Anonymous wrote:She’s not an aunt. That is not the real relationship between Callie and Nina’s daughter.

What is?

There were a lot of scenes which played out in a slightly ambivalent way, which I found intriguing.

To go back to the OP - I had also wondered about Lyle telling her to leave. I think he was just looking out for her (he had after all, seen the doll on her terrace) and he knows them not to be good people and doesn't want a potential scene / for Leda to be hurt by them, in any way. That's my 10 cents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it implied that she is dying?

I definitely thought she was dying and that the phone call was a dream.

+1 me too

She’s not an aunt. That is not the real relationship between Callie and Nina’s daughter.

I had no knowledge of what the movie would be about prior to watching it. I got sucked in and thought it was a good movie. I was very uncomfortable during the scenes with her daughters and was glad that Leda was struggling with the fact that she abandoned and was emotionally unattached to her daughters when they were young. One of the daughters cut her call very short and it was clear that the relationship never recovered. The Italian's are always about the family which was a complete contrast to Leda's lack of family. I did feel some compassion for Leda when her husband threatened to bring the daughter's to Leda's mother and it was clear that her mother was terrible as well. However, that didn't keep Leda from abandoning her daughters. I think she kept the doll because she liked seeing another mother suffer. I was very confused by the ending- I think she was dead or hallucinating and was happily talking with I'd believe one of her daughters. Overall I thought the movie was good and very suspenseful.

Anonymous wrote:In the book Leda came from a Neapolitan crime family, and worked hard to crawl out from under their influence. So the creepy, potentially criminal Queens family was as if her own family had shown up at the beach. It was extremely triggering for Leda. The film made her British, from a poor but not criminal family, so her reaction to the Queens family made absolutely no sense in that context. It's one of the major shortcomings of the movie. I assume they did it because no one would believe Olivia Coleman as a Neapolitan, but it definitely muddled the story.

Ah. That makes much more sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where is everybody getting the idea that this was a Mafia family? Yes they were unruly and intimidating and Will said they were not good people, but kind of a jump to say for sure they were Mafia. Maybe they were just from Queens and kind of overran the town because their family had been there forever.

Thank you, I was starting to feel crazy. They were just a big, loud family with several very aggressive, forceful personalities. There was no mafia activity in the movie so I don’t understand where people are getting this.

It was heavily implied. Why else would all the people on this island kowtow to these obnoxious outsiders?

Will tells Leda she can't refuse anymore requests from the family because they aren't good people. Reference is made to Nina's husband's "investments." The men were all creepy and threatening for almost no reason. The patriarch shuts down the obnoxious behavior of the boys. I feel like the fact that this family was very shady was telegraphed throughout the movie.

All that said, I feel like it was a subplot that could have been dropped or scaled back in light of the fact that Leda was remade to be from a poor British family instead of an Italian mafia family.

Was she entirely though? When she is speaking with the aunt the aunt asks her where "her people" are from, seemingly asking for more background beyond wherever in the UK she said (Leeds?). We know she speaks Italian and she says her name is Leda Caruso. There's some Italian connection there but I didn't really understand what it was.

I thought the Italian name was from her husband, but it was not really explained. As far as being poor and British. She says Leeds was not fancy (and I don't think it is) and when fighting with her husband before she leaves she references all that $H** she grew up in. And they clearly don't have much in the way of money/resources.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where is everybody getting the idea that this was a Mafia family? Yes they were unruly and intimidating and Will said they were not good people, but kind of a jump to say for sure they were Mafia. Maybe they were just from Queens and kind of overran the town because their family had been there forever.

Thank you, I was starting to feel crazy. They were just a big, loud family with several very aggressive, forceful personalities. There was no mafia activity in the movie so I don’t understand where people are getting this.

It was heavily implied. Why else would all the people on this island kowtow to these obnoxious outsiders?

Will tells Leda she can't refuse anymore requests from the family because they aren't good people. Reference is made to Nina's husband's "investments." The men were all creepy and threatening for almost no reason. The patriarch shuts down the obnoxious behavior of the boys. I feel like the fact that this family was very shady was telegraphed throughout the movie.

All that said, I feel like it was a subplot that could have been dropped or scaled back in light of the fact that Leda was remade to be from a poor British family instead of an Italian mafia family.

Was she entirely though? When she is speaking with the aunt the aunt asks her where "her people" are from, seemingly asking for more background beyond wherever in the UK she said (Leeds?). We know she speaks Italian and she says her name is Leda Caruso. There's some Italian connection there but I didn't really understand what it was.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where is everybody getting the idea that this was a Mafia family? Yes they were unruly and intimidating and Will said they were not good people, but kind of a jump to say for sure they were Mafia. Maybe they were just from Queens and kind of overran the town because their family had been there forever.

Thank you, I was starting to feel crazy. They were just a big, loud family with several very aggressive, forceful personalities. There was no mafia activity in the movie so I don’t understand where people are getting this.

It was heavily implied. Why else would all the people on this island kowtow to these obnoxious outsiders?

Will tells Leda she can't refuse anymore requests from the family because they aren't good people. Reference is made to Nina's husband's "investments." The men were all creepy and threatening for almost no reason. The patriarch shuts down the obnoxious behavior of the boys. I feel like the fact that this family was very shady was telegraphed throughout the movie.

All that said, I feel like it was a subplot that could have been dropped or scaled back in light of the fact that Leda was remade to be from a poor British family instead of an Italian mafia family.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it implied that she is dying?

I definitely thought she was dying and that the phone call was a dream.

OP here. I read that at first too. I read an article saying it’s meant for interpretation. I guess the book implied that she died but the movie ending with her reassuring her daughters that she was alive while also having a perfect orange in her hand leaves it up to the viewer if she lives or dies.

I really wanted to love this movie for Maggie, but I think it was too deep and intellectual when it didn’t need to be.

Have you seen Gyllenhaal's The Kindergarten Teacher? She stars in it and produced. Another movie based on a book about mothering and child. Lots. Of similar themes.

I was going to post this, also! So much in that movie about the character Gyllenhall played being a mother that did both good and also really bad things.

In the book Leda came from a Neapolitan crime family, and worked hard to crawl out from under their influence. So the creepy, potentially criminal Queens family was as if her own family had shown up at the beach. It was extremely triggering for Leda. The film made her British, from a poor but not criminal family, so her reaction to the Queens family made absolutely no sense in that context. It's one of the major shortcomings of the movie. I assume they did it because no one would believe Olivia Coleman as a Neapolitan, but it definitely muddled the story.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am having mixed feelings about this movie. Admittedly, I didn’t read the book. I’m assuming the book went deeper into the dynamics of the tension between Nina’s family and Leda. Can anyone help explain why her family was always glaring at Leda. Why did Lyle tell Leda it was time for her to go home when they were dancing outside and Toni and crew were looking at her?

In an article I read, it said they were more cold to her after she admitted to leaving her daughters for 3 years in the toy store. I think that makes sense, but still seemed weird that it would mean she had to leave the dancing because of them.

But she didn't admit she left her daughters in the toy store scene...she told Nina this in the open air market where she was looking at vintage jewelry.

I thought it was a gypsy family and Leda lost one of her daughters to drowning. I assumed she went to die at the shore to join her lost dead daughter. I liked the casting/acting/scenery/awkward but very real moments. I did not like so much being left to interpretation, it could have been even a smidge more explicit so it doesn't seem so random.

Anonymous wrote:I am having mixed feelings about this movie. Admittedly, I didn’t read the book. I’m assuming the book went deeper into the dynamics of the tension between Nina’s family and Leda. Can anyone help explain why her family was always glaring at Leda. Why did Lyle tell Leda it was time for her to go home when they were dancing outside and Toni and crew were looking at her?

I have these exact questions.

I also thought Bianca was dead up until the phone call.

Did anyone here read the book? Did Leda have a diagnosis? Was there anything redeeming about her character? I suppose there was the moment when she considered returning the doll, but otherwise she was depicted equally as selfish as Nina’s family, just less threatening. The scenes in which we saw Leda happy to be around her children were actually moments that Leda was responding to her own happiness about something external that benefitted her and her children reaped the benefits of her momentary kindness and attention.