The Unrelenting Cruelty of Women

I've not yet read any of Philip Roth's books. I'd meant to when I was dating The Librarian--because she liked him a lot and told me enough about his work to get me interested in him. I even checked out one of his books from the library, and meant to get to it. I never opened it, though.

But last year I went to see Indignation (Pat's choice) and liked it. And just a few days ago I saw the dvd of American Pastoral at the library, and Jennifer Connelly's face caught my eye, so I picked it up, and when I saw that Ewan McGregor and Dakota Fanning--both of whom I like immensely--were also in it, I decided to give it a look-see.

And I watched all of the extra features first, as usual, and it looked like it was going to be good. 

And I watched the movie. 

And it really blew me away. 

Now I'm watching it again with the director's commentary on, and I think I'll probably watch tbe movie again tomorrow.

There are several scenes in this movie that are so captivating that you just fall right into the screen.

Like when Rita Cohen (played by the superb Valorie Curry) attempts to seduce Swede Levov (played by Ewan McGregor--who also directed the movie . . . and the story of how he came to make his directorial debut is a story well worth hearing . . . and you can hear it on one of the EXTRA featurettes, so I'll leave that to you). Well . . . seduce isn't really the right word there. It's much too brutal to be a seduction. It's a woman using her sexuality as a weapon. It's a woman being cruel to a man who has been rendered powerless and vulnerable by the loss of his daughter. And she just doesn't let up on him. There's no mercy in her heart . . . despite the fact that he has done nothing to harm her. She has been hurt, though, and she sees an opportunity to exert her power over someone else, so she does it. She also sees him as representing many of the things that she hates--a successful capitalist who exploits black workers both economically and sexually--and even though none of her assumptions is true, she has already decided who he is and can't be dislodged from that perspective. 

Just about every scene that Dakota Fanning (as Meredith "Merry" Levov) is in is mesmerizing. She is just an amazing actor. Many of those mesmerizing scenes, however, involve her being really mean and snotty to her father (again, Swede Levov) . . . and he obviously dotes on her. But she's been hurt, and she sees opportunities to exert her power over a father who loves her dearly, so she does it. She doesn't know how else to maintain some semblance of control over her own life. 

And just about every scene Jennifer Connelly (as Dawn Dwyer Levov) is in is incredible, but the scenes where she is losing her grip on sanity are beyond amazing. In one of those, she is lying in a hospital bed and begins by speaking in a very quiet voice, addressing . . . you guessed it, Swede Levov . . . and telling him how he ruined her life and destroyed all of her dreams. It's not true. They had a very good and happy marriage until things blew up with their daughter . . . and nothing that happened was Swede's fault. But she's been hurt and he has . . . .

Hmpf.

Not that that is all there is to the movie by any means. And I'm not being sarcastic when I say that Dakota Fanning and Jennifer Connelly are amazing. But the pattern is pretty obvious. And I have to say that it's something I've seen more than a little of in my own dealings with women--both those I've lived through and those I've observed in people I know.

Which is also not at all to suggest that men are incapable of unrelenting cruelty, because that is obviously not the way it is. But one of the things that really hit me with American Pastoral was this vision of Woman as unrelentingly cruel.  I know it's not true of all women. But it's true of most of the women I've known. And it's truest with respect to the women with whom I've had romantic relationships. Especially at the end of those relationships.