Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Audiophilander (A) on February 03, 2006 at 13:36:30

In Reply to: I guess it boils down to one of two things posted by sjb on February 3, 2006 at 12:52:04:

... you are assuming things that were never even hinted at in the film and misinterpreting other things. The love of the father for his daughter and brother for his sister has to be tempored by the manipulative nature of the matriarchal head of this household. Given the subtext of Woody's take on the stiff-upper lip British culture this film could almost be viewed as the study of a dysfunctional upper class family which is held together by pride and generations of inherited wealth.

Taken another way, Match Point could be Woody's answer to LoTR! ;^D

>>> "Now forgetting for the moment that we've already established how ridiculous it is to think that Rhys was let into the family to continue their dynasty, he never once deomonstrated on screen that he genuinely cared about or was committed to the daughter. He didn't even fully demonstrate that he was conmitted to his new lifestyle until he started killing people which was a couple or few years after they let him in." <<<

I disagree, Rhy's character did establish his interest in the daughter and effectively portrayed himself as an underdog in need of saving which perfectly played to the daughter's character. She became strongly infatuated with him, albeit much more so than he with her; to him, she was an openning to a world he'd only dreamed about.

He intentionally went about impressing the family with his polite restrained demeanor and serious effort to better himself. The father obviously saw something admirable in Rhy's ambitions and as the daughter was infatuated with him it seemed reasonable to give the boy his chance once he had established himself in the good graces of everyone else in the family, especially the mother.

>>> "I just can't make the leap and think that the brother and father, who both demonstrated a warmth and a genuine love for their sister/daughter would callously overlook her happiness for the sake of trying to establish some low life social climbing philanderer as belonging in high society in order to further the "dynasty."" <<<

They never saw Rhy's character as a "low life social climbing philanderer," but they were concerned about her taking up with someone unsuccessful and the cost of that to both their daughter's happiness and the family pride, so the father openned doors for the boy that he'd never have been able to accomplish by himself.

>>> "Also, the daughter was not at all unattractive." <<<

In comparison with Scralett she was average, not totally unattractive, but not beautiful. That's the way the characters were played in the context of the film and it worked perfectly, IMHO.

AuPh