MovieChat Forums > The Irishman (2019) Discussion > What was wrong with Peggy?

What was wrong with Peggy?


Why was she acting weird all the time, why did she stop speaking to her father, why did she refuse to talk to uncle Russ, what was her problem?

reply

Really?

I think she had trouble dealing with the fact that she was surrounded by killers.

reply

Huh, what do you mean, her father showed her only love...

reply

She knew her dad was into shady shit. She saw him beat that man outside of the grocery store. Then when Hoffa disappeared she knew he was involved. She was fond of Hoffa.

Are you being serious when you say "showed her only love"?

reply

He beat that guy because he shoved her, she should have been grateful. Anyway, he probably should have explained to her what he is doing, from an early age: "Daddy is killing some very bad people, because otherwise they will kill us, OK pumpkin?"...

reply

But that wasn't the case. He was a contract killer. He was doing it for money, not to protect his family. Are you just trolling?

reply

He protected his Mafia family, it was just as important as his real family, once you are in it, you can't just leave it otherwise you real family will suffer.

reply

I suppose that is true, but he made the decision to go down that road and his daughter didn't approve.

reply

He killed for the same reason mob hitmen almost always kill: to protect the flow of illegal money.

reply

[deleted]

Well said.

reply

[deleted]

The Grocer shoved her, but he didn't plow her through a plate glass door, and he didn't stomp on her hand until the bones were broken. It was disproportionately brutal, and she was thoroughly embarrassed over it.

Then why didn't she say anything when the grocer was beaten, she could have stopped her dad by shouting at him: "Hey dad, enough, what's the matta' with you!!?"

reply

[deleted]

Obviously she was a kid who was shocked by the violence in front of her, and only processed it all later.

reply

lol

reply

It wasn't Peggy, it was everyone else.

reply

She just handled it different.

You either get a Peggy Sheeran or a Victoria Gotti.
What are you going to do?

reply

Rumour has it that Anna Paquin had trouble remembering her lines for the movie😂

reply

Haha very funny!
The easiest role she has ever had no doubt.

reply

It was quite an odd part really, especially for Anna Paquin. Like I get why the character acted the way she did, but by the time she turned from young girl into Anna Paquin I was expecting her to have more dialogue with her dad about things. Instead I had to remind myself she wasn't a mute.

reply

The actor playing the role kinda over did it with the dead eyed catatonia. When she grew up into Paquin she was slightly more natural. If my kid behaved like that I'd take her to a shrink posthaste.

But yeah it wasn't hard to figure out. She knew her dad was a monster and she (over)acted accordingly.

reply

The evil eye she gives Russell during the Christmas scene was on point though.

reply

totally agree, she slows the film down, imo.

reply

She knew they were evil people. She was one of the only ones who recognized it.

reply

Her general silence for the most of the movie all builds up to the point where her father Frank mentions in quick passing that he hasn't called Hoffa's worried wife about Hoffa's disappearance yet.

Pacquin fixes her father with a stare and accusingly says "Why didn't you call?"

Frank tries to deflect her. She again asks "Why didn't you call?"

Frank gives a non-answer and then agrees to make the call.

DeNiro's narration is perhaps too "on the nose," but telling: "After that day , she never spoke to me again."

And we later SEE her abandon her bank teller job on the spot when Frank tries to approach her.

So here is a movie -- and a script -- that creates a female character in a very specific way: nearly silent except for one key phrase at the end: "Why didn't you call?"

That's when she knows that her own father killed his own best friend ...and a man she truly loved (Hoffa.)

And yet some dopey critics objected to Pacquin's lack of lines. Jeez. The movie was smarter than they were.

reply