Kelly and the female groupie

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LostCalls
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Kelly and the female groupie

#1 Post by LostCalls » Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:13 am

I watched LiT just the other night (on my iPod) while flying back to New York from California. (It was pretty neat to watch it at night while passing over cities of glowing lights below.) I made a little connection that I hadn't really made before.

When we first meet Kelly in the Park Hyatt outside the restaurant area, John immediately diverts his attention to her and away from Charlotte. He only turns back to her ("Oh...this is my wife, Charlotte") after an awkward lull in the conversation with Kelly. He then defends Kelly's stupidity in the ensuing conversation with Charlotte.

By contrast, the (also blond) female groupie approaches Bob near the film's end in roughly the same location in the hotel. However, as soon as he sees Charlotte, he says to the groupie "I have to go now" and heads right over to Charlotte.

It's not much, but I think this shows us a succint comparison of John and Bob's respective relationships with Charlotte. John is easily distracted from his wife (cf. also the early scene in the hotel room in which Charlotte asks whether he thinks the scarf she is knitting is done) while Bob is ready and attentive to her presence. Of course, having already caused a bit of a (temporary) rift by sleeping with the Jazz Singer, Bob may want to be sure not to appear in any compromising situation in front of Charlotte.

In any case, it seems there's always something new to find and enjoy in this film with each viewing--the mark of a fine work of art, I'd say.
Last edited by LostCalls on Fri Jul 25, 2008 1:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

silentguest
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#2 Post by silentguest » Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:21 pm

Your post LostCalls got me thinking about other similarities--those between Bob and Kelly.

Both star in action movies.
She talks about Keanu Reeves at the press conference, he talks about some unnamed actor with the waiter.
Both use the expression "Oh my gosh".
Both ham it up while karaokeing.
She admits to eating so much junk food, he wants to start eating healthier.
She claims her dad is an anorexic, he insists that his daughter eat something.
Both openly flirt with married people in front of their spouses.
His wife and her boyfriend are dismissive of them when they try to speak seriously on some matter.

Bob and Kelly as....doubles....doppelgangers....secret sharers? Maybe I'm going too far.

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#3 Post by LostCalls » Fri Jul 25, 2008 1:49 am

Hey!

Some nice connections there that I'd not realized. Maybe Kelly represents the type of movie actor (or person in general) that Bob wants to be damn sure not to become. It's as if she could be the negative outcome he wants to avoid. As such, Kelly pairs off with John (the relative negative in the John-Charlotte relationship), while Bob pairs off with Charlotte. It's the old Shakespearean subplot at work! Hmm...even to go a bit more in depth about your karaoke point: consider a comparison between Nobody Does It Better (Kelly) and More Than This (Bob). The sentiment in the former song is directed to some specific person (yet Kelly is singing to a couple that probably doesn't understand her and another guy who's passed out); the sentiment in the latter song (as I think I articulated in a previous post: viewtopic.php?p=7007&highlight=#7007) is also one that, in Bob's manner of singing, is directed specifically to someone (Charlotte). There's more to say here, I think...but I'm tired!

Also, I think the actor Bob (elliptically) talks about in the bar late at night is implied to be Tom Cruise. "He dated a lot of women...beautiful women that you and I would be crazy for...but there were always rumors. I never liked his acting, so I didn't really care whether he was straight or not..." (That's a paraphrase.)

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#4 Post by silentguest » Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:05 pm

Bob may have been a lot like Kelly at a similar age and point in his career: fun, shallow, nice (John defends her for being nice). Now he's burnt out, jaded, maybe depressed, lamenting the loss of fun in his life, and reassuring Charlotte that "Mean is okay". They might represent the arc of many or most show-biz careers.

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