MovieChat Forums > Insomnia (1998) Discussion > Why was he touching the girl in the car?

Why was he touching the girl in the car?

posted 15 years ago by Zoomorph
6 replies | jump to latest

It was sexy I just didn't understand why he did that and why she didn't seem to care.

~ Observe, and act with clarity. ~

[–] tmisterb 15 years ago

I took it as further proof of his continued creepy behavior. Her non-reaction may have been from the fact that he was an authority figure.

[–] dombrewer 15 years ago

She was up for it, certainly at least to start with. If you remember - his hand brushes her leg by mistake when he changes gear and she doesn't move her leg away which gives him the idea that she's interested in him, at least in that moment. So he touches her up, and she lets him. It all makes sense psychologically - he realises what he's doing is extremely dubious and gets back to what he's meant to be doing - scaring the girl into telling him about Tanja's link to Holt.

[–] cuchelo1 14 years ago

I just watched the film, and I think the two instances where he starts something with the girl in the car and the woman at the hotel are actually fantasies. Both times there's sort of an awkward pause, with some sexual tension from both parties, which probably happened in 'real life', but then he has a vivid fantasy about pursuing it. Suddenly, something 'snaps' and both women are freaked out. In the car, I think he just started driving faster and faster and the road was getting bumpy and she was scared. At the hotel, I think he actually groped her and she ran away. If he really fondled the girl in the car I think she would've told the policewoman at the end.

"Falling feels like flying... until you hit the ground."-Tom McRae

[–] tmisterb 13 years ago

Agreed!

[–] MukilLi 14 years ago

I think he may have the same problem as the Author Holt. He can't get it up and may be he wants to see if touching a young girl could help his "condition".

[–] Cobra12 14 years ago

I thought it was part of his character, i.e. he is driven to solve the crime, and doesn't care one bit about who he hurts/kills or what methods he uses to get what he wants. He knew the girl was interested him, so maybe he tried it on and touched her, to get her to relax, get her to fall into a false sense of security, then suddenly, bang!

as far as I recall, he never felt any guilt about killing his partner, he just wanted to hide it, revealing his 'mistake' would ruin the image and aura about him.