What was that about? She says something about at the end, but I didn't quite catch what it was....???
"Take Your Time, Leave Mine Alone!"
i think there wasn't so much a sexual tension as a mind control issue with lily, who used sex as power, a way to control men. So when she needed money her son wouldn't give her, her natural, practiced instincts kicked in. Basically, sex was the only tool she knew how to use.
shareI believe there was a long history of sexual playfulness between Lily and her son. Remember the line she used when trying to get him to give her the money. "You know I'm not really your mother"...It seems that it was a well worn line used by her as almost foreplay.
I still don't understand how Myra picked up on this tension between them.
"...You ain't like me, you a punk"...Carlito Brigante
This is just an idea. But during the "hospital scene" when Lilly and Roy were conversing, there was already this sexual tension between them. The first time Lilly saw Myra and probably realized that she has a competition.
How Myra picked up the tension between the two was probably instinctual. With Lilly, it was obvious... probably her jealousy contributed to Myra's suspicion. And whenever Myra mentions Lilly, he has this funny look on his face.
And remember when he asked Myra to accompany him to La Jolla? Myra already suggested there that Roy's mother was there.
I don't know but it was in a way obvious.
But hey, that was one helluva conflict resolution!
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The movie makes it very clear that they have been doing each other for many years prior to when they are reunited.
I don't see anything "compelling" about that. It's just plain sick.
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I never picked up on them, "doing each other for many years". I just thought that it was the sexual tension that others have been saying. But I never went to film school either.
shareWhy do you think his mother was so rabidly jealous of his new lover - it was because she replaced his mother as his lover.
Have you never seen the way some mothers seem to view their son's girlfriends/wives?
There's often a little jealousy and bitterness.
Granted this seemed to go much further, but I never thought that it went that far. There's obviously some screwed up things and emotions in their lives - but to me it was more sexual tension than actual sex.
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I don't think they ever were physical, because Roy seems both sickened and horrified after he kisses her. There is tension, but I don't think anything had happened before.
a man went looking for America and couldn't find it anywhere...
I don't think the movie was trying to say that they had ever had sex...if they had, then at the end, when Lilly comes on to Roy, he wouldn't have been so confused and turned away...he was clearly disturbed by what she was doing. Though there was sexual tension between them throughout the movie, he seemed kind of in denial about the fact that he was attracted to his mother.
shareThe book makes the tension a bit more explicit. In the book, Roy was born when Lily was only 14. She often pretended that Roy was her brother during her early days of grifting. Roy also reflect how much Myra resembles his mother (in the book, both are brunette, and physically similar).
This is also how Lily expected to get away with Myra taking the full for her.
Yes, I agree. But I'm not buying that there was actual sex between Lily and Roy.
shareThe movie also states that Roy was born when Lily was 14, and Myra claims that there was something between them, too, when she's goading Roy about something.
It's never made explicitly clear whether Roy was or wasn't involved with his mother, but given the amount of pathology in their family, it's believable enough to animate the plot.
i never thought they were having sex either. but when myra figures out that the reason he won't be a partner with her is because of his mom, myra says it in a way that implies he's sleepign with his own mother. she says it in such a disgusted way even for her. and asks him how does he like it??? and he beats her and she leaves. and myra really starts TRYING to look like lily. so i suspect maybe lily and the son HAD done it a few times and have chosen to forget about it. and lily would try to be a mom and then go back to being a seducer of him somewhat. god knows she could control him. it's a weird sick kind of bond between roy and lily.
shareI just watched this in cable. Yes, there is sexual tension the entire film. I think Roy is trying hard to deny his attraction to her mom and lily knows it~ hence the sexual tension
Well I totally loved the sexual tension between those two. Yes it was taboo but it was also a movie and they were just sooo damn good on screen together. I don't know if they had sex but I think she's probably teased and taunted him or even touched him inappropriately maybe when he was younger and it contributed to him feeling that way. But yeah you can look at it a lot of different ways. I loved it!! Creepy but hot.
"Yes, there is sexual tension the entire film. I think Roy is trying hard to deny his attraction to her mom and lily knows it~ hence the sexual tension"
Absolutely agreed.