How about the final piece of dialogue in the movie?
"Please, I'm begging you, just let me *beep* the *beep* out of you. Whaddia say?"
"*beep* the *beep* out of me!"
Lolasaurus-Rex.
Yeah, I alluded to this in another post. And it is kinda a spoiler.
I was greatly unsettled when he started talking like this. Not because he is a man with a caveman mentality. But because of her reaction. It had you thinking right up until the end that she might still reject him. The confused look on her face was on the cusp of being either disgust or joy while he was saying all this.
Did it seem out of character for the two of them? A bit. They both spend the whole movie trying to be the rational breeding pair. So for him to go all testosterone and vulgar, and for her to go all weak and needy, just seemed a tad false. Although maybe that was Westfeldt's point: you can't try to reduce procreation and parenting to logical procedures because you are still fundamentally animals, albeit in a bizarre stereotypically sense. Even though it was the "happy" conclusion, it wasn't altogether pleasant.
I might have been more satisfied if she rejected him for good. It was the type of movie with poignant ambiguity. And I appreciated that about it.
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I think your latter conclusion was most accurate. You could tell leading up to the big "breakup" scene that his lack of physical attraction to her was hurtful, almost cruel. His speech at the dinner party was beautiful, so she mistakenly thought that he matured enough to accept that they were each other's life partner. I was much more bothered by her stereotypical Baby's Mama response of using the child to punish the Baby's Daddy because he rejected her. Cutting herself emotionally off from him was understandable. However, the act of moving out of their common building, which optimized the co-parenting situation, was cruel and petty. He was always a good father. She had trouble believing his initial confession because she thought he was saying what she wanted to hear in order to make her less rigid. Like if he were compromising himself, she would always worry about whether he would leave her for someone else or screw around. By declaring himself so crudely, he was declaring that his love for her was complete and not compartmentalized. It wouldn't be a romantic comedy if she definitively rejected him because he was immature, but I think the message that we should love our partners as complete three dimensional beings is a good one.
I should also note that he was quite vulgar throughout the movie, as he frequently and bluntly discussed her lady parts.
I didn't think she was moving out to be cruel and petty, rather because she couldn't imagine living that close to him anymore, especially now living with Barbie, after pouring her heart out to him and being rejected.
shareTrue but isn't it better for her son to be near his father? I feel like she was putting her own wants ahead of what was best for their child, and that's not okay when you're a parent.
shareYESSSSS! OMG, yes to this! When she left their apartment building, all I could think was, "So very not cool to use his child against him like this." I just recently watched another TV show where one of the main female characters did that, and it disgusts me. (Not to mention I have a family member who did this to her boyfriend.) Fine, you're upset with this person. He is still the father of your child, and it is still in your child's best interest to be near his father.
I guess the argument could be made that the child wouldn't thrive in an environment where his mom was a complete emotional wreck due to her proximity to a man she loves who rejected her, but I think the child's interests should be put ahead of your own when you're a parent.
you can't try to reduce procreation and parenting to logical procedures because you are still fundamentally animals, albeit in a bizarre stereotypically sense.
We are only animals if we allow ourselves to be. What separates us from the animals is our ability to choose not to act like them. Merely excusing one's selfish behavior by saying, "ah, we're just animals" is simply a sign of immaturity in a human - sadly, a level of immaturity that has risen to engulf our generation. share
cartwheelsforchrist writes:
"We are only animals if we allow ourselves to be."
Yes.
The point of that final scene, I think, was that love and kids are kinda messy.
And the vulgarity was to off set the stilted way they made Joe.
"I think it's time to see Amanda sticking guns in people's faces."