MovieChat Forums > Ride (2015) Discussion > I felt uncomfortable...

I felt uncomfortable...

posted 9 years ago by ThatDoesntMatter
6 replies | jump to latest

...as a voyeur of that dysfunctional and abusive mother-son relationship.

It just felt so wrong.

I guess in a way it was meant that way, but they did not really make that clear because the son gets mad relatively late.

We get no real backstory to make us feel more compassion with the mother.

She is simply a clingy, meddling stalker, and there is nothing funny about that.

At the beginning it was really like they were in a relationship - a marriage that is - and she was so horribly mean and abusive, my oh my, I just cannot see the most docile son putting up with that for as long as he apparently had.

I did not understand everything that was said in the confrontation (mostly acoustically, but also I got confused who they were talking about, dead or living son...).

I thought 'good for you, son, and about time', but then we get the kitsch ending, and I did not care again. So she surfs. She only starts surfing to spite her son so I cannot see anything redeeming in that either. Yes she found closure and a little truth tea, but it did not make this film enjoyable or necessary - although I thought the ocean scenes were done quite well.

Bad taste in my mouth throughout except for the one-minute-confrontation. Have to shake it off now, or take a shower or something....

She should have watched Star Wars Episode Three and taken Master Yoda's words to heart:
Learn to let go everything that you fear to lose.

Which she does, at the end, with everything.

I get it, still a painful, uncomfortable watch.

[–] Ajumma 9 years ago

Yes! I also could not make out many lines of dialogue between the son and mother in key scenes both at the very beginning (in NYC) and during their big confrontation scene (in CA). The dialogue was just giant jumble of words and snarking. You'd think this would have been noticed and reworked by Hunt and her editors. All in all when Ride was focusing on Jackie and her transformation at the beach it was a relatable flick. Her very final scene was great!

[–] Xcalat3 8 years ago

The dialogue was just giant jumble of words and snarking

exactly and it was freaking annoying.

Libera te tu temet ex inferis.
pro ego sum diabolus, pro ego sum nex.

[–] Sofabutt 9 years ago

I agree. 13 minutes in to the movie and I already disliked both main characters, and then we're treated to a montage. Wow, did this movie suck!

[–] Airman87 9 years ago

At the beginning it was really like they were in a relationship - a marriage that is - and she was so horribly mean and abusive,

Honestly, that's how most Mother-Son relationships are when the father leaves and there is an only child.

Once the child gets into teenage years and can start taking care of themself, they basically become a married couple.

I've had several friends that were the only child with a single parent, and they acted the same way. Was kind of eerie, actually.

_______
When logic and science aren't on your side, you always lose.

[–] Planet-38 8 years ago

It's sad that so few people see single parent and only child as adult friends, with no clingy, smothering behaviors involved. It does happen in real life.

In the case of this story, there was an underlying tragedy that triggered the relationship development. The death of a child has lots of ripple effects that affect different people in different ways. Some cling tightly to their remaining child/children, becoming severely overprotective. Some become emotionally and/or physically distant from their remaining child/children. Marriages end as each partner withdraws in grief/guilt into themselves. There are myriad ways that that experience affects people, and this movie illustrated just one of those ways.

"Arguing with idiots is like trying to play chess with a pigeon..."

[–] StrongCarl 8 years ago

We get no real backstory to make us feel more compassion with the mother.

The opening is the only backstory we need; she's an overprotective mother; she's a single mother; and we know that something is wrong.

She is simply a clingy, meddling stalker, and there is nothing funny about that.

She lost a son because she wasn't paying attention. The mistake haunts her.

So she surfs. She only starts surfing to spite her son so I cannot see anything redeeming in that either.

She didn't surf to spite him; she was trying to understand who he was and why he was on this California journey. She thought that by surfing herself she could understand it. She did it to follow his lead, rather than him following her lead. In the end, she showed him that she had learned - that she had let go of everything that had defined her up to that point and that she was taking a new path in life as he was taking his new path.

When she got to the beach, she lost her sunglasses and it upset her greatly. As time went on, she dressed differently and stopped caring as much about the "things" in her life that were just things.

You notice her boss was just the same - always wanted her in arm's reach. And when he lost that grasp, he cut her loose.

She should have watched Star Wars Episode Three and taken Master Yoda's words to heart:
Learn to let go everything that you fear to lose.

Which she does, at the end, with everything.

OK, first you say that she should have taken Yoda's advice, then you say that she did, in the end do that?