To the editors:
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Jonathan Rosenbaum writes that when Sweetie “bathes her own father, she’s quite capable of dropping the soap into the tub as an excuse for groping him.” I saw this scene as one that revealed a secret at the heart of this family, anchoring the meanings of the odd and the quirky behavior displayed by all of the characters. It raised questions directed not only at Sweetie’s inappropriate behavior, but more fundamentally at the situation itself. Why would a grown woman incapable of adequately caring for herself be bathing her grown father like a child? As Alice Miller states repeatedly in Thou Shalt Not Be Aware: Society’s Betrayal of the Child, children don’t initiate a pattern of sexual violation. Sweetie failed to comprehend the sexual boundaries of others because her own had not been respected. This scene was chilling not only because of what it portrayed, but because of the silence surrounding the bathing that becomes a metaphor for the silence and denial of incest.
The problem of Sweetie is solved far too simply by her death. While Sweetie’s promiscuity and incoherence made her incapable of true intimacy, Kay’s inability to sustain intimacy expresses itself in her refusal of sex and her hopelessness (pulling up the tree); both seem to be two sides of the same coin: The implication (in the scene at the end of the movie where Kay & Louis are playing footsie) that Kay is somehow freed for intimacy with Louis strikes me as false and simplistic after the depth and complexity established throughout the film.
Jonathan Rosenbaum replies:
