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In Reply to: Re: Despicable? Daniels' character? I didn't find him so at all. Please posted by PhilJ on April 10, 2006 at 14:33:15:
".......but I remember him hitting the tennis balls at his wife and trying to turn the kids against her. Also I thought he was judgemental, petty and shallow. Remember the philostine (sp) scene with his son?"....... I just watched this movie and while I agree with the tennis ball bit, I never got the impression he was trying to turn the kids against her. Daniels' character (Bernard) was hardly shallow, but he was certainly judgemental and an intellectual snob. Of course, the wife had a few faults of her own, namely her inability to be faithful to her husband. In fact, by the end of the movie I had lost track of how many affairs she'd had over the course of their marriage - at least three, I think. Both of the parents (actually the kids too, although they didn't recognize it) were terribly lonely and longed for some type of emotional connection. Although the youngest boy's actions were the most dramatic (and disturbing) each of the four was acting out.
Follow Ups:
He treats his opinions on art as though they are facts, not opinions. He is contemptuous of people who hold other opinions. He is pompous. He is sarcastic and basically mean. He is self-centered and ultimately completely selfish. There is nothing admirable about him, except that at some level, he loves his sons. But since his actions harm them, what good is his ineffectual feeling of love.
..... although I do agree with most of what you wrote. If you take away his 2 sons and his (ex) wife, he's got nothing. Sure he's an arrogant, selfish prick but w/o those 3 people, all his saracasm and snobbery hurts no one but himself. Even though he fancies himself as an intellectual, he is unable to recognize that brain power is not all that important when it comes to connecting with people, and ultimately being happy. One thing I really liked about the film is that it doesn't make it clear that he does (or doesn't) come to grips with this fact by the film's end. I think the eldest son does, but Bernard? I don't know. Certainly Bernard is not an admirable man, and its very likely that he inflicted some psycholigical wounds on his sons, but I think that the kids' mother contributed a few as well.
In fact, perhaps he deserves more sympathy as a flawed human being, still I felt his behavior made him a pretty corrupt and generally lousy person. Perhaps "despicable" is too strong; the word I used in my mini-review was "reprehensible."I would have to say however that he is hurting more than just himself. You can see in his older son that, by emulating his father's attitudes and behavior, he is quite possibly headed in a bad direction himself. In fact, this is part of the point of the movie, the reflection of the parents in the children.
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