What was the point of hiding all that money and not using it to bail the foreclosure out? What else did she have in mind?! I missed the ending, so it might have said something there...but I don't get it...no need for $90K if you lose your home.
JD
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=494005
She was of a different generation. A lot of people didn't trust banks and so they hoarded their money hiding it behind walls in their homes and such.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
That didn't even approach answering the question! I know people hoarded their money...BUT NOT WHEN THEIR HOUSE IS ABOUT TO BE FORECLOSED ON! :)
Seemed like she was saving it for a rainy day...then when it rained, she didn't use it. Odd.
JD
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=494005
It was a bank that was foreclosing on them.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
"It was a bank that was foreclosing on them". Wow, you are literally too stupid to insult!
Who else could have been foreclosing on them?! Who in the heck did you think I meant when I said their house was getting foreclosed...the Great Gazoo?!
Where's Sherlock at, Watson?!
JD
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=494005
Couldn't you come up with an original insult? That "too stupid to insult" line must be in at least 5 movies. Weak Trolling. I think you can do better than that.
Okay I will spell it our for you. The old woman hated banks. Didn't want to give them her money. She would rather lose the house and hotel. Apparently you didn't understand that so you decided to post about it here. Question answered.
Now be a good little troll and come up with something better than your last post. Make sure you say things that you would never say to someones face for fear of getting punched. Come up with some really good stuff because it seems important to you to be an internet tough guy and I want you to feel good about yourself. Make me proud.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
Ok, forget about the mom. Let's just get off mom's -- cause I got off on yours this morning!!
Secondly, your post is more concerning than a season of "The Bachelor" starring Joren Van Der Sloot! :) Why so hostile?!
If I wanted to, I'd find you and beat the *beep* out of you personally! I don't need to hide behind no stinkin' Internet! Let's get it ON! Sell a few tickets while we're at it!
But your explanation still makes no sense. She doesn't want the bank to have her money you say...well, the bank is going to have her house instead! I still fail to see why that happened. She should have ponied up the dough!
JD
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=494005
That's right. Remember that these were older jewish people. They were possibly from Germany or the children of German Jews. We all know how the Germans treated the Jews back in the 30's and 40's. Many had all there worldly good taken from them. This includes all their money. Money would always be valuable. A crappy mother mould not. She would rather lose that piece of crap motel than her money. To some people the money would be more important.
By the way the "Just got off yours" thing is still old and used to often. I know you can do better. The Van Der Sloot thing was much better.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
[deleted]
But then why didnt she keep the money they made from the festival. Why was it okay to give the bank that money, but not her savings? And for that matter, you would think at some point she actually made some payments on her mortgage, right?
shareWell, remember that WWII was only 25 years earlier. Older Jewish people remembered when their families homes and fortunes were taken away from them. His Mom was definately still fearful of this. His Dad however was more realistic and trusted the banks.
Even today it is not unheard of to find out some elders kept their money hidden in or around their property. As for why his Mom would have a small fortune hidden while the bank was ready to foreclose on the motel? Well, business is business. Her money was HER money. If the business fails they move on, unhurt financially. This is not uncommon today either. Many business owners walk away from failing stores and it doesn't effect their own assets.
Shrude business owners only invest the businesses money in improvements. Not theirs. His Mom was the shrudest.
What was rotten was his Mom let him sink his own time and money into the family business.
It was at this point that Elliot knew he had to move on. Even his Father told him that.
The answer is complex and key to the relationship between the mother and Elliot & his father. 1st off, she is a child of the Depression when for many families the only money coming in was selling apples on the street. Homes were lost to the banks very frequently, with families tossed out on the streets to make their way best that they could. Banks failed frequently and suddenly, with any money deposited lost completely, hence a whole generation growing up not trusting banks at all. 2ndly, the family was Jewish, with the whole history of the Holocaust profoundly shaping their view of life, as well as the relationship with neighbors and townspeople, which wasn't particularly good between the Jewish farmers and the others. 3rdly, there are some people that hording money in a safe place is an obsession, a way of protecting themselves from all the demons out there. They scrimp and save to keep every possible penny, not even spending for what most would term necessities, like for heat in the winter. Almost a peasant like mentality. It's a measure that the mother didn't even tell her husband, which is a deep insight to her character, as well as, in understanding her character, that the husband wasn't angry. I would think she felt she was on her own, had to maintain absolute control, didn't trust her husband or her son, with her only rock to cling to was the money. Even to spend the money to save the motel would mean giving up something she could touch, feel, cling to in exchange for a building that could burn, property that could be taken away suddenly, a husband or son that could walk away at any time forever. The money was the most tangible thing in her life, more than the property, more than her husband, more than her son. The implication is that she would die before parting with any of the money. It is not rational but is understandable.
shareWhoa, harrrystevens! Nice analysis. Mythoughts exactly!
The closest movies to my heart: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=46910443
Excellent post, HarryStevens! She came from a generation of distrust and paranoia, and we still have traces of that generation alive today.
Like many scenes in this film, I think that scene was severely overplayed. If she was really so protective of her money, she'd have it organized and folded neatly, not scattered all over the floor for dramatic effect. The character of the mother was a bit too broad and obvious for my tastes.
While Imelda Staunton's portrayal was brilliant, I found the character insufferable, extremely cold and off putting. There wasn't a shred of warmth, she made everyone around her suffer. What a tyrant.
This woman took her son for granted, he wanted to get away to become his own person, but the guilt and anger she constantly flung at her son kept him in his small upstate town.
Remember the son's scene with his sister in Manhattan, when she told him to move on? I think his mother's non-stop caterwauling and awful attitude would have driven any sane person away, yet he stayed. Perhaps for his father? Also, he seemed quite scared to come out. Probably due to what his mother would say!
His mother wasn't sacrificing for the son, it's not as if that stashed money was going to help her son further his education or help him start a business, the mother was a crazy bitter selfish woman.
In the beginning, she was sobbing to the bank manager that she had walked through the snow in Siberia, whether she was exaggerating, who knows. I got the impression they were Russian Jews, not German Jews. Whatever she was, this woman was a big manipulator!
The sheer fact that she made a fool of her son, remember the son was the one constantly struggling to keep their little motel business going...while she stashed away $90,000 all those years, pointed to her utter selfishness, not her "distrust and paranoia" of banks or whatever.
She was a horrible human being. Especially the scene when he asked, since they had made so much money through getting involved with the Woodstock venture, if they could finally hire a staff...the mother looked at him, then said something nasty like, "I have YOU for that!". What a horrid miserable woman. Wanting to reuse the dirty sheets?! Give me a break!
I don't give people like his mother a free pass because of their "distrust and paranoia" because of their generational differences, after living in the US all those years, I'm pretty sure she knew exactly what she was doing to her son and her long suffering husband! She was simply a mean, greedy, cheap, manipulative human being, a woman who was using her own son!
The son seemed like a nice decent, if somewhat naive, human being, which makes the mother even MORE of an evil manipulative monster!
Finding out she stashed away $90,000 in her home, would have been the straw to break the camel's back for me, I would have packed, then left that dysfunctional home the very same day!
Even if the story re Tiber being involved with Woodstock isn't true, I wonder if the background story about his bizarre home life was true, if it was, he'd certainly suffered emotional abuse under his crazy mother's rule.
Excellent post, Emo_ville! I also believe the parents were Russian Jews.
Imelda Staunton is a fine actress and she does a terrific job with her character, but I just found the tone of the mother nagging (much like the mother herself). It seems to be played mostly for laughs, but she's downright abusive to her son (and husband) and the character is way overwritten. There's so much ugliness at home that I wanted Elliot to flee, but he remained with his parents, good son that he was.
I was very disappointed in this film, and the mother was a big reason. If Ang Lee had made this more like an "Ice Storm" family drama rather than combining slapstick and pathos, it would have worked better, but the light tone of this is betrayed by the darker underbelly. Maybe this is accurate, maybe not, but it sure feels phony.
Can't believe no one gets this. The mom was expecting the father to die for years. Father said so. She ran off a daughter. She had a son to help finacially and working to keep her little scam working. She was evil. That was HER money. She told them both to get away from it when she woke up in the pile of it. Christ, she was charging extra for soap and towels. Doesn't have anything to do with being jewish. Shoot, she used the jewish thing as an excuse when the banker told them they would take the property. She was EVIL, and greedy folks.
share[deleted]
I just wanted to say page 1 of this thread is the funniest thing I've ever read in my life.
About the mother, I think the general explanation is that she had a psychological disorder. A few articles have been written about her type of condition. Here's a blip I found interesting:
"Money disorders are persistent patterns of self-destructive and self-limiting financial behaviors. They result from distorted beliefs about money we develop from our financial flashpoint experiences."
"Hoarding: When stockpiling objects or money provides a sense of safety, security, and relief of anxiety."
Yes, she was totally irrational and self-destructive about the foreclosure. What she did made no sense at all. But in a weird way, that's what gave her security & peace of mind.
Another possible explanation is that she was such a selfish b!tch she knew her son would pay for the mortgage so she was just milking him (consciously or subconsciously). Either way, she was a truly effed-up individual.
It's pretty obvious, she's selfish, she's indifferent to her Husband and Son. The Motel was not in her name, so she wasn't losing nothing, her rainy day was planning to leave her Husband who was a sad pathetic excuse of a man, and her only son her turned out to be a homosexual. Some people have no problem moving on no matter how long they been with the person.
share