend of hers that he so hypocritically approved of: she dropped out of law school with only a few more credits to go before receiving her degree, and she dumped her fiancé.
So, no, her entire personality didn't hinge on that one event. That one event was simply another example of what Joe refers to as an "impact moment" in her life. One that so emotionally traumatized her that she didn't just split the scene in anger, but she started learning all about herself from her own eyes, inventing a whole new her, and never looked back... until the second "impact moment" of the traumatic brain injury.
Yup. Thats my issue with the film. I thought the acting by McAdams and Chatum were pretty good for what this type of film is.
The plot point that she changes her entire personality and drops everyone she knows and moves to the city based on the fathers affair was a little unrealistic to swallow.
As was the idea that one can completely lose memory of their artist inclination from an accident. Artistic people are usually artistic their entire lives from when they are little kids. They dont just start and stop being artistic. Its deeply ingrained in the peronality.
"Oh, Mama, can this really be the end, to be stuck inside of mobile
with the memphis blues again"