Beth was a jerk.

I will rebut your comments. You seem to be identifying and over empathizing with Beth. As a result you are projecting negative intentions on Beth's part where there are none. The only thing Beth is guilty of is being naive and silly in a small town way. Ditto her husband Slade.

Everyone in this town believed Mavis to be a successful author. In that case, why would sending a baby announcement torment her? To them, she was living the high life. They even thought she was still married. It's pretty accurate to say that a lot of people go batschit over the birth of their first child. So to attempt to read into the sending of the announcement a deviousness is a curious stretch.

Mavis left Mercury because it was a small town. The people there were plain folk and Mavis held them in contempt. Even her own parents who seemed perfectly fine. But this was not a story about them. It was a story of a fading beauty trying to resurrect the power of her physical beauty by stealing an old boyfriend from his wife. Slade represented a time where she was 'at her best. '. At least that's what Mavis thought. What she really meant was when she was young, beautiful, powerful and could be contemptuous with impugnity.

The most significant moment came when she was told that you she was not at her best even then. All she did was look in her locker mirror and was really too vain to see the world around her.

So no. Beth wasn't the jerk. Mavis was.

I happen to agree with you, whole heartedly. None of what Beth does in this movie is out of kindness.

That's a hard one, it doesn't add up...

On the one hand, I thought that Beth was supposed to be extremely kind hearted as someone working with Special Needs children recognized Mavin was simply ill, and wanted to help her. I think the scene where they were talking about emotions or lack there of was very telling, and the expression on Beth's face during the wine stain scene,

On the other hand, Beth WAS the one that sent her the e-mail, Mavin tells her friend about it, saying something like "Why would the wife of your ex that you don't talk to send you this when it should be for your inner circle?"

Well, thank you for that @peterw5. I really enjoyed reading your comments. When I first saw the "Beth was a jerk" line, I wondered how that could be. After reading your thoughts, I'm going to go ahead and agree with you.

Emailing the announcement was a total diss. Typical girl move. Been there, done that. Although, I can't help but wonder if Buddy had told his wife of the kiss, maybe Mavis would have been banned from all invites and further communication.

I'm happy "Hate Crime Guy" got to spend the night with the sloopy, crying "cool girl". Haha! Been there, done that!

Peterw5,

I think you offer up a very interesting perspective, but I don't buy it.

Mavis's alcoholism was evident only to Matt for most of the film. Buddy doesn't even think to bring up the miscarriage during any of his conversations with Mavis even though his newborn is in the front of his mind - this makes sense because the miscarriage happened 20 years ago, and both of them have since married and moved on - or so Buddy and any sane person would have thought. Yes, any sane person, because Mavis is clearly messed up in this movie.

Yes, Mavis didn't make a lot of friends with anyone who wasn't in the "in crowd" but Beth didn't seem to have had any vindictive feelings towards Mavis, only Beth's friends. If Beth sent that picture to Mavis out of spite, then you are also implying that Beth married Buddy out of spite as well, which is going a little far and implying that Beth has a bit of psychosis going on as well. That may well be, but we just don't see enough of Beth's mental perspective to say for sure. It is nothing but conjecture by the end of the movie, and it is safe to assume that Beth sent that email to a very large list of people, and that Beth knew nothing about the miscarriage.

Matt and his sister Sandra clearly looked up to Mavis, and I'm sure Buddy would have had a better opinion of her too if she hadn't gone bat **** crazy during her little "real estate venture".

My guess is that Mavis was going through some tough times with her divorce and the cancellation of her series (perhaps the two happened pretty close together) and she probably had a prolonged nervous breakdown. She probably wanted to relive her "glory years" as the prom queen and etc, and she is also used to living in a fictitious world (the books she wrote), and she clearly demonstrates various aspects of an OCD personality (the hair pulling and the binge drinking), so perhaps something snapped somewhere in between and now we have a nice story to tell.

Regardless, your point of view was in the back of my mind too, and I think Mavis does have a point to wonder how she got that email in the first place. Who knows - maybe Beth looked up to Mavis too as the beauty queen who got out of Mercury, an opinion I'm certain she changed after witnessing Mavis for the first time again in Mercury. In the end, I don't think your point is anything more than a devil's advocate argument, interesting to entertain nonetheless, cheers.

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You have a good point. This movie is in the perspective of someone who has a mental illness (on top of a personality disorder) and there are other ways to connect - IE THE TELEPHONE - rather than sending baby shower announcement without saying - hey it is Beth. She let her think it was Buddy.
xxoo I loved the movie - very profound.

High school was some 15 years ago. Outside of Hollywood clichés, nobody gives a crap that the homecoming queen is now a divorced drunk. This may be a movie, but it's not THAT kind of movie--Beth and the town are living in reality, where people grow up and move on. Mavis and Beth weren't high school rivals, and nobody even seems aware that Mavis is divorced.

Mavis is over the top and focused on the old scene. We know it's the alcoholism and the refusal to let go of the past, and Matt sees her for what she is. To everyone else, though, that's easily mistaken for a big city success story visiting home, being a little out of touch, and waxing nostalgic.

A big point made by another commenter, and worth repeating: no new mother is going to invite someone to her child's even hoping that they'll embarrass themselves by ruining it. People 'forget' invitations to certain relatives to prevent them from spoiling new baby events. That accusation is a stretch.

I think the explanation is much simpler: Mavis's mom has at least bumped into Buddy and Beth since they had the baby. If the introduction didn't set Beth to thinking that they should reach out to Mavis, since she and Buddy had been so close, I can see Mavis's mother suggesting it, because who doesn't love to hear about babies? (Right.)