MovieChat Forums > The Ones Below (2016) Discussion > Her drinking the wine (spoilaaa's)

Her drinking the wine (spoilaaa's)

posted 9 years ago by pennilayne
20 replies | jump to latest

So at the initial dinner party, I was SO CONFUSED. I totally understood and even predicted the entire rest of the film but the one thing I don't understand is--- when Kate first meets Theresa, well even before they meet, she hears them having extremely passionate sex. Then they meet and after the first time they went swimming, T says she's going to meet her husband for lunch. That was all K needed to feel insecure about her marriage and immediately call her Justin and ask him if he wanted to go to lunch and maybe a hotel. Cut to the dinner scene...........they are talking about how they met. (Theresa and her husband forget his name?) Seem so adoringly in love blah blah. But it didn't feel like they were over compensating for anything honestly. Then all of a sudden, weirdo husband walks away to sulk looking at the garden K and her friends had barely made fun of in the beginning, when weirdo husband overhears them talking at the chinese restaurant. Anyway, husbands have awkward conversation. But then Theresa starts talking about his ex wife who was "chinese and beautiful but couldn't have a baby and that wasn't good." Then she starts looking over at her husband and nervously drinking??

Ok at this point I am thinking--- this guy is still in love with his ex. Orrrr this guy is physically abusive. Theresa all of a sudden does a 180 from the beginning of the film going from seemingly feeling lucky, in love and blessed and not drinking because "you don't in germany"---to then drinking the whole bottle nervously. Kate doesn't even really ask her wtf is wrong shes just watching her like an idiot then says u seem tired go to bed. I would have been like "Um....are you okay??" So then she has that weird ass breakdown saying she has to leave and falls which loses the baby which starts this entire thing. Which ALL MAKES SENSE except for her emotional 180 tailspin just because they brought up the ex chinese wife and she took her first sip after that.

And this doesn't sell, none of that did except for her falling because she was buzzed, it was dark, the cat scared her and the shoes being by the stairs all of that fits to whys he fell. But WHY she freaked out in the first place to leave so quickly. No idea.

Because for the rest of the film they never once imply or show a reason that "psycho couple" other than them being horrible people, even had a problem with one another in their marriage. They seemed united through the entire ordeal. Yeah her husband was a huge effing a-hole but she was also a crazy bi*ch. They never showed any scenes where he yelled at her, maybe verball/mentally/emotionally/physically abused her. Or neglected to love or care for her. But for whatever reason, he steps away from the table and shes nervously drinking as if her world is collapsing and she has this "Secret" which I was thinking oh you're actually not that in love... your husband is horrible and you have crazy sex with him to appease him blah blah. She does say "I didn't know why I was alive until I became pregant" so..... I get she was lost, perhaps even depressed and felt she had no purpose. She said in the locker room after swimming that she "would never work again" so I guess she just wanted a rich husband and a kid. Which she had both of until the fall. SO WHY FREAK OUT CAUSING THE FALL.

SO, my main question is what is anyone's take/theory on the immediate nervous drinking, and emotional breakdown that led her to falling down the stairs in the first place? Are we to assume as an audience, without anything, none one single thing in the film that her and her husband weren't as happy as they seemed? That she wasn't a happy person at all except for her want and need to be a mom, and all the smiling around her husband, and them not even seeming to fight after what happened-- we are to assume she possibly hated her husband and used him for money and he was using her for a trophy wife to hopefully get knocked up? And honestly, not one bone in his body seemed fatherly. I know he said his ex couldnt have a baby and he and Theresa (well maybe and counting his ex they never cleared that up) that they tried for 7 years to have a kid before T got preggos so maybe by then he was numb?? Still doesn't explain his weird reason for being so butt hurt about over hearing them when they brought up the garden. I don't even know what that was supposed to signify. That we already should know hes "off and "psycho" ---I just wish they had developed these characters just a tad more...... because it's a good film except sometimes it's irritating to show such an *extreme* couple with absolute ambiguity in their personalities. All we get from the film is "they both get what they want." They are both selfish psychos. I didn't need like even 30 mins of backstory to understand them more, but give me something more than not even an entire conversation about an ex wife who couldn't get pregnant before she freaks the eff out and falls causing her OWN fate. Yes, I blame psycho couple for what happened more than normal couple. It was a lot of factors but it was her fault more than anyone elses.

[–] JaJa730 9 years ago

**MAJOR SPOILERS** What I don't understand is that with your amazing powers of clairvoyance in being able to predict the ENTIRE movie from nearly the first scene, from how how T would drink too much, trip, fall, loose baby, move to Germany, come back and play nice, to how they would poison K, steal baby, dress up as K, walk to canal with cat in pram, throw cat in canal, stage K's suicide, then escape to Germany....that you can't figure out the dinner scene.

[–] cmgeyer 9 years ago

Lordy, JaJa, that's an incredibly snotty and unhelpful response to a generously full and well-couched question. First off, I think what the OP probably meant by saying s/he predicted the rest of the film was the broad-strokes outline of the nefarious downstairs couple turning out to be baby-stealers. I guessed that, too. Didn't you?

Anyway, I agree with the OP that the dinner/wine-drinking scene poses several unresolved and confusing issues about the relationship between Theresa and Jon. If their relationship was dysfunctional or abusive, where else in the film was that detectable? If it was an "act," to what end?

Aside from their relationship issues, there is also an ambiguity as to whether the "accident" may have been intentionally staged, as well. E.g., Jon rather brazenly places the two pairs of shoes squarely in front of the door upon his arrival, rather than putting them to the side, which would seem to be more reasonable.

Yet, on reflection, staging the fall doesn't make much sense. For one thing, a prerequisite for staging it would be the assumption that Theresa wasn't really pregnant to begin with; but, remember, in the shower scene, Kate saw Theresa completely naked -- I don't think that, aside from her or Jon being a Hollywood-grade special effects prosthetic designer, there was any mistaking her pregnancy.

Moreover, if the accident were faked, the cat would have been a mere unplanned serendipity.

But back to the relationship. I agree that Jon doesn't seem "paternal." But he does seem dynastic, patriarchal, medieval, even old-timey "oriental" in his attitudes and mien. And, remember, Theresa confides to Kate that the son they are expecting is to be named after Jon's own father.

Theresa, on the other hand, seems credible when she says she "always" wanted to have a child. She also tells us she had a flighty mom and an absent father.

So, yes, a logical assumption is that this is a marriage of mutual benefit -- producing an heir for Jon, providing material and psychological stability for Theresa. But this yields stresses below the surface, possibly which become most acute only when the two are in company of what they perceive as a more wholesomely "normal" couple like Kate and Justin (which isn't to say the latter two don't have major issues, too!).

So I assume the accident and the miscarriage are real. The grief and retreat to Germany are real. But, thereafter, when the plan to compensate by stealing Kate and Justin's child is hatched, Theresa and Jon are back in satisfying and forward-looking cahoots with each other: hence their seeming rapport for the rest of the film.

[–] kay_rock 9 years ago

Well-couched question? I could barely figure out what the question was supposed to be in that badly mashed-together wall of words.

Movies are IQ tests; the IMDB boards are how people broadcast their score.

[–] halcy0n2004 8 years ago

Movies are IQ tests; the IMDB boards are how people broadcast their score.

So you're about the low 60s then?

[–] tstevens32 8 years ago

Maybe she was actually/really preggers, but the baby was dead inside? Sounds morbid, but maybe they were looking for a replacement baby from the jump. It seems they were both master manipulator so, probably isn't even a businessman.

[–] tzukeeper 8 years ago

The OP has mouth diahhrrea. Who the f^ck wants to read a post that long?

"What would you like to see on your honeymoon, Mrs. Cord?"
"Lots of lovely ceilings."

[–] therefdotcom 9 years ago

so, you really didn't already (not yet in detail though) knew what those fuggers were up to, as soon as they came back? c'mon, man.

[–] JaJa730 9 years ago

Of course I knew they were going to steal the baby. I just got perturbed when the OP said he predicted the "entire rest of the movie". To be honest, I was already perturbed before I posted, so yeah, it was petty and I was being snotty. I've been dealing with a relentless, grueling health problem for the last year and a half, but that's no excuse for being rude.

[–] therefdotcom 9 years ago

well, reading the OPs post, he seems to have a problem to put his thoughts into words effectively, but overall he has a point. he, just as us two, did predict "the whole movie", though not every aspect of the outcome in detail.

[–] JaJa730 9 years ago

I agree with you there.

[–] therefdotcom 8 years ago

thx. it's been a long time, since i have been here. i hope you have cured your health problems.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] JaJa730 9 years ago

I apologize for my original response, I was having a bad night and I was snotty to you.

In answer to your question though, I had gotten impression that T was really insecure about living up to her husband Jon's standards since she had only been a waitress when they met. Jon seemed to be very controlling and had probably been molding her to his standards and she was feeling the pressure with the baby coming. In the end, when she's on the boat, she has a very smug, self-satisfied smile, which said to me, she had validated her worth to Jon because she was able to pull everything off as he had planned.

[–] chillpillory 8 years ago

I agree with this ^^^.

T is super hot. She's extremely good looking, but Jon is supposed to be Don Draper. If you don't see him that way, I get it, but he's SUPPOSED to be tall, dark, handsome, rich, stylish, and charming in a gruff masculine way. T's adoration of Jon is SUPPOSED to be as understandable as women's adoration of Don Draper. Otherwise, it doesn't work, because T is a model.

We're supposed to believe that Jon has made a bundle of money. We are also supposed to feel that he's very well-dressed (I think so) and has excellent taste in clothes for T (we are, I think supposed to believe that he's the one who chooses her clothing).

Alos, Jon will be the Governor after the Zombie Apocalypse.

[–] urbgirl 9 years ago

OP you're obviously not married.

[–] Mehki_Girl 8 years ago

Here's what I think. She was really pregnant but knew the baby was defective.

She was nervous because they had planned to do what they did to take the other woman's baby. Hence the drinking and the nervousness at the dinner party. It was going to be a setup. It was all up to the wife to fall down the stairs. That's why he carefully placed the shoes. The cat and the light being out was just a bit of luck.

Remember they had a sonogram so knew. The dad was interested in seeing they sonogram to make sure that baby was fine.

Think about it. Why wouldn't he take her to hospital. She was bleeding. Because they wanted to abort their own kid and couldn't believe their luck to get another. They made much about his age. Older men have more defective sperm.

It explains a lot of the weird dinner party behavior.

[–] chinaski2323 8 years ago

WAY TLDR... but the version *I* saw didn't have a conversation about a Chinese ex wife? Stopped reading after that, you must have seen a different movie...

[–] mandycw 8 years ago

First, i'm just going to say...I think we all knew what was going to be the end result of this film.

Second, I just watched the movie and they DID mention a Chinese ex wife at their first dinner party.
My take on the fall down the stairs. I think she planned it. I think she made the bulb go out and put the shoes there so she would fall down the stairs. Cat was just a red herring.

I guess she found out something was wrong with their baby at the ultrasound. She knew her husband might leave her if they had a damaged child. (he left the first wife because she couldn't have children.) Notice how she did not drink wine until that night. And then lied about doing so.

Doesn't explain why her husband wouldn't let her see a doctor, though. Ah well...

[–] pbento68 8 years ago

Because he was in on the plan.

[–] VivienCastro 8 years ago

Same here. The dinner scene kind of suggests that she is brainwashed and forced by an abusive older husband into having a kid she maybe doesn't want (which is why she drinks and makes those comments), but then we also get enough input to see her as someone who absolutely does want a kid, lives for one. She goes from weak abuse victim portrait to very much competent psychopath one.

And like I said in my other thread, he is confusing too. From a guy who seems to just want a woman to procreate with him to a guy who is fine raising other people's kid with a wife who probably won't have kids of her own.