My view was that Dave was mortified by the small girl's forced prostitution, which no amount of most drugs would have had any way of counteracting, least of all probably marijuana. As to Alice, I don't believe I saw her drop a pill. While I think we might have been allowed to supply that idea ourselves as she was seen to be having a good time with her husband afterward, I think we were also left to assume that she didn't ... and she went to bed early, which might have been another sign that she was the lone hold-out and the one voice of reason in the wilderness, basically due to knowing she was pregnant. I believe it was established early on that she was pregnant, a fact known to all. As I recall her sister invited her on the trip possibly for selfish reasons, which would certainly not have been unusual for her, the sister, but one of her arguments persuading Alice to go was that she could relax, which I think was supposed to be attractive because of the pregnancy.
I also don't quite agree that the film's message was to be honest ... or, that is, that one of its morals was about being honest with each other but not necessarily the authorities. Alice put her whole family in jeopardy by insisting on telling the police everything she knew ... but I don't think she would have done that if Dave had been completely up front with her from the beginning. But there is also the possibility that Dave himself had blocked out part of what had happened until, as he dealt with his guilt and fear, he was able to bring back it back. But, yes, I would have liked to have heard what the couple said to the parents because I wouldn't have expected the parents to keep quiet with the police. But someone else on here said they had the feeling that Jeremy's father had some inkling of his son's business shadiness, so perhaps he wouldn't have been in a big rush to tell the police, especially if Alice and Dave let him know their whole family was at risk. I think we're left to think that these are reasonable people making their way through life except for Steph who was something of a loose cannon and Jeremy who might have thought he could survive a snake pit but in the end got bitten which was not so surprising under the circumstances.
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concealedfaith
10 years ago
I think they talked to the police first, then the sister, then the parents. Without getting into a huge discussion. I don't think the father knew at all, I think he was distraught. It was his beloved son, he was missing. Ask most/read most reactions from parents with missing children. They would rather have bad news like a dead child, than no news while you expect the very worst that they're on a slab having their organs removed on the black market or they're being traded as sex slaves or something as worse. I think Steph was just a young girl taken in by a guy who seemed to offer her the world on a platter. All the trips she wanted, all the gifts on the trips she wanted. I think she was a loose canon because she CARED about Jeremy and she was distraught over him being gone. Over her brother in law and sister ignoring her when they got back, over being stuck in Cambodia a week or more alone with NO ONE to talk to. And then the guilt of having slept with the loser husband WHILE being treated like a leaper and ignored and looked at as if she had something to do with the disappearance.
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