Writer: Anne Meredith – Director: Kevin Bacon
Actors: Helen Mirren, Beau Bridges, Kira Sedgewick, Michael Yarmush, Lucas Denton, et al.
I think Chase is androgynous and to an extent I agree that she is seeking some kind of balance and that's what the movie is about to me, lives out of balance that create all these emotional storms and a marriage out of balance. It is a very complicated subject truthfully and we are really left blowing in the wind with the ending to this film. Is she or isn't she, does she or doesn't she. I guess it is really for the individual to decide for themselves which way it should go. I think that she needs to be alone for her own mental, emotional and spiritual growth and is why they portrayed her alone in the end, she is an only child, right? It is pointed out in the hammock scene that she was different from the other girls, wanted to be like them, married Richard because she thought she should even though she did love him but may not have been in love with him. In the words of Carl G. Jung, "projections have fallen away" and she can now see Richard for who he is and he is no longer what she wants or needs. During their argument just before Elizabeth breaks the window, Richard insults his wife and then accuses her of being bored but is oblivious to what he is saying. I think she is ready to "fall in love", but Richard isn't the right man and she creates all this fuss and disharmony with Richard that is reflected in her relationship with her son little Richard, this she tells us from the beginning and Elizabeth makes the point just before the "kiss" scene. She "falls in love" with Elizabeth but Elizabeth is really a reflection of Chase's own self, a narcissistic projection that Elizabeth needs to identify with, again Chase tells us this in the hammock when Elizabeth questions Chase, "have you ever - did you ever think about-", Chase tells her that she is too vain to take her own life. This helps balance Elizabeth's dark side or her potential tendencies. In the bedroom scene when Chase is closing the window she is about to tell Elizabeth again that she is sorry, she is trying to have an intimate moment with Elizabeth that is mistaken by her son little Richard for a sexual one and then by her husband and again the lack of intimacy is reflected in her relationship with Richard and little Richard. Elizabeth who has had little intimacy with her sick mother is afraid of it and feels like she is going crazy, after the kiss. And in the end you hear Chase saying that her life had capsized and was righting itself again.
Very well acted, great cinematography, another thought provoking film.
One of Mirren's PS films Prime Suspect 2 leaves one hanging in the end also. I hate that!
