I have to respectfully disagree with the logic of your first point. Anyone could find the girls in the cabin in the woods - hunters, hikers, someone whose car broke down, anyone, really. Secondly, the very FIRST thing authorities would do upon finding two abandoned children in the middle of the woods is search missing persons records. They would be identified pretty quickly, I'd imagine, regardless of whether or not Annabel would have been looking for them.
As to your second point, just because Annabel wouldn't want the responsibility of parenthood doesn't mean she would be willing to abandon the girls, in the case that they were her own nieces. When you say, "she's doing this strictly because she loves Lucas", that right there shows how much more of a plot device Lucas is than a character. If Annabel's willing to take on the responsibility because she loves Lucas (even though she doesn't want to be a mother), why couldn't she do the same because they were her nieces?
As far as eliminating aunt Jean goes, I agree that she is a good point of conflict in the story, but even she is a throwaway tertiary character who has very little development and purpose besides acting as a constant contrarian (and also a vessel for an angry maternal ghost, that is...). Anyone - a judge, the authorities, the child psychiatrist, anyone - could have judged Annabel unsuitable to be the girls' guardian. Moreover, with an actress like Jessica Chastain, it would have been fine to simply rely on her performance to convey her reluctance to be a parent.
As to your third point, you say "People would be left wondering why Mama suddenly decided to come after her at the end", Mama would come after her in a Lucas-free version of the film for the same reason she does in the actual movie: Annabel grew closer to the girls over time. Mama didn't perceive Annabel to be a threat for most of it because her ambivalence was clear, but toward the end Annabel starts to care for them, and that's when Mama gets jealous. And Lucas doesn't play into Annabel's growing bond with the girls at all, seeing as he isn't there for like 90% of it...
Therefore, I have to say that I still think Lucas is unnecessary, and I think it would have been a stronger film if it had relied more on both Annabel and Jessica Chastain to carry it, instead of wasting what could have been a lot of minutes of Annabel and Victoria's character development on introducing Lucas and subsequently eliminating him from all of the important plot developments.
And on that last note, I agree that it's a complex scene, and I agree with your interpretation entirely. Mostly, it was just one of those funny moments to me because Mama's been searching for so long for this child and then she literally chucks its bones over the precipice. It's not that I thought the whole scene was funny, and the gravity wasn't lost on me, but still I couldn't help a little bark of laughter at that moment.
Thank you for your response, by the way. And for not immediately calling me a hack or an idiot or whatever other names IMDB trolls like to call each other these days.
reply
share