MovieChat Forums > Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) Discussion > What's worse?

What's worse?

posted 10 years ago by Karl Self
5 replies | jump to latest

Sleeping with your (frigid) wife's sister, or sleeping with your sister's husband.

Or, to change the sexes around, to sleep with your (impotent) husband's brother, as opposed to with your brother's wife.

I find it very odd that Ann easily forgives her sister, as if she'd only caught her scrumping a slice of pie from the fridge, whereas her husband John is depicted as a monster who finally gets his rightful comeuppance. This is especially strange since the movie tells us that Ann had always been frigid (unable to have an orgasm), so John at least had a motive to sleep around.

Cynthia's only motive seems to have been jealousy towards her own sister.

So in my book, Cynthia is the greater villain than John.

[–] albinothunderchicken 10 years ago

I, respectfully, have to disagree. Though, what the sister did is an ugly ugly thing, her sister never made a vow of faithfulness o her sister, that was John. That is actually covered in the dialogue, Cynthia states that she never made vows in front of man and God to be faithful to my sister. Ann is being betrayed by both of them, but the greater sin is very much on John's head.

[–] Karl Self 10 years ago

I just hope that I'll never hear from my siblings that they never made a vow of faithfulness to me ... I thought that was part and parcel of being family.

[–] Nobody-27 10 years ago

They are both equally despicable to me.

[–] BobbyDupea 9 years ago

I don't think the movie intends to suggest that it was easy for Ann to forgive Cynthia, or that she actually forgives Cynthia entirely. It merely suggests that Ann is a kind enough and generous enough person, and has enough love for her sister, to move on and not push Cynthia out of her life. It also suggests that Cynthia is genuinely remorseful for what she did and that Ann recognizes that remorse.

My real name is Jeff

[–] tracy-johnson-1 9 years ago

I also think there's an aspect of Ann knowing her sister well enough to know that she can't help herself with this kind of stuff. She is constantly bemused by Cynthia's overt sexuality. She also knows that her sister always wants 'her toys'. During the scene where Cynthia pounces on the mere mention of a new male aquaintence of Ann's (Graham) and decides there and then to proposition him, despite knowing NOTHING about him, it was obvious that this isn't the first time Cynthia has 'jumped on' someone through Ann. Ann is reticent to give Cynthia any encouragement or information (and gives in too easily in my opinion) but she did convey the inevitability of the situation and that it probably didn't matter if she gave Cynthia his address or introduced them, Cynthia would find a way. Just mentioning him in conversation and expressing mild interest in him as a person is enough to get her sister all riled up, however the constant attentions of the regular guy at her bar is not interesting in the slightest.

I don't really think she 'forgives' Cynthia at the end, I think she just acknowledges that she IS her sister and accepts that she can't change that or her.