MovieChat Forums > Heavenly Creatures (1994) Discussion > Honora was not portrayed as sympathetic ...

Honora was not portrayed as sympathetic until the end! spoilers

posted 17 years ago by fiatlux-1
35 replies | jump to latest

I disliked Pauline's mother's character, Honora, thoroughly until well, you know.

She started out as a nice mother, but once her daughter dared to do what ALL teenagers do....rebel...she flips out!!! I am referring to the scene where Pauline's dad catches her in bed with the boarder.
She acts like she caught Pauline tormenting kittens or lighting fires!!! Honora became a horrid wretch in just one scene. Not to mention a little of a hypocrite.

NOTHING justifies murder, I don't want anyone getting me wrong!! But she just should have let Pauline go live with the Hulmes. The two of them were making each other miserable to begin with.

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Smile just to....smile.

[–] MusicLovePoetry 11 years ago

She is grossly homophobic

[–] LilRed_RoRo 11 years ago

She is grossly homophobic

She is, but you have to remember that was the culture she was living in. They genuinely used to believe homosexuality was a disease. Obviously it's wrong but I don't think it's fair to blame Honora for being homophobic because how was she supposed to know any better?

[–] king_of_bob 9 years ago

Her attitudes were perfectly in keeping with the period this movie is set in. Homosexuality was a mental disorder at the time. Your problem is with the period, not the character.

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[–] Redrum237 10 years ago

Well Honora basically saw the two girls' friendship as unhealthy.

As it turned out she was very much accurate about that.

Although she and her husband were too harsh on Pauline for being in bed with that guy, because they didn't even ask her for her side of the story, they just screamed at her right off the back. If she'd explained what had really happened, they might've realised that the boy was the instigator and she was sort of just going along with it.

That being said while her parents weren't perfect and may have been a bit over strict at times, Pauline was an absolute nutcase and the two girls' friendship was absolutely toxic. They were right for trying to keep the two of them seperate. If they hadn't killed Honora they probably would've ended up killing somebody else. Anybody who gets in the way of their beautiful miraculous fantasy daydream world was on the chopping block as far as they're concerned. Who knows who else they could've potentially killed.

[–] tgrrrsss 10 years ago

There was no such thing as Homophobic back in the early 1950's - by that I mean that in UK homosexuality was still a crime and would give you a criminal record, not actually sure in NZ but in attitude it would have been looked down on similarly.

Remember the past is a different country, they do things differently there.

[–] king_of_bob 9 years ago

Although she and her husband were too harsh on Pauline for being in bed with that guy, because they didn't even ask her for her side of the story, they just screamed at her right off the back. If she'd explained what had really happened, they might've realised that the boy was the instigator and she was sort of just going along with it.

This right here is exactly the problem with most of the posters on this thread. You expect people to react to situations like they're living now. The problem is, views of sexuality and mental health have changed significantly from the 1950s.

You can't judge their actions by today's standards because they didn't have the same understanding of sexual abuse\molestation that we do now.

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[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] king_of_bob 9 years ago

You're lacking historical perspective. Keep in mind that this is the early 1950s. Ideas were different at the time. For example, her reaction when John was found in Pauline's bed or the psychologists reaction to Pauline being homosexual.

It was a different time and attitudes towards sex and sexuality were VERY different.

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Honora was not portrayed as sympathetic until the end! *spoilers*

Honora was not portrayed as sympathetic until the end! spoilers