I don't get why Joanna didn't just apologize

I think it was because she was so ashamed of her behavior then that she tried to cover it up completely. To her, that was her way of burying the hatchet. She probably figured that if she was nice to Marni, Marni would see that she really was sorry and wanted to make amends.

Remember, it wasn't just Joanna that bullied her. Those other girls did too and they acted like they didn't really remember Marni either.

I know that if I ever saw those mean girls from high school again I probably wouldn't give them the time of day, whether they wanted to apologize or not.


Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch--Remember Me

this is exactly the question I came to this board to have answered. It is a massive plot hole. She was clearly nasty with the MOO necklace. Her turnaround made no sense.
Her first fake apology I can almost excuse, marnie backed her in a corner and she was defensive. Same goes for playing the queen song, she was attacked by marnie and in a defensive move, attacked back. When JJ calmed down, however, she should of made peace somewhere with marnie. The necklace was the real mistake. That was a calculated attack on marnie. That wasn't a "heat of the moment" defensive move. It was nasty.

I don't even think that was the main issue of the story - obviously old habits die hard, and it's quite often that you see people refusing to own up to the people they were or take responsibility for their actions.

My main beef with the movie, is how the core principal of "family > everything else" plays out so obnoxiously in this film, and how it leads to such an unrealistic payoff with Marni and Joanna. Like, Marni has to just forgive Joanna for the years of mental abuse and trauma... because Joanna's marrying Marni's brother. Joanna literally ruined Marni's life, and all of a sudden it means nothing. C'mon.

And then there's the utterly sexist subplot resolution between Gail and Ramona. Like, Gail is so much better than Ramona because she has the love of her family... Really? There's the whole setup that Gail comes out superior in her battle between her and Ramona, and as an audience we're supposed to believe that because she has a family who loves her, a housewife from California is so much better off than one of the richest and most powerful women in the world? For friggin' real?

Like, let's be real. The film is pretty damaging in terms of what it's telling people; that as a woman, you do not matter except as a member of a family, and that your accomplishments mean nothing unless it involves a family. What are we really teaching girls, then?

I don't even think that was the main issue of the story - obviously old habits die hard, and it's quite often that you see people refusing to own up to the people they were or take responsibility for their actions.

My main beef with the movie, is how the core principal of "family > everything else" plays out so obnoxiously in this film, and how it leads to such an unrealistic payoff with Marni and Joanna. Like, Marni has to just forgive Joanna for the years of mental abuse and trauma... because Joanna's marrying Marni's brother. Joanna literally ruined Marni's life, and all of a sudden it means nothing. C'mon.

And then there's the utterly sexist subplot resolution between Gail and Ramona. Like, Gail is so much better than Ramona because she has the love of her family... Really? There's the whole setup that Gail comes out superior in her battle between her and Ramona, and as an audience we're supposed to believe that because she has a family who loves her, a housewife from California is so much better off than one of the richest and most powerful women in the world? For friggin' real?

Like, let's be real. The film is pretty damaging in terms of what it's telling people; that as a woman, you do not matter except as a member of a family, and that your accomplishments mean nothing unless it involves a family. What are we really teaching girls, then?