Why did she do that? The dad told her to stop, he said "enough" multiple times and yet SJP's character keeps talking about having "normal children". Why the hell would you say that if people obviously don't want you to say that kind of stuff?
~Franky R.
It would be great if she told the mother to take her unsufferable self righteous political correctness and stuff it. Like what mom would want all her boys queer? Why not wish to give birth to future Khmer Rouge fighters that will murder her in her sleep too?
shareI agree with you but if you want to be accepted in the family its best to shut up when the dad asks you multiple times...
~Franky R.
True. But they seemed like the kind of lines they would write especially for Diane Keaton cause she is the classic insufferable Hollywood liberal.
shareYou seem to be really hating her lol.
~Franky R.
No I like Diane Keaton, especially from all her Woody Allen movie days and the Godfather. She is a good actress, not great. But she is the quintessential Hollywood leftist, that is more of a fact than an opinion. It doesn't mean she is evil or I hate her.
I think that Sarah character was misunderstood there. I'm all for people equality but she just wanted to say that it's hard for gay people to live in a world where they are still not welcome enough so that's why she was confused with what the mother said. The "normal" part was over the top though.
shareMeredith was the most complex role because she was the straight, uptight person. She made the movie. The other roles were more like "goofy dysfunctional family types".
shareYeah I agree, I thought it was pretty cool to see those differences. I wonder if anyone as uptight as SJP's character would try to change a bit after seeing this movie.
~Franky R.
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The world CAN be cruel for gays but it has becme much more accepted in society and that is no excuse. Any smart person would know that talking to get yourself out of a hole usually backfires.
shareTrue, but it doesn't stop some of us from trying.
"Shame on you for making me use my rape-whistle in a non-rape situation!"
I don't think she was uptight, just different from them and socially awkward (I think mostly, because of how they treated her)
sharethey sort of spoke in a staccato, half finishing their sentences.. Keaton was a cold hearted bitch
Everyday I learn something new!
Yeah, I think with the word 'normal', she just put her foot in her mouth because she was nervous, on the spot, and therefore couldn't find a more appropriate word. She meant well, but it was coming out all wrong.
This scene reminded me of one in the movie 'The Opposite of Sex', where the Lisa Kudrow character is talking about her parents' reaction to her brother being gay. She said "Mom (i think) said 'It's such a lonely life'....'she said that to the single 30 year old woman'", figuring that it might be hard for a gay man to find his own Mr. Right.... but it's hard for many people (me...34, still very single) to find love...
Meredith surely meant that life is hard enough, but when you're having feelings towards people of your own sex and you don't know how your loved ones are going to react to it, it's difficult no matter what age you are. Not all people are blessed to have a family with such liberal views as this family had...Sure, this mother would have welcomed more gay sons, but Meredith was thinking more globally, like, not all families are so okay with having homosexuals in their family and of course the world is not as welcoming as this family is.
I worked with a woman once who said that she hoped one of her sons would be gay, and I thought that was really weird. I mean, it's great to be accepting that your son might turn out to be gay, it's quite another to hope for it...because they will likely face discrimination and not all people handle it the same way. Some are okay with their own homosexuality and others are too afraid to let the world see their true selves no matter how much support they might get if they just spoke the truth. A person may not even know that their parents would be accepting of it because it just doesn't come up often.
Hey! I just have to say I am finally (after almost 10 years) getting around to watching this film, and while I LOVE it. The dinner scene made me incredibly angry for the very reasons you've mentioned. I COMPLETELY understood where Meredith was coming from. No parents WISHES any sort of challenge on their child. It is not Merediths fault that Cebil (I think that was the characters name) was so sensitive about the subject. I just think it was completely ridiculous.
shareWhy not wish to give birth to future Khmer Rouge fighters that will murder her in her sleep too?BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I can't image a worse or more bigoted analogy-lets see -sons are gay vs Khmer Rouge fighters killing mom in her sleep.
I'm not a particular fan of this movie-I found the family rude and obnoxious but it seems to me that you'd fit right in based on your obnoxious comment.
Cheers
When the father started to get angry, Meredith thought she could stop the increasing tension by giving a better argument but she failed. She was awkward but not insulting. I've never seen people getting so upset with guests as the Stones were during this dinner, unless they've decided to deliberately harrass one of their guests. I guess the Stones could have expressed their opinion without screaming and saying over the top statements like "I wish all my children were gay".
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The higher you fly, the faster you fall.
I don't understand why she didn't understand that it was a joke. The mom wasn't serious, she was making light of a situation that was already beginning to get tense. I am watching it right now and that part just ended. I would have slapped her if she started talking like that at my table. How unintelligent does one have to be to know that holiday dinner is not the time to bring up your politics. The dad had every right to ask her to stop her babble.
shareThat's because you don't realize that humor is not universal. What's considered humor in one place might not be somewhere else.
share"How unintelligent does one have to be to know that holiday dinner is not the time to bring up your politics. The dad had every right to ask her to stop her babble"
Interesting, but no one has a prob with Julie bringing up race? LOL I think you make the point of that movie even though it wasn't intended.
I am gay and I was not offended at all by what she was saying. She didn't mean any offense, just that she found it unusual that the mom would hope for gay sons, knowing the difficulties that come with the life of gay men. She probably thought it was a little selfish of the mom to hope for that simply so that her "boys would never leave her."
I think the reason she continued talking was because she realized that her words had come out all wrong and she'd offended everyone. Naturally, she wanted to explain herself, but was so horrified by what had happened, she continued saying it all wrong.
I think that Thad milked the situation completely. He was a smug SOB if you ask me. The look of "oh, poor me, she made me sad" went away real quick when Everett snapped at Meredith. The look became a "oh, look, he's mad at her! maybe he's breaking up with her."
Considering how rude the family was to her and how supposedly open-minded and hip they all were, you'd think they would have been a little more understanding. They finally had a reason or excuse to be awful to her and they jumped on it. Kudos to Ben for being a decent human being and helping her. Meanwhile, her fiance and sister, supposedly looking for her, are giving each other googley eyes and flirting about totem poles and other boring stuff.
Thad was personally attacked for a part of who he was, albeit indirectly by Meredith's babbling.
She was nervous, wouldn't shut up and was trying to explain herself. She wasn't trying to be an idiot but it happened.
The family didn't pick up on the race thing because it wasn't dragged out, a particular race wasn't called "normal".
The mother using the "so they never leave me" argument was a joke. Clearly. And so what if that's what she wanted? There would be zero (this part relates to other posters) "political correctness" or liberal bashing BS if she said she wanted straight sons.
And saying "I'm gay" to start an argument is irrelevant.
She felt the need to make her point. I know what she was saying- she just did not get the words out correctly. So despite everyone telling her to be quiet, she still felt the need to prove she wasn't being offensive.
sharePlus I think they family deliberately did that to her. That same thing could have easily been done to Julie when she brought up race, but wasn't.
shareI think that by that point it wouldn't have mattered what she did, they weren't going to like her, period. I could totally see myself in the same situation. I knew exactly what she meant, why would any mother wish for a son's life to be so challenging? As for calling heterosexuality "normal" I can't blame her; she was so rattled by their attack it's a wonder she could think at all. I'd bet that when he was born deaf his parents said something similar.
IMO, Meridith has Aspberger's syndrome.
One of the most prevalent symptoms of this disease is a lack of empathy and the lack of ability to "read" people and social situations. People with Aspberger's are very intelligent, but they lack social skills. Meridith did not know when to stop because she could not read the situation. She thought that they did not understand what she was saying, which is why she was trying to explain. She couldn't "read" the situation and pick up on the fact that they understood perfectly, but they were offended. Her lack of ability to empathize meant that it didn't occur to her that the family or Patrick would be offended by her statement.
Someone without Aspberger's would say, "They are offended, let me shut up." or "They are laughing it off, let me shut up." Meridith says, "They are confused, let me explain it until they understand." She is looking at this in a logical way.
All of this is just my opinion.
Mmmm...I don't think so.
The journey was terrible...the trip was alright
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If I were in her shoes, I probably would have shut up. But I think she ultimately was just trying to explain what she meant better.
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