When ann asks if he could give her an orgasm if he was in love with her or something (sorry, i can't remember the lines exactly) and he said that he wasn't in love with her. The reason i ask is because i had an argument with my boyfriend when we watched this together recently and my boyfirnd said that he ISN'T in love with ann so i need some back up lol. I always thought he was slowly falling for ann.
thanks x
They're together at the end and the way he's stroking her arm seems loving. I think you are right.
Yeah, beacuse of the way he looks at her and touches her arm like that (so cute:)) i always assumed he had fallen for ann but the part that threw my boyfriend was when graham said that he wasn't in love with her during their taping and then he said we is/was a pathological liar yet threw the whole film it looked like he began to have feelings for her but was never going to act on it.
I guess spader's character can still confuse even me sometimes and i've seen the film hundreds of times lol. I actually forced my boyfriend to watch this because he had never seen it before and wanted to get his opinons after his first viewing but he said he was lost...........lol
I don't know. I mean, it's not as if she had spent much time with him and she had been quite rude after she found out that he was interested in sex despite being impotent. I mean, as Cynthia indirectly pointed out, it's not like he was drowning puppies!
I felt he wasn't in love with her, but he accepted her decision to seduce him.
I was a bit surprised they managed to stay together in any way after that. The arm stroking bit was a bit low key, but if they had been snogging, that would have been even less realistic.
Sweet, yet bent on global domination!
Yeah, saying that graham was IN LOVE with ann is maybe going a little to far.....you can't fall for someone that deep in that short amount of time. I guess my question would be, was graham attracted to her? wre there feelings that were beginning to develop between them?
I've read countless conversations on the graham/ann relationship and the majority of people seem to think that there was something brewing between graham and ann. That when he said he wasn't in love with her, his facial expression said otherwise. Damn James Spader and his brilliant acting!!!....lol
The first few times i saw this film, my intital thought was 'even if he did have some kind of insticntual attraction to ann he won't act because he's come back to town to maybe/maybe not see elizabeth'.... but when she starts touching him (i know that part of what made him give in was a woman's touch he had not felt for so long) it was coming from a woman he felt drawn to and had some kind of connection with, and that ann wanted him to touch her cause she wanted to be touched in a loving way(unlike john who didn't)which graham could give her. It did look like he wanted it in the end.
sorry if this is full of spelling mistakes and such.......my eyes are half shut right now. It's after midnight here in australia :)
I think I read somewhere that Soderbergh said in an interview that Spader and McDowell ad libbed that scene initially and Soderbergh kept it as the ending to the movie.
Spader played with his co-star's hand in the final scene of The Stickup and in that movie there was no doubt that the two characters were in love. I've always thought that the way Graham was stroking Ann's arm was a sign that this was the case with them - also Ann had a kind of confident glow about her when she was talking to Cynthia. The kind of look you have when you're in love and it's reciprocated.
Exactly^^^ :)
Ann looked so more confident at the end of the film with the way she held herself, like someone who was getting love and affection (and obviously good sex) as did graham. That huge smile he had when she showed up and the way he held his hands out, it just looked like he was in love with her. Maybe they weren't official 'lovers' at that point, just slowly helping eachother threw there problems. Either way they looked very relaxed and content sitting there.
I thought it was a sweet ending, but I think perhaps a little unrealistic. I see Graham and their relationship as both being too fragile for Ann to count on any happy endings.
I want to believe - just like Mulder.
Sweet, yet bent on global domination!
I never saw it when it first came out but I remember it getting a lot of press.
But, now 18 years later, I just don't get it. It was ok, I guess. But I didn't enjoy it all that much. so much was left hanging. Like who was Elizabeth, his first wife?
And why did the client got to another lawyer?
Nina
... that Elizabeth used to be Graham's girlfriend. Not his wife. There is nothing to make us think he was ever married to anyone at any time.
It seemed clear to me that John's taking time off to indulge in sex and disrupting (professional) life for his client was not going down well with his boss.
Sweet - yet bent on global domination!
Ann looked so more confident at the end of the film with the way she held herself,
I think it's rather clear they both have a connection from the beginning. WHat about the way he looks at her while having dinner, with her husband as well?.
"The Love you take is equal to the Love you make" The Beatles.
Totally agree, crissttigaldames - When he first sits down in the living room and asks her, 'have you ever been on television?', it's clear (for me at least) that he's intensely attracted to her from the off.
And during the dinner, how Graham distances himself from John and subtly aligns himself with Ann ('do you need any help?', etc) shows that he feels for her straightaway. Am not sure if it was love at first sight, but Graham definitely felt something for Ann early on.
I think Graham's attraction to Ann began just as she greeted him at the front door near the beginning of the movie. My rationale is that Graham, having been estranged from John for nine years, hasn't a clue about what Ann is like - his only preconceived notion is clouded by the fact that she's married to the John he knew years ago in college. Seeing her in person perhaps shattered some myths and preconceptions he may have had before his visit.
I admit that may be slightly far-fetched a theory, but I'm certain their relationship (call it love, intimate interest, or whatever) certainly jumped several notches in the lunch restaurant!
Well, they were clearly bonding or he wouldn't have wanted to tell her something personal.
I think that she liked him a lot until she realised that being impotent hadn't made him uninterested in sex.
Nicebat, kindly cease playing around with the space-time continuum.
I like to think that it's open for interpretation, and perhaps not that important whether or not they are in love. The movie kind of asks, "What is love, anyways?" It's obvious they make contact and from there.. who knows.
shareThere was something going on, but not necessarily love. Maybe more like a love10 sort of love rather than love6 .
Sweet - yet bent on global domination!
I thought John confessing to Graham that he slept with Elizabeth said it all. Graham says he still is a pathological liar, but kicked the nonverbal expression habit (which we are to assume he was violent?). Its likely Graham found out about John with his girl before even moving there, and its even more likely that that was his motive. John sleeps with Elizabeth, so Graham takes John's girl. A complete nonviolent revenge. The story (lie) about impotence prevents even further physical contact. And John responds by knocking him to the floor. His candid confession on Graham's porch is a riot. He's ignorant of the game Graham has set up.
shareI would say it all harkens back to what Graham said in the restaurant: Men fall in love with women they are attracted to.
So no, at the point when Ann asks the question, he is undoubtedly attracted to her, but is not in love with Ann. He grows to love her though.
Whatchoo Lookin' At??