MovieChat Forums > At Close Range (1986) Discussion > Sean and Chris Penn's mom

Sean and Chris Penn's mom

posted 17 years ago by alicecbr
1 reply | jump to latest

That woman is one ACE of an actress. She played the dead-eyed trailor trash who has seen her daughter's life ruined, and her grandsons with no future. This monster of a sociopath she hates and fears. What an excellent actress!! Her daughter seems to have been overtaken by the criminal power of the husband and fallen into brief liasions with various men, certainly not a great model for the boys. But then she gets them out of the house.
Are they supposed to be kind of dim-witted? Anyone in the danger those young folks were in should have skeedaddled when they could. But the director's trick of showing them just fooling around, ("I didn't feed the dog" is the last thing the girl says before she dies), was great.

Does anyone know what Bruce Johnston, Jr. is doing today? Wonder if he worked with Sean Penn on the movie.

"He who swaps his liberty for the promise of 'security' deserves neither." Ben Franklin

[–] CartersMom 16 years ago

Umm Eileen Ryan is an actress and I think she was ACTING! and it appears she was doing a pretty good job at it since it seems she made you believe she was really the person her charecter was based on in a film. I think it is pretty clear based on the outcome of these poor folks lives that they may have made some poor choices and perhaps had some regrets in life. Im sure they are all saying should of, could of, but then there would be no entertaining film for you to pick apart.