Who said she didn't know how to drive? People in rural communities very often let children drive much younger than the legal age, and this family didn't live by typical legal conventions (no SSN) anyway. And they're not Amish, they're fundamentalist Morman.
Also, what's the issue about stopping for gas? They don't always waste time showing us the characters simply stopping for gas. They assume we know they'd stop for gas just like we know they stop for bathroom breaks, but we don't need to see them.
I don't think that the girlfriend actually had the same song playing when Rachel saw her. I think it was the song played at that point as part of the soundtrack along with Rachel's flashbacks or images of what she assumed were part of her mother's story about the Mustang? It appears that it's playing as she drives by, but I think that it's really in Rachel's head as she sees the car. They immediately seque into what's then clearly soundtrack and her thoughts and images. When she finally meets her biological father and shows him the tape he's surprised to see it and says he remembers and then tries to play it again on his guitar while the girlfriend watches. It's pretty clear he hasn't played it in a very long time, which seems unlikely if his current girlfriend is driving around playing it in his car. And she looked like she hadn't heard it before, either.
I don't think someone who'd open their door to a stranger and ask them if they're thirsty without seeming to give it a second thought would be the type to notice someone following them.
Getting Mr. Will out of juvenile hall that easily I can agre with you on unless it was that they just decided they didn't know what to do with him and Clyde's dad agreed that he was a "friend" of his son and it was all a mistake.
Giving the car to his pregnant biological daughter he's just met after reminiscing about her mother he loved and seeing that old tape and playing the song again? Yes, that's entirely plausible. And he used to be that punk kid so he hopes it works out for them and they don't end up like him. In a way he's giving the car to his younger self and his long-lost love, her mother.
The legal father (married to her mother) didn't let him kidnap them. He was banishing them anyway. Shunning. As far as he (and those of many fundamentalist religions) if you don't conform you are shunned. It's all or nothing.
And it is likely he was the biological father of her baby. After all, she wasn't his daughter and men do not like to be cuckholded. (Someone who also felt he controlled women with God's blessing would be more likely to act that way.) Whether she's blocked this out or what happened doesn't really change the impact of the story. It wasn't about whether or not someone would know precisely the directions to Vegas or if we were shown how many times they stopped for gas. It's a film about emotions, about loss and heartache and loneliness and finally joy.
The perfect human being is uninteresting. -Joseph Campbell
{Ignore phone posting errors.}
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odonnellnicole
11 years ago
The film begins with Rachel's 15th birthday test that was recorded. During this test it is likely that her "father" told her that sex was a part of the test. This was recorded and at the end of the film Mr. Will played the recording for her mother who realized that she should not trust her husband (which she most likely already knew). Then Mr. Will takes his seat. Rachel's father will no longer be the head of the family, Mr Will will be. And he will most likely be as crazy messed up as any other fundamentalist Morman leader out there.
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tylerrabbit
11 years ago
Ok that makes some sense. Was wondering why Mr Will's playing of the tape instantly cleared his name with the mother.. But I don't remember him asking her anything about sex other than if she'd been chaste- and Mr Will played the blue tape, not the initial recording.. So maybe we're to assume Rachel did let Mr Will record her confession over the song.. Or maybe Mr Will was blackmailing the mom.. Still confused here..
What I initially took away from the flick was that her baby really was a divine act of god- since there was apparently no clues about who the father was.
I have some of the same quibbles as the OP, especially the idea that her apparent plans to live under tarps on the beach with Clyde is somehow preferable to a stable albeit strict community.
Overall an interesting and unique movie though.
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