Sorry, I'm a little distracted, "Lost" is on.

The moments that I find that stay with me is
- the little girl (almost) getting shot - heatrbreaking all round
- the mishandling of the black wife by the policeman, teamed with his later redemption by saving her life
- the shooting of the hitchiker by the off-duty policeman
- the society wife's wake-up call with her housekeeper

It's hard to say how I feel about this movie as my perceptions keep changing and I see different things (apart from the above scenes) every time.

We don't get to hear many names throughout this movie - there are some mentioned incidentally but it follows my theory of writing - if the reader/audience doesn't have an absolute need to know, then don't bog them down with unnecessary details. People get hung up on names sometimes and that stalls the story. I will cross reference with IMDb so that we can talk about the characters.

Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock's role) is a central pivot to the other stories - she is the absolute xenophobic. We don't know why or how that happened, but perhaps growing up in a family of wealth, power, and prestige made her wary of those who don't have what she has; aware that they are jealous and will do anything to her to take it away - just my supposition. But for some reason she fears everyone who is the least bit different to her. Her "friends" all have the same background - but they are only "society" friends and are not there for her when she needs them, they cannot be relied upon to do anything that does not benefit them. She tries to order her life, to get some control, but it is only a mask to her fear and the more afraid she becomes - the bossier she gets. She is alone. Her friends are false; she's surrounded by people that she cannot relate to because of her xenophobia, she's locked away from them by background and also language (- she does not seem to know her maid's language even for little things around the house); the people in the street frighten her and when in one instance her fears are proven correct, she takes that as a sign that all of her paranoia is correct. Most of all, she is estranged from her husband. He doesn't talk to her, he doesn't listen. They communicate in short bursts of screaming. And he is having an affair with his PA. When she tells her maid that she is her only friend, she could not have been more right.

The other stories all have something in common with this story, from the xenophobia/discrimination (major theme), to the fear and paranoia, jealousy/avarice, fear of humiliation/control mechanisms, and isolation (the other major theme).

Thanks Hannah - I had missed the bit about the gun store owner and purchasing the blanks. I had thought that she had known and had deliberately bought the blanks because she didn't really want her father to have a gun at all. Actually, I thought the first gun was stolen when the shop was broken into. I'm only watching this on a medium size tv screen and haven't stopped the film to investigate fully - but I thought that was what happened when she ran to the drawer where the gun was/had been. Was the gun still there?

Did you notice that the one person who died in the movie was the only one that had none of the negative aspects of the other characters? He was a sweet young guy who had fallen in with bad company, a bit useless but he had faith and a moral compass and had not developed the phobias and discriminations of his peers. Is innocense (or naivity) a crime against nature?

Officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon's character) seemed to me to be essentially an honourable person. Why he behaves like that towards Christine Thayer (Thandie Newton's character - the black wife) at the begining is a little hard to fathom when his life is explored further. Maybe it was a front? or perhaps more likely, he is "angry" all the time too. He's in a job that gives him power but nobody respects it, she is very mouthy and really pushes all his buttons. She also seems to consider herself better than him - maybe he took out his frustration with the world by feeling her up like that, bringing her down a peg or two. Later when he saves her, he is the absolute epitome of a gentleman, and risks his life to rescue her. Maybe that was partially the guilt he felt towards what he had done but he had already been considerate and gentlemanly before realising who she was.

The same went with his father. He was filled with compassion for the old man, never raised his voice at him, but was frustrated by "the system". When he spoke to the social worker, that frustration came across as anger, but was taken as aggression from the social worker getting on her wrong side so she wasn't going to put herself out to help him. Both of them were shouting at each other but nobody was listening.

I feel that the whole movie is about mis-communication more than anything else. It is lack of the communication that would lead to understanding that is the root of discrimination and eventual xenophobia; lack of communication creates a wall around all the characters and in being so isolated they then only "hear" the other person through their own experiences and fears. Each character will say something that is quite ordinary to them, but agravates or inflames others with the perceived mis-communication, and the aggravation escalates with successive mis-communication.

Awwww! Hannah! I love the chance to talk about them to and get other points of view - not a lot of people near me have the time, or the scope, to chat about films with me.