MovieChat Forums > Doctor Foster (2016) Discussion > the house

the house

posted 8 years ago by ematerso
2 replies | jump to latest

What I liked best about this short series is the total fulfillment of one of a person's desires. I did not like the people. The actor playing the husband is not so good, he seemed to be mumming instead of giving a sensitive portrayal of whatever emotion was appropriate. Doctor Foster was played competently but was a very unlikeable person. Also I found her naivety unbelievable . . . a woman who is a professional does not know that married people cheat? She also felt that everyone she came in contact with. . . for one reason or another, "owed" her. This was true in the case of her office colleague . . . that woman truly let her down. What I liked best about the whole series was that gorgeous house owned by the family of the mistress. Was that house loaned for the film?

[–] glittergun 8 years ago

.....that house was nice af. I about died when she dropped that cute ass probably overpriced trinket thing.

[–] mobocracy (869) 4 years ago

I think one of Gemma's flaws was that she was both naïve and caught up in her own sense of success. I think a lot of intelligent people like her are like this, so many achievements required to get where they are they tick them off a list and think they are done.

Having a husband and a son was kind of just another collection of items for her resume, she was less emotionally invested in them than she thought she was, which I think was partly why the deception of her husband felt so painful. Being cheated on for two years like that requires not only deception by your spouse, but self-deception, this belief that you're doing everything right and everything's just fine.

Part of the shock isn't just that your spouse has deceived you, but some sense that your existence is a fraud because no one was really happy with you. I think part of what burned Gemma was realizing she had in some ways failed. Perhaps that's too much self blame (after all, her husband had the affair), but its hard to escape the idea that you weren't engaged enough and bear some of the burden for your spouse looking elsewhere.