MovieChat Forums > Hysterical Blindness (2002) Discussion > Such a grippping look into a sad life (s...

Such a grippping look into a sad life (spoiler on ending)

posted 15 years ago by jstang411
4 replies | jump to latest

If you like most products of mainstream Hollywood, this movie may not be for you.

You are right there in each scene watching Debby make mistake after mistake, but you just can't tell her not to (and she wouldn't listen to you even if you could). We've all known people like this.

The movie is a nuanced look into such a person. It's a life, not a movie. You don't even particularly like Thurman's character, but she still draws you in and makes you care what is going to happen.

It is so not a typical Hollywood movie where whatever goes wrong you just know is going to end up in some way at least OK. If I had a problem with the flick, it was this feel good brief scene at the end.

I have no idea, but my guess is that some studio exec wanted some uplifting culmination to finish the film off. Those last couple minutes were at odds with the grit so well-crafted by the rest of the work and detracted from everything up to that point.

Debby should have been left to drift into the morass of her own creation. If they wanted a ray of brightness, they should have let the Mom's story finish well. That would have also added a poignant contrast to Deb's storyline and made you feel it even more.

[–] mlraymond 15 years ago

I'm so glad you saw this and appreciated it. ( I'm not sure " enjoy" would be the right word).

I'm glad it isn't any sadder than it is,because I don't think I could bear it.Many people have written that the scene in the bar near the end is so excruciatingly real to watch, you honestly believe in those characters and what they're doing. You feel so bad for her, and yet it's so obvious to everyone but Deb that the guy was never really much interested to begin with.

One point, and forgive me if I've said this before: the scene where she follows him home, and watches him go into his house alone. I feel it's very significant that he is all alone; he does not have some other woman with him. To me that says a lot about him; he's not simply avoiding her, he's avoiding all commitments with women. Hard to say this without risking being crude, but the feeling I get is he's interested in sex, but it's not a huge priority with him. He wants to shoot pool and drink beer with his buddies, and if a cute girl would like to sleep with him, he doesn't mind at all, but it's not the number one thing on his mind, just another pleasant diversion.

Deb completely fails to grasp this, but in her own words, she's " done every guy in the bar", so her track record with meeting suitable men wasn't great before she met Rick.

Is it partly maybe that she wants what she can't have? The more aloof he seems, the more interested she gets?

And when he crossed the bridge, the phantoms came to meet him

[–] jstang411 15 years ago

Whatever his exact motivations he -- or someone like him -- seems to be exactly the type of guy she was looking for (despite whatever she thought she after).

Perhaps we can forgive her just a bit for thinking that she could get the guy she wanted by just offering herself up and then later reeling him in, but once he doesn't show up for dinner it had to be clear to her that this was not a guy that she should even want to be in a relationship with.

Yet there she is at the end, throwing herself at him again after he has shown that he didn't have an iota of compassion for her (and lacked normal decency as well).

When he makes his final blunt offer to her, it was just letting out in words what he had before made apparent through his actions.

[–] clockwatcher 15 years ago

I'm so glad you saw this and appreciated it. ( I'm not sure " enjoy" would be the right word).

I'm glad it isn't any sadder than it is,because I don't think I could bear it.Many people have written that the scene in the bar near the end is so excruciatingly real to watch, you honestly believe in those characters and what they're doing. You feel so bad for her, and yet it's so obvious to everyone but Deb that the guy was never really much interested to begin with.

One point, and forgive me if I've said this before: the scene where she follows him home, and watches him go into his house alone. I feel it's very significant that he is all alone; he does not have some other woman with him. To me that says a lot about him; he's not simply avoiding her, he's avoiding all commitments with women. Hard to say this without risking being crude, but the feeling I get is he's interested in sex, but it's not a huge priority with him. He wants to shoot pool and drink beer with his buddies, and if a cute girl would like to sleep with him, he doesn't mind at all, but it's not the number one thing on his mind, just another pleasant diversion.

Deb completely fails to grasp this, but in her own words, she's " done every guy in the bar", so her track record with meeting suitable men wasn't great before she met Rick.

Is it partly maybe that she wants what she can't have? The more aloof he seems, the more interested she gets?

Yeah, I agree that the fact Rick doesn't have a woman with him when Debbie follows him home is important for the reasons you stated. He's not a player. He just has higher priorities than finding Mrs. Right. In fact, unlike most guys, he has higher priorities than sex.

I'm not even sure he's trying to avoid relationships. I know guys like that and any relationships they have with women, sexual or otherwise, are not the first thing on their mind.

[–] shanehaynes 15 years ago

I think you're spot on with this assessment. Watching it, I just KNEW Rick was going to show up with a woman. In his defense though, Rick seemed like a really decent guy. Deb is the one who slutted herself out on her on. He gave her NO indication he wanted her.....she just threw herself at him. How was he wrong for accepting what was so freely offered? I didn't even get the impression he purposely missed the dinner. More like it was so insignificant to him that he honestly forgot.