Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Countdown to DVD Release - Favorite Quotes

Quote #20



"You smell like Listerine and beer."
~Caroline
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6 comments:

soozy said...

I love this moment between them. It's the first glimpse into their relationship and establishes that what they share transcends the age difference between the two. It tells us a lot about Caroline and her maturity level. It tells us a lot about Tyler and his, too. It confirms that his little sister takes care of him on many levels even if he is the older brother. It shows their closeness.

It also tells us that she knows what he's been up to...to a point. And she's letting him know too. She's calling him out for forgetting and for drinking too much in a subtle yet mature way.

The other interesting thing is the way he interacts with the other family members in this scene. It sums up the relationships in this one moment. He is respectful of Les and polite. He is tender and loving with his Mom. Relaxed with Caroline. And then there's Charles.

This scene tells us so much and later ones confirm the family dynamic.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this movie?

June 2, 2010 at 7:37 AM
InstantKarmaGirl said...

soozy- exactly, everything you said. You don't have to guess what these relationships will be like because this totally sums it up. I love his short interaction with Les. I love the juxtaposition between the respect Tyler shows him and the disdain his has for his father.

And I love what you said about Caroline taking care of Tyler, because it's so, so true.

I'm not quite sure, but have I told anyone how much I love this movie?

June 2, 2010 at 8:15 AM
WhyIstheRumAlwaysGone said...

I agree with you, I really love how the age difference between them is constantly blurred. How they treat each other as equals, how he never talks her down or never seems to be surprised at her maturity. With this "Listerine and beer" remark, she's really telling him what his mother should have told him, but did not.
I agree about his behaviour towards Les and his father, but I think you can see that as always, he's trying to evade any displays of affection by his mother. He lets her smooth out his ruffled collar and kiss him, but barely, he just gives her minimum time. I think Tyler knows and feels her immense pain on this particular day and as her surviving son, it's probably too much for him.
I love it that it was little Caroline who called him that morning to remind him he had to go to the cemetery, as if indeed Tyler was her younger, irresponsible brother, and that it's like a little secret which they hide from their parents. Caroline won't tell on him and Tyler will never mention that he had almost forgotten to turn up.

June 2, 2010 at 9:17 AM
LTavares2011 said...

"You smell like Listerine and beer."
~Caroline

Tyler and Caroline have an interesting relationship. They are brother and sister, he is much older than her and despite of this they act like friends, like father and mother to each other, many times. They recreated their own family. When they are together, they live in their own world as if nobody else existed, except Michael. It seems he always worked as a father figure to Tyler. Michael was his strenght, his mentor, his best friend. The memories of the moments Tyler lived with his brother now he shares with Caroline, as a father with her daughter, as a friend with another friend.
Before Ally appears in Tyler`s life only Caroline (and Michael through the diary) could know all the sadness, miss and hurt that he keeps inside of him.
Rob and Emilie are great together but Rob and Ruby are the ones who really stole my heart. They built their characters and their relationship in a way so delicate and true that made me feel a will of being the mother of Tyler and Caroline just to hold them and protect them. Only to say that everything will be ok and that they can count on me too.

June 2, 2010 at 5:18 PM
jessegirl said...

You’ve all taken the words out of my mouth about this special relationship. But while Tyler and Caroline have, as the rest of you have said so well, created their own little family within the family, Tyler’s relationships with the adults is not so good.
We’ve talked at length about Tyler and Charles, the battle, the conflict. And somewhat about how Tyler constantly distances himself from his mother. And yeah, Rum, that’s exactly how I saw Tyler with his mother that day, well, most times. Which, I have to say, is, to me, one of the great sadnesses of this movie. As a mother it hurts me greatly to see this. Her pain is so close to me, her needs so unsatisfied, that even though I understand Tyler’s reluctance, I still feel they both miss so much because of it. For me, these non-touches, these near-touches, this drawing apart, physically and mentally, is so hard to watch. I think it would be harder to be in her shoes than in anyone else’s in the film, even though they all have a tough time.
It is good that she has Les, who, however, to me, as I’ve said, is this solid but totally unremarkable figure, sort of propping her up, and I see Tyler respect him for being the one his mother can count on day to day. One imagines how much strength it must take to deal with all these wounded people. And I think, when Tyler greets Les at the grave, it is, again, to get away from his Mom, and also to give a nod of respect to Les for taking her on and taking Tyler off the hook. Because I think Tyler thinks his Mom wants him to fix her and he knows he can’t, so he slips out of her grasp at every opportunity. It’s frustrating and more anguishing than I can say. Because she must feel she’s lost her other son too, or losing him, that he is slipping away. And it hurts more because she knows that he is removing himself wilfully from her. That he doesn’t want to be in her presence anymore.
Those are all the things that make me suffer through their aborted contact every time I see it.
We’ve all analyzed and sympathized with Charles’ way of dealing with his grief in his relationships. I truly think that if more attention had been given to Diane we would have to be made aware of another dimension and that it was too much for Will to handle. I’ve said it before: I see this as the one flaw in the story.

June 2, 2010 at 10:23 PM
jessegirl said...

Oh yeah, Kat, I knew it wouldn't take you long to make use of the new stills. :))

June 2, 2010 at 10:36 PM

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