0:00 - Movie Review: "It Ends With Us"
2:12 - Exploring the Cycle of Abuse
5:42 - The Complexity of Attraction
8:33 - Fantasies and Flaws in Relationships
14:45 - Gender Dynamics and Violence
17:05 - The Illusion of Healing
22:10 - Lack of Communication in Relationships
28:54 - Final Thoughts and Reflections
In this episode, I delve deep into the film "It Ends With Us," starring Blake Lively and an actor reminiscent of a rugged, Sicilian Harry Connick Jr. My interest in this movie, rooted in the theme of breaking the cycle of abuse, prompted me to see it, despite my reservations. As I recount my experience, I touch upon the strong acting, commendable writing, but ultimately highlight the film's lackluster psychological depth akin to "a single coat of paint on a soap water bubble."
The story centers around Lily, an aspiring florist with a name too on-the-nose, and her tumultuous love life involving Ryle, a neurosurgeon, and Atlas, her first love. The film opens with her at her father's funeral, a man whose abusive legacy haunts her. Despite the horrendous portrayal of her father's violence against her mother, I find myself questioning various elements of Lily’s narrative, particularly how this violence influences her poorly constructed romantic options.
Ryle's introduction as the dark, brooding neurosurgeon who seeks a no-strings-attached relationship with Lily sets a tone of deeply flawed connections. As their relationship progresses, the flashbacks present a more naive Lily sharing an intimate moment with a homeless man, painting a rather unrealistic courtship that feels far removed from deeper emotional connection. This pattern of violence and manipulation continues when Ryle, despite being wealthy and handsome, reveals a pattern of aggressive behavior, leading to a convoluted portrayal of attraction that borders on the absurd.
Throughout my commentary, I dissect the various character dynamics, emphasizing the exaggerations within their flaws. The portrayals of Ryle and Atlas both perpetuate clichés I find problematic; they illustrate that men who resort to violence are ultimately redeemable thanks to their attraction and past traumas, while Lily remains relatively passive and smooth-sailing through her own life challenges without palpable growth. This raises critical inquiries about her motivations and desires, particularly her choice to surround herself with men who repeatedly inflict pain.
Interestingly, the film eschews the potential for exploring women's complexity, showcasing them instead as inherently sympathetic figures in distress. I highlight how this neglects the darker aspects of female nature and agency, leaving audiences to witness a repetitive cycle of victimization and redemption without substantial emotional exploration. Without any exploration of how Lily's past informs her decisions, the narrative leans heavily on the trope of the noble yet tortured female protagonist, devoid of flaws.
Despite the film’s shortcomings, I acknowledge some redeeming qualities, particularly a poignant speech in which Lily reflects on her own experiences and what she would want for her daughter. This moment serves as a glimmer of hope in an otherwise chaotic portrayal of relationships. Yet, it's juxtaposed against a backdrop of her own contradictory experiences and the toxic cycles she seemingly perpetuates.
In conclusion, while I express both frustration and appreciation for the film, I urge viewers to approach it with critical awareness. The pervasive themes of violence, gender expectations, and the idealization of love that transcends pain reveal a cultural commentary on relationships, albeit one riddled with fantastical elements and lacking in substantive resolutions. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this movie; what did you perceive differently? Are there elements that resonated with you, or did you share my critiques? Engage with me as we dissect this film further.
[0:00] Alrighty. Hey, everybody, Stefan Molyneux from Freedom Man. Hope you're doing well. So, yes, yes, yes, I took the bullet. Maybe you can, maybe you should, maybe you shouldn't. I'd recommend it as a whole, but I went to go and see the movie. It ends with us, with Blake Lively and a guy who basically is Sicilian Harry Connick Jr. With great abs and a steady, though rather broken hand. And it is the story of breaking the cycle of abuse, something I'm very interested in, So I went to the movie, fingers crossed, hoping the best. Acting is good. Writing is pretty good. Absolutely unbelievable scenarios. And to me, it has about the same depth of psychology as a single coat of paint on a soap water bubble. So, what is the story as a whole? So, there's this woman, see, oh gosh, I mean, you've seen better naming conventions in Italian soap operas. So, the woman, she's in her late 30s, and she wants to open a flower shop, she wants to open a florist's, and her name is Lily, Bloom, Rose, or something, it's all flower stuff, right? And then you've got a guy who gets her very excited, very sort of juiced up. He really riles her up. And his name is Ryle. See, because he riles her up. And then there's another guy, her first love, the guy she lost her virginity to.
[1:29] And he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. And he's kind of bowed down and all of that. And his name is Atlas. Because you can read him like a map. You get all of this, right? So the movie starts with...
[1:43] Lily, the main character, Blake Lively character, her father's dead, he was the mayor, and she's got to say five nice things about him at the funeral, but she doesn't, and of course it's because he was an abusive, violent guy who beat up her mother, never touched her apparently, beat up her mother, I think maybe sexually assaulted the mother, I wasn't entirely sure of that because I tend not to look directly at that kind of violence as a whole, so it was pretty ugly, nasty, and bad.
[2:13] And so then she's up on top of a rooftop in Chicago, apparently Chicago, where there's no winter, zero winter, it doesn't happen. She's up on a roof, sitting on the edge, right on the edge. And then a guy comes in who's tall, dark, brooding, handsome. You can see his abs through a poncho. And he kicks a chair and he's just really frustrated and upset and angry. And the conversation, I'm paraphrasing a little bit, the conversation goes something like this Hey, I lost my virginity to a homeless guy, says Lily and then Ryle the guy says, I'd like to have sex with you.
[3:00] I'm sorry, I wish it were more complicated and the dialogue's not terrible, there's some sparkling bits and some clever bits and they're all acting their little hearts out and so on but yeah basically uh it's like i'm a woman with no friends no father no future really but i did have sex with a homeless guy 20 years ago and he's like well i'm a neurosurgeon super hot super wealthy super high status super ripped and i want to have sex with you i don't do relationships i only do lust right so these are two empty broken damaged messed up people colliding together in cinematic slow motion with Spanx. So, not... Not a super elevated start to the romance.
[3:48] So there's lots of flashbacks to when Lily was a teenager and there was a guy across the street who lived in a boarded up building. He was homeless and she takes him some food and then they end up having sex.
[4:02] Because I guess that's courtship these days. She brings him food and they end up having sex.
[4:09] And then she's, I don't know, 16 or 17 or something like that. They're still in high school. And her violent father, Lily, when she was younger, her violent father comes home, catches the homeless guy in bed with his daughter, and beats him half to death. Beats him half to death. Beats a child half to death. There's ambulance, hospital, he's got blood all over his face. I assume that the dad's hands are bloodied and broken and the kid's entrails are all over his house. But apparently nothing happens. No, nothing. He doesn't go to jail, doesn't get charged. There's no assault, attempted murder. There's no, nothing. Now, maybe it's explained he's the mayor or something like that, but it's never explained why, how this guy can beat a child half to death and everything's fine and then the mother lily's mother who's a sympathetic character throughout the movie lily's mother you see stays with violent psycho rapey half-child murdering dad, and no explanation oh it's just easier to stay why i mean she's barely home anyway maybe she has a job in which case she has income if she doesn't have a job she's going to be able to take this mayor for all that he's worth so why does she stay there's only one kid as long as She's got nine kids to take care of. So why did she stay? Nobody knows. Doesn't mean anything. Doesn't get explained. Other than it was easier to stay. So what does that mean? So...
[5:37] Uh, of course, Blake Lively is a beautiful woman and she's got a great figure. I think she's had like three or four kids or something like that.
[5:42] So, you know, aces to her, good for her, but this is what women need to be turned on. This is a wild thing for me. So, I mean, okay, he's brooding, dark, handsome, lots of stubble, and he's, he's ripped, uh, like Wheaties. And so, yeah, good for him. You know, that's, of course, the inevitable happens or the inevitable is never mentioned, which is that this guy is all muscle and a hugely wealthy neurosurgeon with a house so perfect it looks like it was designed by an OCD gay man who can't allow one speck of dust to land anywhere. Everything's perfect. But he never goes to the gym. He never exercises. And they drink. Everybody drinks like a fish, but they all have perfect skin and perfect figures and all of that. So So none of that particularly makes any sense, but that's just kind of the way that it is. So here's the vanity of the writer. So there was a writer, the woman wrote it. It was a huge selling book. I'd never heard of it. It's not really my circle. So the woman wrote it and then another woman adapted it. I think Ryan Reynolds had a hand during the writer's strike and some of the scene on the rooftop or whatever. But this is the vanity. So she has this, as a teenager, she has this guy who's homeless across the street. And he gives her this speech she's like you know i wasn't i wasn't in that house because.
[7:06] I was kicked out of my mom's house so his mom apparently liked sleeping with guys who beat her up so he he i guess gets in the way or something or tries to stop so she kicked him out because she'd rather get hot sex beat ups or whatever right and he says like i didn't i didn't move into that place because I was homeless. I moved into that place to kill myself and.
[7:32] I'm looking out the window, preparing to kill myself. I look up, and there's your face in the light. And I didn't kill myself because of your face. Like, what a wild thing to think of. Like, how vainglorious are you that your face in a window stops men from killing themselves?
[7:50] That's pretty wild. Of course, it has to be inevitable. This is like Bridget Jones' Diary 2, 3, or whatever it was, 6, 6, 6, which is something like this. Um you can be a single woman in your late 20s late 30s and all the hottest wealthiest most successful guys in the world are absolutely obsessed with you and will do anything to make you theirs so the guy who was homeless he goes into the he's a marine for eight years and then he becomes this amazing restaurateur and he's good looking fairly ripped successful wealthy runs the hottest restaurant in town and is obsessed with Lily.
[8:33] And then neurosurgeon-ripped, tall, dark, and handsome stubblehead is also obsessed with Lily and would do anything to have her because, you know, that's what happens to single women with no history of successful relationships. And then late 30s, the most top-tier successful 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% guys are just completely obsessed with them and will do anything to make them theirs, to make her theirs. There's oh my gosh everybody starts their business nobody knows how she starts this florist shop and the you know the inevitable quirky sidekick like in every women's movie there's the quirky sidekick and so the quirky sidekick comes in and this is this is the how she gets a job so Lily is cleaning up the old dirty place she got a lease to open a florist shop in woman comes in and says hey Hey, are you opening a store? Yes, what is it? It's a florist. I hate flowers.
[9:31] And then she gets a job because apparently that makes sense. You know, somebody can just phone or email me and say, hey, Stef, I hate philosophy. And I say, yeah, me too. Let's work together for philosophy. Anyway, so it's just, so where does she get the money to start this business? Where does she have, does she have any business experience or any business knowledge? Her mom doesn't. She doesn't have any friends. No one's advising her. But apparently in girl fantasy land, you can just go start a business and it's magic. It all just works perfectly. There's no problem with permits there's no problem with capital there's no problem with you don't have to learn accounting software you don't have to learn cash flow management you just can go and start flower businesses because this is you know this is what writers do they just sit down and write and they think that every business is the same way it's just wild it's just wild, and there's this funny thing this funny thing and you know this is a deep mystery for me with regards to women so illuminate me ladies or gentlemen if you can.
[10:32] So, you know, hot, chadly, super rich, ripped surgeon guy is just dying to sleep with this, with Lily, right? Because that's what super rich, hot surgeons go for is depressed women in their late 30s. That's just the thing, right? In the book, I think she was 23, but Blake Lightly is like 37 or whatever. And, you know, she looks it. No, no hate. I mean, I look 57 or whatever. So no hate. It's just she does, right? And so.
[11:02] This is something I don't understand. It was the same thing I didn't understand about Fifty Shades of Grey, that apparently the man wanting you is way sexier than just having sex. The man wanting you is way sexier than just having sex with him when you finally have sex with him, which is kind of like me being super starving. I go to the restaurant and the waiter spends like, I don't know, an hour and 10 minutes explaining to me all the specials. And I say, no, no, that's enough. I'm full. I'm full. I don't want anything to eat. I just wanted to hear you describe this. And the anticipation is the whole thing. I know I get foreplay and anticipation is a good thing. I'm into foreplay. I've got a forehead. It's just the way that it works.
[11:39] But, my gosh, she doesn't appear to have any lust for him. She doesn't appear to enjoy sex. She's kind of depressed throughout the whole thing. And she has no lust for him. She never wants to tear his clothes off and all of that. Now, super surgeon dude turns out to be violent, right? So he hits her, although it's a bit hazy, it turns out later he did.
[11:59] He chomps on her clavicle. he pushes her down a flight of stairs you know so he turns out to be a violent guy now secondary gains you can't women are all perfect nobody no woman in this movie does anything wrong whatsoever they never make a mistake they never put a foot wrong they never raise their voice they never call names all they're doing is just heroically and angelically placating all of these volatile men in their lives and environment it's just the way you know the the noble heroic woman nun who doesn't really lust and and uh wants the man for reasons that make no particular sense uh hey i'm a i'm a sociopath who compulsively lies and i just want to have sex i don't want to have a relationship well he says and she says yeah i fucked a homeless guy uh and that's how i lost my virginity and they're like sounds great let's let's make this a classic love story for the ages. It's just wild to me. It's just wild. But this, she gets very sort of sexy and excited when he wants her and then she doesn't really seem to enjoy the sex and she never rips his clothes off. She never gets lusty. She's like, maybe you put up with bad behavior from a boyfriend. You know, hot crazy matrix applies both sides of the aisle. Maybe you put up with.
[13:13] Bad behavior on the part of a boyfriend because he can just make your toes curl like an oxford comma and give you 19 orgasms to the dozen okay well that's not healthy but at least i can somewhat understand it maybe you have a really mean kevin spacey boss but he pays you ridiculous amounts of money so maybe that makes it well you can never talk about secondary gains the women are just victims because she does this thing it's it's to me it's kind of a negative thing so she does this thing he comes home surgeon guy comes home and she's on his she's made dinner and he hoists her up on the um counter like in a sexual manner and she's like oh okay this is what we're doing oh okay okay and it's just it's so bland and and like no like yeah right rip the clothes off or whatever right it's just like yeah okay this is what we're doing oh okay and it's just It's just so vanilla and neutral and passionless. I got no sense of hunger for him. And because, you know, hunger for his status, his money, his bod, his sexual, you know, men who sleep with a lot of women can develop skills. And so she's not like, at least in Streetcar Named Desire, Stella is keen for the incredible makeup sex she gets with Stanley Kowalski, right? So Stella, you know, the colored lights going round and round.
[14:33] So there's none of that. So if she's not thirsting for his sex and his bod, then the whole thing doesn't make any sense. Why would she put up with any bad behavior if there's not anything positive, right?
[14:46] So that's pretty wild. General message of the movie, of course, is general. Women are better off without men, and men are more trouble than they're worth, and it doesn't matter if you're a single mother or whatever. Your just life is generally better off without men. There's too much work. That's a very sort of common thing that happens these days. Her wardrobe is both appalling and ridiculously expensive, where she gets the money for all of this. Who knows? There's never any money. There's never any dieting. There's never any exercise. And everybody's wealthy, thin, and ripped. It is just the way that it is. So, I mean, there's a funny thing that happens as well, which is, you know, the explanation why is surgeon guy violent, right? Right. Well, so when he first meets Lily on the rooftop, he says, oh, I just had a terrible, a kid died on me. His brother shot him.
[15:42] And he died. They shot him by accident, right? Little kids. And it's, oh, I wonder what that's going to do to the brother. It's going to mess him up for life, says Surgeon Guy. So, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, at the end of the movie, he says, she finds out that Surgeon Guy was the guy who actually shot his brother. So what that means is that Surgeon Guy uses his own personal killing of his brother by accident as a pickup line for depressed women. I mean, this is about as sour and horrible and sociopathic and negative and ghastly as could conceivably happen. Well, it's true that I did shoot my brother and kill him when I was a kid, but maybe I can use that to get laid. And it's like, that's just horrendous. Absolutely horrendous.
[16:29] Of course, life without men, I mean, we all know this, right? Like, oh, men are toxic, men are bad, men are violent, and so on. And And therefore, you know, it's better to leave and be without men. And it's like, okay, but then why did the kids of single mothers have such horrible negative outcomes? If men are toxic, then the absence of men should improve things. But it statistically doesn't. And what does she learn anyway? What does she learn anyway? So her father's violent. Surgeon guy is violent. And then the guy who she's kept in the beta orbiting wing forever and ever are men. The guy, the homeless guy she slept with when she was a teenager.
[17:06] He's violent too, because he thinks she's been beaten up. She says it was just a misunderstanding. And so he then physically assaults and screams in the face of surgeon guy, which is kind of unfair because he's a trained fighter and warrior. Surgeon guy is not. Got to wash his hands. And by the way, for a guy who's supposed to take care of his hands, he seems to do all of this ridiculously punchy, throwy, grab hot things, put your hands in broken glass kind of stuff. It's crazy. Surgeons take very great. I mean, I take great care of my voice because that's sort of my thing. So anyway, so Atlas, the homeless guy she slept with as a teenager, who her father half killed, um.
[17:48] And he is violent, too, because he misunderstands something and just assaults, like doesn't wait to find out, just assaults. And, you know, it's all this cliche. No, no, no, wait, I won't understand. You don't understand. It's not the way. And everyone's just volatile and reactive and just kind of low IQ and all that kind of stuff. So he's a violent guy anyway. Nothing particular changes because of that down the road. Ryle has no family other than his sister, no parents or anything like that. So that's lazy writing. You're going to talk about the cycle of violence. You have to talk about his parents because Lily gets to talk about her dad. But apparently Kyle is the author of his own misfortune by shooting his brother as a kid and all that kind of stuff. So that's not good. now ryle of course surgeon guy is pathologically jealous and and suspicious and and and all of that and that's because he's you know a fairly literal piece of human garbage who who uses the story who transposes the story of him killing his brother to get women's legs open and sympathies flowing and other things flowing i suppose and so he progressively feels more and more unloved and and feels that she's got to leave him, because he's just terrible. He's like one of the worst characters I've seen in a long, long time, and we're supposed to feel like this is, you know, some great hot guy or anything like that. It's just monstrous, right?
[19:13] And also, so Lily has to go through all this absolutely terrible stuff. He has to go through this terrible, terrible stuff in order to begin healing the cycle of abuse. And she had a comfortable home, a loving mother, and a violent father, no question, terrible. He never hit her. But Atlas, the homeless kid, his mother kicks him out because his mother's boyfriends assault her, sexually assault her, we assume, and beat him up. So he's homeless, violence is directly against him, and so on. And he's fine. He doesn't need to go to therapy, never mentions therapy, doesn't go through any healing process, just comes out of the army, because Lord knows mental health is much served by, you know, killing people in the desert for eight years. So he comes back and he's a great restaurateur. He's a great chef. He's a great business owner, a great leader. Everything's fine. He's loving. He's caring. He's thoughtful. He's sentimental. He knows the right things to say, as does surgeon guy, despite having no experience in relationships, which is completely unbelievable.
[20:14] Uh, so, uh, how does he heal? How does, how does he get better from his crazy trauma? Well, there's never any explanation for any of that. He's just, just perfect. And, you know, what, what kind of woman is it? Like, so by the end of the movie, she's almost 40, right? She's pushing 40 and she had sex with Atlas, homeless guy, when she was like, I don't know, 16, 17, maybe 18, probably 17, because 18, you're out of high school, aren't you, these days. So it's you know been almost a quarter century and she's like but he's still here for me i can pursue the bad boy and then and then the nice guy 23 years later is just ready and and is going to take on me and he's going to take on a single mom with a kid by a violent wealthy sociopath who hates him and can make her life legal hell for years yeah he's going to sign up for that because Because Lord knows, really hot, successful, wealthy restauranteurs are just looking for single moms with psycho, violent, wealthy exes who hate their guts. Yeah, that's just going to be a great life. But it doesn't matter what the man wants. It's what she needs is the only thing that matters.
[21:21] And the other thing, too, the mother is portrayed sympathetically. But Lily says, basically, if I stay, I'm a bad mother. But then her mother stayed, but is apparently a good mother. And even though her mother stayed, not only when she was being sexually assaulted or raped, maybe, but also being beaten half to death. And then her husband beats a young boy, a boy, a young man half to death. And she stays with him anyway. But apparently having the mom around, Lily's mom around, who stayed with this half-murdering psychopath, it's totally fine to raise your kids. Totally fine to raise Lily's kids. It's a wonderful thing that she's there. It's just wild. It's wild. It's absolutely wild. And so... And also, there's no talk about history. People don't talk about their childhoods. They don't talk about their past.
[22:11] They just gaze into each other's eyes and fondle each other's dimpled asses. You know, not that there's anything wrong with that. That sounds like a good Tuesday night. Night but nobody says uh oh yeah no my my parents were abusive and nobody says gee why are you single a beautiful woman single in your late 30s that must be something that's going on here uh you know heart surgeon has never settled down why not um and of course heart surgeon guys, ryle's sister is lily's best friend works in the flower shop never mentions by the by never Never mentions that her brother killed someone.
[22:48] Never comes up, never mentions. And it's like, what? How is that a thing? How is that possible that nobody ever talks about anything? So, yeah, it is really just appalling. Also, this Lily, as a teenager, she sees this homeless guy. Her dad's literally the mayor. I think he's the mayor, right? And her dad can't help this because there's no social services. The woman who wrote this book was originally a social services worker. And so she knows that there's tons of social services available for kids who are kicked out because their mother dates abusive people. So why can't she just, instead of getting him food and having sex with him, why doesn't she actually get him some help? Well, apparently that's not a thing that happens. And that's really, really, really sad and doesn't make a lot of sense. Oh, there's another thing, too. Remember, surgeon guy doesn't take care of punching, throwing things, grabbing things, doesn't take care of his hands at all. So then he's got this crazy 27-hour surgery. And the day before, he, you know, slashes his hand half to the bone on broken glass and burns the crap out of it, grabbing white hot things out of the stove. So his hand is gashed, slashed, and burnt.
[24:04] But he just goes ahead and does the surgery anyway. I mean, no sense. Makes no sense whatsoever. How could this possibly happen? Can you imagine the liability? You're doing a delicate surgery, someone dies, and then they find out that your hand was gashed half to the bone and burnt to shit, and you went ahead and did the surgery anyway. You'd never be cleared for surgery. My uncle fainted once or passed out once for 10 seconds landing a plane, was never allowed to fly again. You think you'd be cleared for surgery with your hand in a broken, bloody, burnt paw where you lost mobility and sense of touch? And, oh, my God, just phone a doctor and phone a surgeon and say, would you be allowed to operate in this way? And they would, of course, they would say, yeah, they would say no. But so it's just that level of eyes rolling like a Vegas slot machine unreality that it just makes the movie pretty hard to follow. So.
[24:59] Yeah, it's crazy. How do you beat up a kid and face no consequences and so on? So, yeah, it's very sad. It's very sad. And the degree of delusion is just wild. You base your relationship based on lust, which isn't even really lust. And you don't talk about your history. Nobody talks about how messed up they are. Nobody gets any psychological help. And you just pound your way through things, get pregnant. But then super hot restaurateur, wealthy guy from your past will just come and scoop you up at the end of all of this and take in you and deal with your psycho ex-husband and raise your kid. You know, the man who can heal the heart he didn't break and raise the child he didn't make. It's like that's, she'll have no respect for him. He's a cuck and a simp. And that's really, really sad. and and holding this hope out is really uh really terrible and she mentions this once right she mentions oh i got all the clock all the clock ticking stuff and all about i'm gonna have kids i want to have kids and all of that oh and this narcissistic surgeon guy when his sister has just given birth he decides to make it all about himself and propose to lily and oh gosh it's just.
[26:11] Absolutely wretched and uh lily's sorry surgeon guy's sister has a husband who's indian who's like this great husband and this perfect guy uh because lord knows that you know india as a whole is a culture that truly respects women and you know uh just wonderful most wonderful husbands in the known universe everyone knows that and that's just the kind of stuff that you you see these days almost without fault and without pause so you know overall i think it's worth watching the movie as long as you're just kind of aware of the sort of relentless propaganda but look for this sort of soulless lack of desire for the men that is and this would actually kind of make sense in a way because a woman who's you know pushing 40 who's been passed up and down like the duchy on the left hand side you know she's probably lost her pair bonding she's just kind of depressed and she's depressed about being good looking because she knows that's the only value she brings to the table she doesn't do much to help him uh her husband she doesn't do a boyfriend she doesn't do much to support him she doesn't really run his household she's just there.
[27:17] And is attractive. And that's, you know, really kind of depressing. So look for that lack of love. Look for the fact that women never do anything wrong. Never do anything wrong. It's always just the man and his history and his problems and his pathology and his issues. Because she never raises her voice. In the book, when he cuts and gashes his hand, one of the reasons he hits her is because she's laughing at him. Which is, you know, you don't hit anyone for that. But you can understand how that might sting a vainglorious man, a narcissistic man. But she never, she's absolutely perfect. She can't explore, nobody can explore the dark side of female nature in movies. Nobody can explore secondary gains. Why is she there? Right? Is it for the money? Is it for the status? Is it for the sex? Why does she put up with this stuff, right? Well, it's just because of her. So she can't take responsibility, even though she's pushing 40, because it's all the fault of her father.
[28:08] And what happened, you know, 25 to 35 years ago, right? It's all the fault of her father. She has no agency. agency and so she has no agency she's a victim he's a bad actor her mother uh even though she stayed with the guy who beat a kid half to death um is is fine and and wonderful and and you know she can't think of anything nice to say the the lily the main character can't think of anything nice to say about her mother then she says her father sorry she can't think of anything nice to say about her father she's got five things she can't think of one and then she says when When her mother says, I loved him, and Lily then says, me too. Is that lying? She's lying to her mother about loving her father. Is she telling the truth? But then at the end, she still can't think of anything nice about her father.
[28:54] So, I mean, I like the speech. I really do like the speech that she gives.
[29:02] In the movie to her husband when after the baby's born she realized she's got to leave him, and she says you know so this is your daughter and who by the way just this is kind of weird to me so surgeon guy shot his own brother killed him when surgeon guy was a little kid and then his wife says let i've named your daughter after the brother you killed and he's like oh that's the the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me and i'm like what that's insane so every time you say your daughter's name because it's a um i guess a sort of gender neutral name.
[29:39] So then every time you're reminded of the brother you killed it's every single time you just ptsd never ends your brother your brother's death is now resurrected in your daughter's name uh that's mental i mean that's honestly i don't even know what to say how bizarre and disturbed that is a sort of beyond on mental really but she gives him a speech and she says you know when your daughter grows up if she's got a guy who bites her clavicle and and hits her and and pushes her down the stairs and so on uh and then she's got to leave he says yeah she's got to leave and all of that now that that's a good speech which is universal principles right and i've had this conversation a bunch of times with people in call-in shows about their own parents and stuff like that but i think that is very interesting and that was a good speech the acting is very good she does a great performance as does he the sister is kind of quirky and charming and funny the Indian husband is is funny and warm and again super wealthy and never needs to work really but it's what I think it's worth watching you should obviously be aware of the programming the propaganda it is a wild story in many ways and as long as you kind of aware of the machinery that's trying to manipulate you, it's well worth watching as a whole.
[30:52] And I'm curious what you guys think what are your thoughts on the movie and would you recommend it what have I gotten right what have I gotten wrong what do you agree or disagree with I would love to hear what you think freedomain.com slash donate to help out the show I really really would appreciate that lots of love from up here my friends I'll talk to you soon bye.
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