MovieChat Forums > The Waterboy (1998) Discussion > Evil Antagonists from Unlikely Sources

Evil Antagonists from Unlikely Sources

posted 10 years ago by TMC-4
5 replies | jump to latest

http://officialfan.proboards.com/thread/514807/evil-antagonists-source s

I was watching a rerun of The Waterboy a few days ago and one of the things I realised upon a rewatch was just what an evil cow Helen Boucher was. This was a woman who denied her son an education, filling her son with lies and scaremongering to keep control of him, denying him the opportunity to have a normal upbringing and stopping him from having any sort of personal connections or relationships with anyone other then herself, and doing so for no other reason then her own selfishness. She is really a dark character, but because the film is a mindless Adam Sandler comedy (albeit one of the better ones) it often gets overlooked.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

But there is an upside:

We find out at the end that our hero's tackling skills have been inherited from her side of the family.

We also find out she serves up a great snake's knee, followed by squirrel dessert.🐭

[–] imnotjohncandy 9 years ago

She acts that way to make up for her loss due to losing her husband and she feared losing Bobby in the same way.

[–] chicago85 9 years ago

This is the same plot twist as "Struck by Lightning." In it a kid who struggles to get into Northwestern University while in high school finds his mother tore up the letter of acceptance. She doesn't want to be alone ever since her husband left her when her son was a baby. She stays at home wallowing in self pity.

She got her wish.

I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else

[–] TaRaNRoD (1579) 7 years ago

It was actually THE element that bugged me. She was a total possessive and abusive psycho. She kept her child like if it was her property. I just couldn't believe that in the end everyone respected her. The explanation she gave to her son for her behaviour didn't justify a single thing.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 4 years ago

I'm not really sure that it's overlooked. Adam Sandler's always dealt with some really fucked up themes, but he treats them "in good humor". I'm not sure if that's the right phrase. The point is, he satirizes a lot, or at least, used to in these movies.

Sure, he didn't throw her out of a window like he did Ben Stiller in Happy Gilmore. But...you know, it's a happy ending. In an ideal world, he should have a loving mother. He already got a fucked up dad.