I don't understand the scene at all. Ray and Molly were ignoring each other when they left Coney Island, and Molly's story about visiting it when she was younger made no sense, about people becoming deformed. Was she just illustrating to Ray how scared she was? Can someone explain it to me?
shareMolly's parents died in a plane crash. She told Ray that her Dad used to take her to the teacups when he was alive and how happy that made her but on the day she found out he died, she ran awy to Coney Island. Once there, out of anger and pain, she got on the teacup ride and used the turn-disc to spin and spin and spin until her arms couldn't spin any more and she staggered off and threw up. She told Ray that after that, she felt less angry or something like that.
Ray repeats what Molly did after her Dad dies. She was angry with Molly cuz Molly had encouraged Ray to speak to her Comatose father. She told Ray it might help. Ray does this and then oops, her dad croaks. So Ray runs away to Coney island and sits in the teacups. I think she was waiting for Molly to come find her because she wasn't spinning by herself. When Molly shows up, they look at eachother and nod and then start spinning as hard as they can, re-enacting Molly's own loss of her father. Ray gets off, vomits like Molly did but then lashes out at Molly for telling her to talk to her dad and maybe things would get better. She starts punching her until she runs out of energy and then they embrace and cry. it's a cathartic moment for them both.
Molly has finally taught Ray to feel and Ray has taught Molly that you can't expect everyone else to take care of you when you are an adult. They have swapped roles. The movie started with Molly being childish and Ray being far too adult.
Oh, it make sense now! Thank you for the thorough explanation. I guess I didn't see the symbolism there. I knew the movie's point was to show how they taught each other to act their ages, but that other stuff totally went over my head. I really appreciate you clearing that up for me!
sharePrincessAurora129 - you are totally welcome. Thanks for letting me know my explanation was of use to you.
This film is still running frequently on Pay Cable since EPIX has sucked the life out of HBO, Cinamez, Starz, Showtime, The Movie Channel, FLix and Encore. It's causing the other Pay channels to dig deep and go back 10 to 15 years for "fresh" material.
I kinda dismissed this film the first time I saw it as a "Chick flick" but now that I'm older and have known a few people like the characters in the film, I took the time to watch it again and this time with my wife. She was able to explain some of the "lay of the land" to me since I'm not a NYCer. It's interesting to see that Dakota Fanning has grown into a fine young actress. If this had been a serious drama, and not a comedy, she might have gotten more notice for her performance in the film. She was so young and yet she did such a great job of playing a kid forced to be the adult in a dysfunctional family while her Mom is out partying like 20 year old.
I hope you get to watch it again.