it seemed like it hinted at them being together but still very vague. the garderner definitely looked gay. anybody else get this impression?
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ummm. hahaha. ok i'll admit i'm stereotyping... the gardener was a butch woman (ties, slicked back hair, etc). i felt that the film hinted at her being gay, and i was wondering if the mother was involved with the woman. jc.
shareTwo seconds after seeing the scene when he goes home and the neighbor pops out from behind the bushes.... I so asked the same thing. I had to come here to see if any one else thought the same thing. Apparently so. I don't recall them ever talking about his father and this neighbor lady is always hanging out in his Mom's bush... LOL.
shareJust another film prop to add texture but I noticed that Peggy wears a mens suit and tie to Janes funeral too. That was very bold thing for an older woman to do.
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The relationship was never clearly established. When Joe is staying with them almost at the end of the film; there is a part, where his mum is giving him a brief tour of the bedrooms. She says something like this my room, which I uaed to share with Peggy and now she has her own. It is left open to interpretation.
James Bond: Why is it that people who can't take advice always insist on giving it?
the mom did point out her room at the end but she never mentioned peggy. so does anybody agree that atleast peggy is a lesbian?
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i must have missed that line. but i still say she is gay. i mean there must be a reason she looks like that.
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why would any film need to explain why they made a character gay? thats like saying you need an explanation for why a character is black.
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scheele-2, you missed my point. i was replying to "Though I wonder why they would write her as a lesbian and then not really factor it into any story lines." im saying that sexual orientation and race can both be irrelevant when displayed in a character. different races and orientations are everywhere; they dont need to be factored into the story line.
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OK, but then is she really his aunt? I say that especially since it's the '70's, and a lot of gay or lesbian couples weren't quite as open back then. Having a nosy neighbor wouldn't help the situation either. Also, we've all heard of kids referring to their mom's boyfriend as "uncle" (insert name).
At the end they weren't sleeping in the same bedroom, but their rooms were right next to each other, and the mother says something like having her own room (paraphrasing)"took some getting used to". That could simply mean that she had to share a bedroom most of her life leading up to that point. That's not at all uncommon, even for young adults, especially if your family can't afford a large home. My impression? Peggy was likely a lesbian, and she could be Grace's lover, but I wasn't really sure, as the movie was a little vague in regard to their relationship. As someone said elsewhere, this movie leaves a lot to the viewers interpretation, and for those who need everything tied up nicely I'm sure it might have been less enjoyable, but I found the movies gray areas refreshing.
I got the impression that she was an "aunt" only in the sense that it made the two of them living together more respectable. I definitely thought they were in a relationship.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it!
If you look at this film in its overall contexts, what's extraordinary about it is that it makes very few compromises with reality...the characters and the situations are unvarnished and not subjected to explanations of any length. Sexuality happens, and because we're used to having it made explicit, there's naturally plenty of ambiguity here. So we can ask about the "aunt", about why a young stud wears makeup, about why he beats off next to his friend. Frankly, to answer your own question, my strong impression is that the "aunt" isn't one (the sobriquet everybody gives her is an old subterfuge), and this is underscored by the kids' speculation on the beach about who's queer, and finally by the mother's fleeting reference to whose bedroom is whose when Joe has returned (As it does for heterosexuals, frequency of sex can fade, too, for homosexuals, making separate bedrooms a practical result).
"Believe not what you wish to believe, but what in truth you can"
I was under the impression that Grace Scott (Joe's mother) and Peggy Tickell were a couple. Near the end of the film when Grace was giving Joe a tour of the upstairs rooms, in addition to pointing out Peggy's room and her own, she mentioned that she was having trouble getting used to sleeping alone. I took that to mean that they shared a bed previously. I thought it was nice that the two women even 25 years later were still together.
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I never once thought it was his aunt. I spent a lot of the time trying to figure out who exactly she was, but then when they are sat together playing cards at the table I thought 'this is cosy.' It is obvious she is not hired help.
So I told myself, if she pops up at the end still in the same house with his mum, they are a couple - which is exactly what happened.
I think it was a Boston marriage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_marriage
shareI've never heard of a "Boston marriage" until now, but that perfectly describes their relationship as I see it. It appeared to be more of a practical relationship than a romantic one, though of course the romance tends to vanish over time with many couples. I didn't really get a romantic vibe from the two but found it curious that they spent so much time together. Of course, they also slept in separate rooms. Thanks for enlightening me.
shareYup me too... there just isn't any evidence to the contary, and lots of hints that thay are just friends
shareI thought it was pretty obvious they were a couple. Especially 25 years later they were still together there in the new cottage. Plus the way Joe hugged her was like he was hugging his own mom not a friend.