MovieChat Forums > Foster (2012) Discussion > How many times can Mrs. Lange get hauled...

How many times can Mrs. Lange get hauled off to the hospital?!!!


At the end of the movie the kid winds up on someone else's doorstep, claiming to be from the orphanage again. The only reason it worked the first time is that Mrs. Lange was suddenly taken to the hospital, and in the confusion there was a disconnect between the orphanage and the prospective adoptive parents.

Are we supposed to believe that something like this is going to happen repeatedly? Makes me wonder if this movie is intended for folks who don't think much.

It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. -- Derek

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Yes, and how could Little Red Riding Hood have not known that it was the wolf dressed up as grandmother?

Blasted fairy tales!

No tears please, it's a waste of good suffering.

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Your analogy is a poor one. This was not a case of a poorly disguised identity's not being recognized. (Clark Kent and Superman would be an example of that awkward plot device.)

This is a completely different type of plot device. And the writer(s) took the lazy way out. They knew they wouldn't have to figure out how to keep this device working after the first time, because the movie ended at that point. But the logic of what was going on does not end at the end of the film. A little bit of reflection will cause folks to realize that the plot device probably couldn't be repeated, even in the fantasy world the writers had created. And this reduces the effectiveness of the plot device.

They could have simply handled it in a way similar to the way it was handled in an episode of Twilight Zone called And When the Sky Was Opened, where every trace of the person that had existed was obliterated from people's memories and even from newspaper stories:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734555/reference

In that Twilight Zone episode they simply changed that aspect of the past. The device worked very well. But in Angel in the House, they sort of did that but then messed it up by forcing in the whole "rushed to the hospital" device.

It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. -- Derek

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That is not how I interpreted it. The only reason it worked was not due to Mrs. Lange being out of the picture. Mrs. Lange and the orphanage were in on it. Didn't you see the knowing looks and Mrs. Lange and Mr. Potts standing together at the end?

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No, I didn't see anything that looked like knowing glances. But even if that were true, it doesn't change the basic problem I discussed. Is she going to get rushed to the hospital every time? What is the hospital going to think? It's a lazy premise that doesn't have legs.

It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. -- Derek

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I doubt she gets rushed to the hospital each and every time. I am sure they have different game plans depending on the situation.

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The point is that they don't need different game plans. That's why it's lazy.

It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. -- Derek

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If you are saying that if there was collusion on the part of Mr. Potts, Hayley Mills, and at least some of the Orphanage staff, they didn't need a game plan, I think they still did. In other words each time Ely was sent off to help a couple who had a need, they had to to have a viable scenario to keep the orphanage free from being credited with being a partner and co-conspirator in the supernatural help. Otherwise, they could not continue in the role. Sooner or later the story would come out and the jig would be up.

Now that being said, it does seem rather drastic to almost kill Hayley to protect the orphanage. So yeah, I guess the writers should have thought of another way to create what appeared to the parents to be an administrative snafu but was really a strategy to absolve the orphanage of paranormal involvement.

So it was lazy, in a way, (or a plot hole, whatever) but not for the reasons you were originally arguing.

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In my original post I didn't say that she was going to get hauled off to the hospital every time. I said "something like this" would have to happen again in the future, but it doesn't have to be exactly the same thing each time. And in a later post I reinforced the need for coming up with different things each time by saying that it would be ridiculous to use the exact same device each time (i.e., the hospital would start to wonder what's happening with this woman). But since the movie ends before having to use the device again, it was a lazy thing to do in the first place. Almost sort of a "cheat".

The writer was lazy because he knew that he wouldn't have to come up with new scenarios anymore, because the film ends before this becomes necessary. So he simply grabbed for an easy, lazy choice that he could use once. And when I brought up the Twilight Zone episode that handled this problem really well (and where memories are obliterated not once, but multiple times), I was pointing out that, if the writer had simply thought a bit harder, he wouldn't have bothered with such a complicated device to explain the "deletion" of the evidence of an adoption. That's what makes him lazy. He could just have had the memories erased (by the supernatural boy or whatever) without further complications (such as the whole ambulance thing), just as the Twilight Zone episode did. In fact, in the Twilight Zone episode, it was never explained how the memories of witnesses and the reality of the event were altered. This lack of explanation is part of what makes that episode so spooky and intriguing.

I don't know how to put it any more clearly. If you don't understand what I'm saying, then I give up.

It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. -- Derek

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Sorry, I guess I misinterpreted the subject of your post, "How many times can Mrs. Lange get hauled off to the hospital?!!!" And I guess I was thrown off by your first reply to me, "Is she going to get rushed to the hospital every time? What is the hospital going to think?"  Frankly, I think your erasing memories cliche is even lazier.

What we have here is a failure to communicate, so let's just call it a day.

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At the end, Mr. Potts, Mrs. Lange, and her assistant were all standing together, indicating they were all "in on" the angels' plan (presumably angels themselves). Remember Mr. Potts was also one of the ambulance personnel, so perhaps Mrs. Lange didn't really go to the hospital in the first place. Perhaps all the "children" in the orphanage were angels as well, and they all had their assignments of families to restore.

www.freerice.com

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If so, then it still doesn't excuse the convoluted and unnecessary ambulance gimmick. I still think the Twilight Zone's approach to this issue was much more interesting and spooky.

It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. -- Derek

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