Disturbing Deleted Scene

I thought that scene was disturbing as well. There were a few deleted scenes that I think if they were used they would have greatly changed the film. I'm guessing the deleted scene you mention was in the book because I don't know why they would've included that if it wasn't.

It actually her mother's then boyfriend's son Troy. Randy is his father.

I thought that was disturbing to the effect that she thought it was okay because she was fourteen and didn't know any better. Shows you just how unloved she feels.

There was so much in the deleted scenes that really explained more about Aimee and Sutter. In addition to Aimee talking about her rape, there were scenes confronting Sutter's drinking, Sutter explaining why he drank, and an intervention of sorts by his friends. Leaving them in would have made this a very different film.

For example, at the prom after Aimee talks about going to Philadelphia to Sutter, they go back to the prom proper where Sutter makes a fool of himself in front of everybody and Aimee gets sick from drinking and vomits. During the process she turns on Cassidy. What in the released film was a very sweet prom was actually something a lot uglier.

In the director's commentary, Ponsoldt never explains why any of these scenes were cut, other than a quick reference to a need to make the film run shorter. But that doesn't explain why these particular scenes were cut.

I think it would've changed the tone of the film a fair bit. It would've taken the focus away from the main message and also away from the male protagonist.

What I found disturbing was that he had a car but was to meet her at a bus station

A "light-hearted movie"? You must watch some really dark stuff.  This was primarily an intense, and at times depressing, coming-of-age film about alcoholism, codependency, and responsibility.

Aimee was raped by her 20 year-old stepbrother, not the stepfather (deleted scene). Nevertheless, it was partly the reason she was trying to intimately "correct" her experience of sexual intercourse with somebody that she trusted wouldn't hurt her. Ironically enough, she had no idea how Sutter was initially using her until he forms a deeper attachment.

By the end, their short relationship was a learning lesson for both of them, as with most youthful relationships. Aimee lived for the future with all her planning - right down to her idealistic NASA job and marriage goals - while Sutter was too much in "the now", yet still hung up on his high school sweetheart (he offered to go to CA to see Cassidy). He didn't take his future and alcohol dependence more seriously until the film's end, when Aimee was likely emotionally past him, much like Cassidy.

Nevertheless, Aimee may give Sutter a second-chance, but they really should move on as good friends for now. Their relationship was codependent. Aimee wanted to fix him in a sense - planning his future within HER life goals - yet she enabled him by pouring his alcohol frequently, right up to graduation. It was likely due to her relationship with her drug-addicted father who passed from an overdose. It will take time for Aimee to heal and have a truly healthy relationship. It will most certainly take time for Sutter to live and laugh without alcohol; to have ambition for his future.

Whether Aimee planned her career and marriage, and Sutter had next-to-no plans outside of high school and drinking, they were both damaged souls that launched their individual healing with each other. This was the crux of the story.

I'm not sure why the filmmakers decided to leave out the important detail about her rape. Besides the paternal overdose, it better explained her emotional pain and rather quick decision to have sex with Sutter (and lack of hymenal discomfort as others have noted) than the theatrical release conveys.



"Don't get chumpatized!" - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)