I don't understand why Emma acted so cold toward dean after they were rescued? She seemed as though she really cared for him? Also I'm assuming in the scene where she tries to call him that he doesn't recognize the number? It just seems like the movie went from one extreme to another regarding their feelings
shareI think it was because when they were on the island,and it was just the two of them,they didn't have to worry about their peers and what everyone else was going to say about them being together,back at school,in real life,that situation was there again-the perfect girl and the rebel loner boy shouldn't be together. It wasn't until the end of the movie that Emma's best friend realized that Emma actually was in love with Dean,and encouraged her to go be with him. Hope that made sense!! :-)
shareYeah thats what I was thinking also considering all the grief she got from her friend just for looking at him during the lunch scene. Peer pressure is such a wonderful thing...lol
I thought he might have been avoiding her call at first because who could really blame him after all the time she spent gnoring him. I guess it's just the actors facial expression that made me think he possibly just didn't know the number.
Oh he was avoiding her call alright, ummm I am sure he had caller ID,lol (who doesn't)!! I think at that point he was just so hurt by all her rejection and avoidance and probably felt it was a pity call because she saw him get busted at school that day...
That was the last thing he wanted, or to deal with, so he just didn't answer. He was saying,'too late, don't need your pity... I think I am done.'
Then the night of the prom when his dad offered up his tux to use, Dean had second thoughts because since he DIDN'T answer.... he wondered if she was coming around and he loved her enough to risk rejection one more time....
Bad writing, plain and simple. As for him not answering the phone, he did it on purpose, not because he didn't know her number. Though he really wouldn't know her number. But I just think he didn't know what to say to her or didn't want to talk to her at the moment.
shareAnd here's one thing I just thought of....don't you think her friends would think that after 3 months together that Emma and Dean might have fallen in love,or bonded in some way?? They never gave any indication of that. I know if I had a friend who went through that,I would expect her to return being attached to the other person,and I'd be ok with it. It was almost like her friends still saw Dean as the bad boy....
shareYeah I fully expected a slumber party scene or something where they're teasing her about it, like, "So Emma did you and Lonely-boy have sex while you were on the island?"
Love and Peace. Love and Peace! LOVE AND PEACE! -Vash the Stampede
Emma caved to peer pressure in not associating with Dean once they got back. But eventually she realizes she's not the same girl she was before the island, and she tries to call him. I took him ignoring her call to mean he didn't want to have a secret relationship or one on her social terms.
shareYou would think that the bond they developed on the island would have been hard for her to ignore. I wish the movie would have focused a little more on them trying to fit back into society...i think it would have helped to see her struggle with trying to settle back into her old routine while figuring out what to do with her relationship with dean.
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And the thing that gets me,is how clueless her friends were. I mean,if that happened to a friend of mine,I would expect her to come back from the island having formed an attachment or bond to the guy,or at the very least some sort of friendship,and I would think it very odd if she were to just start ignoring him like nothing ever happened!!
shareI love how everyone here seems to agree with me. I was disappointed with the way they wrote the post rescue portion. Sure you want some problem to overcome. That makes it good when they end up together in the end. But poor writing left us guessing as to what her problem was.
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OK, it's been bugging me so I reviewed that part again and here are some of my observations: We see three different sets of clothing, and a fourth when she calls him, indicating three different days in school when they saw each other. So we have at least that much time gone by before prom. Each time she sees him, you can see in her look that she misses him. Each time, and at the party as well, she is surrounded by friends who are demanding her attention. He motions for her to leave them and come with him at the party, but she feels obligated to stay with them. This is perfectly understandable given she's been away over three months. At the party, and each time he sees her in school, he does not walk over to her as he could have. I think I was too hard on her at first, but the more I look at it, besides pulling away from his attempted kiss at her window, she never actually refuses him. In fact, she even tried to call him, which we never saw him do. It's like he gave up after he left her window. He must have felt she had no need for him any more. But he should have tried a bit more. I mean, was he expecting her to leave her friends and approach him? He was the one always alone and wouldn't have had to leave his friends. All he had to do was walk up to her and say something. He was wrong not to answer her phone call. She didn't deserve that. I think she really wanted him to come after her so she would know he really wanted her and it wasn't just an island fling. It seems she even declined a date to prom, hoping to go with him. I'm speculating from the partial conversation we hear with her friends at school, "I told him I'd think about it". So now I'm a bit more understanding, but still think they could have done a better job writing it to show why they were kept apart. I think Milajo's idea would have worked. Or they could have left it similar but given us more dialogue to help explain. Either one could have had doubts about the relationship after returning to reality, but they did a poor job explaining any of this.
shareI just noticed this and had to add it. I hadn't noticed at first, but when Dean is sitting on steps at school, longing for Emma, and pulls out his knife, look closely at the blade. There is dried blood on it from when he killed the panther. He has not cleaned it off, and it seems at that point all he has left, like he is keeping it as if trying to cling onto his seemingly lost love. Maybe he's thinking something like, all I did for her and now she doesn't need me.
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Bottom line is, they could have done a better job making the end part. Be it writing, editing, whatever, I don't accept the excuse of TV movie length limit. This movie has been in the works since 2004, but when it got a green light for production, they had to cast it, shoot it, and edit it in a period of only about four months. I think they may have been a bit under pressure toward the end so they could air it as scheduled.
The fact that so many of us viewers (I'm excluding trolls here) felt after watching the first time that Emma was acting like a bitch, or that it made no sense why they were apart, means the movie makers failed.
There were plenty of ways they could have explained the split, but they did not. Had they done a better job, we would not have been upset with Emma's character, but would have understood and felt her pain. They could have shown an argument with her parents where they pressure her to stay away from Dean and concentrate on her studies, for example. Remember, they had a lot of studies to make up for and her future college acceptance could have easily been jeopardized.
They could have shown her talking with someone (sister, friend, Mom) and sharing her doubts about the relationship. Was it really love or just a fling? Maybe he's a bad influence on her. Maybe she fears they aren't a good match in the real world. Maybe she feels pressure to catch up on studies. Maybe she needs time to catch up with friends. So many potential sources of conflict to explore, but no, she just pulls away with a lame hint of possible parental interference. Then we get nothing more except facial expressions, and we are supposed to understand why they aren't together?
Keep watching it and I think most will agree Emma was not as bad as we first thought. The fact we saw her so negatively indicates a failure by the movie makers. I'd love to work with them to help fix the last ten minutes so viewers can feel for both characters and understand the conflict.
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I'm not saying there had to be doubts, just that it would be understandable. And you want some type of conflict to overcome to make it that much better when they end up happy together, so doubts would be a reasonable source. Here's some ideas for why she COULD HAVE had doubts:
In real world, he may have never gone for her because they were so different.
He only fell for her after being stuck with her, it could have been any girl on that island he fell for.
He feels obligated to stay with her.
He will want to leave her when he finds someone else more like him.
They will have to break up eventually when she goes to college.
Her parents won't approve.
These are just a few possibilities the writers could have used. They certainly wouldn't need them all, and there are other options they could think of.
As for him, if I were in his shoes, I might feel like I would have never had a chance with her without that island. Thus, did she really want me, or was I just the only option available? Might she leave me at some point when she finds someone else who is more academic or otherwise suited to her tastes? Will we enjoy doing the same things together or will we want different things that may drive us apart? Will she think I'm not ambitious enough for her? Again, these are some possibilities for Dean's character.
Whether it be their own doubts, his, hers, or both, or some other conflict, parents etc. They definitely needed some kind of explanation as to why they were apart, other than just letting us think she was a snob.
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Oh no, I didn't mean to imply they wouldn't have been attracted to each other. They were clearly attracted to each other before they ever left the school. I just mean maybe they wouldn't have got together and stayed together as a couple because they may not be a good match. I mean, back in my single days, I can think of plenty of women I was attracted to, but would not want to be with. But put me on an island alone with one, and we'd be forced to at least get along, and who knows where it could lead from there. And I wasn't saying they had to have doubts, just that something needed to explain the split, and there could be plenty of reasons for doubts. It seems to me Emma must have had some kind of doubts to be so unreceptive after being so close so long. What are your thoughts? From a woman's point of view, why do you think Emma was so aloof? Clearly she wanted to be with him. What do you think held her back? I think it had to be something more than just worrying about her friends' opinions.
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Yeah she was a whore wanting his man meat when he was the only one around. But in reality once the slut had access to a higher class of men she wanted nothing to do with the criminal and druggy.
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Honestly,I think there were several factors for her behavior,the first one being,will this really work out in real life-will we fit into each others worlds? Also,it was so obvious that Emma somewhat caved into peer pressure once she returned from the island-you could tell that she was afraid her friend weren't going to approve of her relation ship with Dean.As I have commented many times before,that did not make any sense at all.If I had a friend go through what Emma went through,I would expect her to return from the island in love with the guy,or at the very least having formed a friendship,and I would think it very odd of she were to completely start ignoring him. Did the writers want us to think that Emma's friends were oblivious idiots-because that's how they were coming across.Also,we have to remember,that even though Dean was a complete sweetheart and took care of Emma while they were on the island,maybe part of her was afraid that once home,he would revert to his bad boy ways,and needed reassurance that he actually had changed. Lastly,regarding the welcome home party sequence where Dean motions for Emma to go off with him-in my opinion,they both handled that wrong. Dean was wrong for wanting Emma all to himself at that time,especially knowing she hadn't seen her family and friends for over three months,but the way Emma sort of blew him off wasn't right,either.She could have possibly gone talked to him for a minute,to make plans for some alone time later,or even invited him over to join her with her friends.
shareI couldn't agree with you more!! The last part of the movie would have been so good if we could have only seen Emma deal with conflicting emotions. It just seems like she could careless then all of a sudden she decides to give him a call? She should have been the one to make the grand gesture to him at the end. They don't even really touch on the fact that she had been ignong him for who knows how long or that she's even sorry. I loved the movie up until the end which I'm glad they got together but I just wish it would have been written better.
shareHmmm so maybe I am missing something, but I'm gathering that the general consensus here is: the writers should have written the ending in a more clear and detailed way?? LOL! Yeah, like everyone else on here I completely agree. There was a mutual curiosity, I won't say attraction, from the very beginning. She quietly watched him and he got a little jealous when he thought she was going after the other guy on the boat. (Plus the fact that he jumped off to save her.) Once on the island they learned to respect each other, like each other and eventually love each other on top of it all, which is partly because of emotions and partly because of loneliness and the lack of anyone else to rely on. Again I agree that Emma's actions at the end needed to be further explained. Was she ignoring him because of peer pressure or because she was afraid he only saw her as a booty call now that they weren't alone anymore? Or maybe she was confused on how SHE felt about him now that reality was back to normal and they had other people to talk to besides each other. Maybe she was afraid she would hurt HIM and that's why she stayed away. Any way you slice it, there needed to be more explanation. Even one line between her and him explaining why she reacted that way would have sufficed. But she can't go from loving him and respecting him to ignoring him to deciding she wants to be with him all in under 10 minutes without so much as a reason "why."
"I wouldn't use the word beautiful. Not with you standing here in comparison."
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Very well stated, and I am in complete agreement. There were plenty of possible reasons they could have easily given us to explain the split. I still don't understand why they were so vague.
shareI hated the ending from the airport on it just seems so strange and wrong. They get pulled away from each other at the airport. I get that. He shows up at her house missing her and then she blows him off?
No "You can't come in cause my parents are checking on me like crazy but here's my number. Call me when you get home. Or message me online. Or email me."
They didn't just have sex on the island they talked A LOT about everything under the sun including some very serious topics. They were each other confidants in a lot of ways. Yes they should be missing each other physically but you're telling me they didn't want to talk to each other about how weird it is being back?
It could have shown them talking on the phone or making plans to meet somewhere. Driving up to look out point it his truck where they talk about what they're going to tell their friends, family, the news about their relationship on the island.
Meeting at a Chinese/Mexican/Thai restaurant cause it's something they missed while on the island and now they want to share that together. We could have seen them keeping their relationship a secret at first as they see if they still have the connection they made on the island or not keeping it a secret.
Making out in his truck at look out point, getting caught making out by the cops, their getting caught making out making the news which is how their family and friends find out.
Emma's friends badgering her for details on what sex with Dean is like?
Dean getting ribbed at school and getting mad and in a fight as other guys, like the quarterback, crudely joke about what they'd like to do to Emma on a deserted island.
Their parent's reaction to their relationship? Are they supportive and understanding of the bond they formed on the island? Are they overprotective and try to keep them apart before ultimately coming to the conclusion that they're adults or nearly are and they should let them live their lives? Bit of both? One of each?
Do they go to Princeton together?
What about that pregnancy angle?
Literally dozens of different ways to do the ending and instead the writers went back to the status quo before the island of them staring at each other longingly, making some tentative gestures, ending with the clichéd school dance/dancing in the rain.
*facepalm*
Love and Peace. Love and Peace! LOVE AND PEACE! -Vash the Stampede
The ending was so rushed. I like these suggestions! But with the limitations of a TV movie I guess they couldn't do much else with so little time.
On the topic itself, I think she was confused and acted cold because she was thrown into normal life as a popular high school girl. Dean had no problem being himself because he's not in that bubble of popularity and expectation, but Emma felt the pressure to just resume life back to normal. In the end though she gets over herself and they reunite...happy ending in the rain.
On the other hand, would've loved a scene where her girlfriends asked if anything happened with Dean. I mean, they're not that dumb to think nothing went down after three months, even if it is with Lonely Boy (who by the way is not bad looking at all!).
Guess we'll leave it all to our imaginations.