just finished watching this for the first time - blown away!
quick question - does anyone have any theories on why she chose the russian woman over the nice middle aged, experienced foster carers?
made you look
In the book, at that point, she more or less just wanted to suffer. She knew how good life could be with them, and that in time she might forget Claire and what happened to her. She didn't want that kind of a life.
shareI thought it was to consciously punish her mother, because the Russian woman was someone Astrid's mother wouldn't have liked - so opposite from their family.
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I think she chose her because she knew that Rena didn't really care for her, she adopted foster kids for the money & help with her business. Astrid knew she wouldn't care for Rena either.
There was no emotional involvement.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
Astrid was still hurting from Claire's death and felt that she didn't want to deal w/ another loving family, so she decided to be in a family where that Russian chick would only treat the girls like slaves.
shareI think there's truth to all of these theories. I also think Astrid's self-esteem was destroyed by the time she got to Rena. She felt she didn't deserve anything good. If Claire didn't love her enough to not kill herself...if her mother didn't love her enough to stay out of jail...if her father didn't love her enough to stick around...then she just must be unloveable. Irrational and untrue, of course, but sometimes people feel that way deep down, unfortunately.
shareI think she perceived that Rena was tough enough to not get played and killed off by her mother.
shareGood point! I didn't think about that but it makes a lot of sense.
shareThanks! :)
shareHer mother said that couples without issues want babies.
I think she knew that the woman would have some sort of drama going on like all the other women she had experience with and the man would probably try to have sex with her too.
Rena was genuine, came as she was, nothing to hide.
Astrid didn't want a loving family, she wanted someone who was in it for the money, and she wouldn't have to have an emotional attachment.
I am right.
++++++
Love means never having to say you're ugly. - The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Maybe because she did not want to hurt anyone. Kids think it is all their fault, and in the movie, she is made to believe it is all her fault, or her mother's. She did not want to break up a nice, gentle family.
shareWow, some of these answers seem well off the mark. Either that they're basing their theories on the book (which I never read) but watching the film I can come up with a different theory based on the onscreen adaptation. She chose this woman because she knew she would let her be an adult. Astrid was on the cusp of 18 and nearly ready for independence. With Rhina and the other two girls she lived in quasi dorm setting. She got to party, drink and she was left to make her own decisions.
She didn't have a religious busy body down her throat with Christianity and she wasn't locked in a ward or with an emotionally unstable woman. She was finally free to be whoever she wanted and to experiment.
Plus Rhina taught her a few things, one of those things was to let go of the past and the other was to confront her Mother and maybe get some financial help for art college and her future. Rhina was shady but wise.
She chose her because she was done with mother figures and the heartbreak that followed when they essentially abandoned her. With the Russian foster mom, she knew it was just an arms-length, transactional, non-emotional relationship and one she could easily walk away from once she turned 18.
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