I remember people being shocked that she got a house for rent for $700 a month, even back in 1991.
I was curious, so I looked up more current prices. Wowza, one can still rent a house in parts of Iowa for the same price!
Not necessarily as big as that one, or in the same neighborhood, but still!
In Connecticut, rental houses START at $1,500!
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
The real question is how was she able to afford 700.00 a month?
Revenge is a dish that best goes stale.
I wondered about that too. Plus her utilities and food.
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I wondered that too. One can only assume she had money elsewhere, perhaps her mother was well off. The nursing home she was in was quite nice.
As for the utilities, perhaps they were included (except the phone). Houses for rent, particularly in that time frame and state, sometimes included utilities.
Nowadays the utility companies usually run your credit, but back then, a deposit was all that was likely needed.
In the book, Sara (Laura) was able to keep the phone in her landlady's name so she didn't need a deposit.
What I don't get is WHY COULDN'T THE FILM JUST SAY SHE WAS USING HER MOM'S MONEY?!
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
iirc, the husband didn't know the mother was in a nursing home, so Laura must have set up a bank account when she left to arrange her mother's funeral, which doesn't make any sense contextually because he was far too controlling to allow Laura to go away by herself for something that important. And it also isn't clear if he did anything to the mother in the nursing home when he found her there, because, again, contextually, he would have taken his anger out on her.
Revenge is a dish that best goes stale.
iirc, the husband didn't know the mother was in a nursing home, so Laura must have set up a bank account when she left to arrange her mother's funeral, which doesn't make any sense contextually because he was far too controlling to allow Laura to go away by herself for something that important.
or she was a smuggler.
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How? By being a character in a movie.
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~~~~~~~
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I wondered that too
shareI have a very similar home and the mortgage is only 475 in Bartlesville, OK.
The rental lady in the movie probably charged that all bills paid because the home was paid off long time ago.
I thought it was humorous how non-chalant Laura was when she overflowed the tub. If that was upstairs and in a real home, old like mine, it would have crashed thru the floor!
We only saw the 100 bill on the outside of the bundle she had tucked away for her escape but the lady said "700 a month, first and last month's security" There is 2100 gone right there and I know darn well a book shelver at a library doesn't come close to earning that kind of money so 700 a month would get pretty tight real soon (if she hadn't of thought she would be uber rich from his life insurance plan of course).
I'm still trying to figure out why she needed that huge house if she's trying to keep a low profile.
share^^I know; I would have thought that she'd have gotten an apartment. Then again, she was used to living a certain way.
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In Connecticut, rental houses START at $1,500!
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While I'm sure her husband controlled the finances and paid the bills, she probably did the grocery shopping and such. She could have easily been secretly squirreling money away for years.
shareYes, but we don't know how much that paid. I can't imagine even in 1991 that this was enough to pay her rent & bills.
Not to mention, we don't know if its a full time or part time.
This film had so many holes, but its still fun! :)
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
You are right about that. The job probably helped, but I guess she had probably had a secret account while still with Martin or some other way had been squirrelling away money when she could...
shareOther speculation: Maybe Laura's father had left Laura and her mom a decent amount of life insurance, I don't remember if her father was mentioned in the movie, but I assumed he was dead.
shareI live in Michigan and you can rent a decent home for about $550-600 month. I really loved that house she rented though.
shareI really wish the screenwriter would have taken more cues from the book, because in the book this was all explained. Laura/Sara was able to squirrel enough money away so she was able flee and to rent a small house (bottom floor only), her landlady slashed the rent in half because Laura/Sara was willing to do all the repairs and paint it herself. For 2 weeks Laura/Sara lived off of oatmeal, beans and a bottle of catsup, she, later also stole apples from the tree in Ben's yard. She also only agreed to have dinner with Ben because at that point she was starving and wanted a real meal. Her landlady also found her a job, about 3 weeks after moving there, not at a library, but for a women who had become paralyzed in a car accident. The pay was pretty good, two weeks pay was enough for rent, bills, food and extra for some new clothes.
In the movie it seemed that after Laura/Sara got away from Martin her life was perfect, but the book showed her struggling a lot. She was half starved, still in disguised, feeling guilty with her friendship with Ben and sorrow for her Mom and friends who thinks that she drowned.
Very true. I too read the novel. It was VERY different from the film.
I just think the movie was meant mostly as a thriller but more as a *vehicle* for Julia Roberts.
That whole hat-scene was clearly a montage of just looking at Julia.
I like her but the film was a little too over the top in that regard.
I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus.
Didn't he discover America?
Penfold, shush.
Especially the Broadway show costume with the black tights. This was done a lot in her earlier movies, it seems so transparent now.
When you get up in the morning, how do you decide what shade of black to wear? (Shallow Grave)
Well $700.00 in 1991 is $1,217.63 in today's dollars. A normal amount for an older home in an Iowa small town.
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