[SoloAJ]

I agree that the authenticity of the movie was one of its stronger attributes. I kept thinking that too. It reminded me of "The Office" (nbc tv) sometimes with some of the camera shots. They just, however they were done, made the viewer feel like they were right there sometimes (the dinner scene where she begins singing, in particular, for me).

With regards to barca's comments, I see the point but don't see the issue. Yes they threw an excuse in there. Yes, maybe it did not advance plot. However, what it did do was go a looooong way toward explaining her behavior (and adding sympathy, maybe) without being too blunt. I mean, I honestly had to give a double take to make sure it wasn't some accident that his hand was on her breast. Mostly becuase it is almost like...I didn't want to believe it.

I think you CAN have people that just such at life, but very rarely, in my lay opinion, are you going to have people THAT messed up without some serious childhood trauma. In particular, think of what kind of person you have to be to offer oral to someone just so they *might* get you a job you want....in a day care.

Sexual abuse seemed awfully likely given her past, and they just sort of closed the door on it with my favorite scene. They don't do flashbacks or have her openly talking about it (and in reality, she probably wouldn't). It was just a nice subtle scnee (in the scheme of the entire movie) and that is what I really really liked about it.

I don't know any people personally who are even close to this messed up in life, or at least, not knowingly. But I'm a naive 21 year old (for eleven days anyway [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])

Oddly enough I only gave this film a 7/10. It would definitely be a high 7 in my book, but still. I thought there were a few aspects that I didn't like about it...but I agree that the performances were absolutely amazing and the sense of realism that it has is amazing.

Perhaps a summary of the reason it is such a good movie is how sick you get watching it...similar to United 93, a movie that I've heard by at least one Lounger "the best American film in years"