A couple things to think about:
First, do we ever see Paul and Jackie actually having sex? Though we see them fooling around on the floor of the den with most of their clothes off, we assume that they were having sex - the film makers probably want us to make this assumption. However, we as viewers do not know how far along they were when Paul's father walked in on them - they might not have actually done anything yet to produce a child. Only Paul and Jackie know this. If they never had sex, then Paul would know immediately that Celia wasn't his daughter. We also don't know exactly when this scene with Paul and Jackie took place except that it happened before Paul left. It feels like it happened in closing timing to Paul catching Jackie and his father, but in theory, it could have happened a couple of months before he left, thus putting him out of the running to be Celia's father. Finally, I'm betting Paul and Jackie were never intimate again by the way Paul reacted to his father catching them naked (to Jackie: "there's parts of me you can't have"). This reaction probably drove them apart and drove Jackie to sleep with Paul's father.
Also, Paul does remember what happened between his father and Jackie way before river scene with Andrew. In the last scene of the movie (the last time Paul sees Celia, but before the river scene), Celia asks if him if he knew about her mum and his dad, and Paul says "yes, but not about you." He mostly "knew about Celia" - that she was his father's daughter (his half-sister) as soon as he connected the picture in the atlas to Jackie's bracelet. This helps explain the relationship he created with Celia (more sibling like than parental), and why he didn't push the issue with Jackie when he confronted her about it, especially after his fight with Jackie's boyfriend. If Celia was his daughter, you would think he would have let it known during this fight. By this time, he had established such a close relationship with Celia you want him to say more, protect her from the sleazy boyfriend by being her father. But, outside the comment about the Jackie changing Celia's birth certificate, he remains silent. His silence only makes sense only if he is not Celia's father, and she was born under scandalous circumstances. He really cannot say anything about being her brother. Such information will damage all parties involved.
Going back to the Andrew-confrontation-river-scene, what Paul remembers and has to deal with is the fact his mother was also witness to the Jackie/father affair, and it was this affair that drove her to kill herself. Before this point, as when Paul mentions his mother's death to Celia, he merely says she was bi-polar, went off her lithium, went to the river, pointed to the sky and was found two days later. This is how he would like to remember his mother's death. However, it's really Celia's conception that killed her.
Does this clarify anything, or am I way off base?
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krisha
19 years ago
to rachelmills24:
I agree with you - very good explanation!
I only have a slighly different opinion to the Andrew-confrontation-river-scene. I think Paul himself remembers the reasons for his mother's death right from the beginning of the film. He tells Celia about his mother being bi-polar for another reason. I think he doensn't want to convince himself of another version of her death, but he wants to protect Celia by not telling her the truth. You can see it from the expression on his face before telling Celia about the reasons for his mother's death. He looks into the air as if thinking about what story he could invent that sounds plausible. At this moment, he couldn't tell Celia about the fact that his mother committed suicide, because then he would have had to talk about the reasons for her despair (betrayel, Celia's conception).
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