Is Terri Garr supposed to be a bad wife?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Close Encounters of the Third Kind
chet19 — 9 years ago(April 24, 2016 12:44 PM)
Each time I see this, I dislike Neary more and more. I believe that we're supposed to hate Teri Garr for leaving her husband, but I totally take her side. yes, I know she didn't quite believe her husband, but who would? Especially when he starts playing with bis food, throwing dirt and bricks through the window, stealing the neighbor's fence, and or course, kissing another woman. Neary didn't really have many redeeming qualities, but he's the hero?
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a_l_i_e_n — 9 years ago(April 24, 2016 03:43 PM)
I dislike the way Ronnie chooses to ignore Roy's experience with the statement that they will just tell everyone he fell asleep under a sun lamp or something. And when the kids say they believe in aliens, she dismisses it with "Oh, no you don't" and a patronizing smile, which offends Roy. Then she brushes the whole experience off as being "just one of those things", prompting Roy to ask "which things, Ronnie?". When Roy says he's going back to the site of his first encounter, Ronnie tells him "no, you're not", like she's the boss of him. I think she even hid the newspaper story about UFO sightings which was very controlling and not too nice of her. Later, when Ronnie finds Roy in the shower she says "maybe it's not your fault"- like he could somehow be responsible for this emotional turmoil he's been experiencing. Yes, we can certainly understand Ronnie's being alarmed by the business with throwing junk through the window and Roy losing his job and everything. However, it seemed like Roy's eagerness to embrace the extraordinary, countered with Ronnie's immediate fear of it to the point where she tries to keep him from looking for answers, this just made them very incompatible as a couple. I don't feel badly that their marriage goes on the rocks; it's Roy losing his kids that, for me, calls into question Roy's decision to leave at the end. But one thing's certain: Roy was right that what was happening to him was real, and not "just one of those things" as Ronnie chose to believe.
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chet19 — 9 years ago(April 25, 2016 09:53 AM)
Well said, alien. I guess I cut her some slack because the stuff Roy was saying seemed unbelievable to pretty much everyone, not just her. I found it very realistic that she would doubt him. He never once sat her down calmly and explained everything and asked for her support. Instead, he ran around like a nut for several straight days. I just think the writers could have made Roy obsessed with the aliens AND at the same time show him as a loving father, not a family deserter.
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gp12345us — 9 years ago(April 27, 2016 03:43 PM)
I see your point Chet, but I think the idea was to show that Roy was completely obsessed with figuring out what was going on. This obsession was against his will, and in several scenes it shows that he's angry at himself because of it, but he can't help it. I think this is what makes Roy a sympathetic character, the aliens planted this obsession in him and there was nothing he could do about it. At one point Roy was even going to give up his obsession, and in what I think is one of the best scenes in the movie, he pulls the top off his clay mountain and has a "Eureka!" moment, the model finally looks like what he has been imagining, and the obsession returns full force.
My Top 5 Movies: "Dazed & Confused", "Close Encounters", "Vertigo", "Melancholia", "Rushmore" -
chet19 — 9 years ago(April 27, 2016 03:48 PM)
Yes, I can see that. The obsession certainly wasn't his choice, now that I read your comments.
It's a pleasure to discuss film disagreements and opinions here on imdb, without name-calling and "you're wrong" and all that. -
spookyrat1 — 9 years ago(June 17, 2016 04:46 PM)
I think the idea was to show that Roy was completely obsessed with figuring out what was going on. This obsession was against his will, and in several scenes it shows that he's angry at himself because of it, but he can't help it.
Yes, he has little control over the introduced obsessions which begin to rule his behaviour and life and he is unable to communicate these changes to Ronnie. She is not a bad wife, but she becomes divorced from their shared life, as he does, due to his encounters and despite the sympathies she may have for his plight, she has little understanding for what he is going through. -
wilsonandrewc — 9 years ago(August 12, 2016 05:51 PM)
Teri Garr is one of my favorite comediennes and the way she yelled at Richard Dreyfuss in front of their children and the way she threatened to hit their son if he didn't let go of the fence while leaving him and taking their children with her really made me laugh.
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kaskait — 9 years ago(October 21, 2016 07:07 AM)
In almost every Spielberg film there is the designated Harridan, screeching and holding the men children back. Oh the humanity!
Poor Teri Garr was the one with the dunce cap on this outing.
But seriously, they were in an unhappy marriage. Neary was obviously pulling away from her and the rest of the family. She obviously had no outlet for a life outside of the house.
But I don't understand why people take offense at Neary going into space. The film shows that he is a spaz. The film shows he and the wife are incompatible and aren't mature enough to try to work it all out.
I view Neary leaving as a casebook example of families during the 70s. Adults doing their thing and dragging along the children as inconvenient baggage. -
CromeRose — 9 years ago(October 21, 2016 02:37 PM)
I view Neary leaving as a casebook example of families during the 70s. Adults doing their thing and dragging along the children as inconvenient baggage.
That's not just the 70s - it still happens now.
As for the topic, I agree with the one post that said Roy didn't once sit down and explain to Ronnie what happened, he just started running around like a nut. And I get it, it's about the human drama and humans affected by drama tend not to sit down and give full, rational explanations, but it was annoying, and downright silly when he started tossing dirt, plants and bricks in the window. Spielberg did this sort of drama with Cruise's character in War of the Worlds too and it really annoyed me (I hate his version of WOTW by the way). "Dad, what's happening?" "There's no time! Just get your stuff!" And they parodied this in one of the Scary Movies I think, where the "Cruise Character" played by Craig Bierko says the same thing about there being no time, and then a guy crashes up against their glass door and yells "Aliens have invaded!" and then runs away, and Bierko goes "Huh, that about sums it up." Which proves there was time to explain in about two seconds in fact. -
somesunnyday — 9 years ago(November 22, 2016 11:59 PM)
I don't think anybody is supposed to be the villain here. You can see at the start before any alien sightings that they're marriage is strained and communication is not all that great between them. You can see that she's tired and they're both bored with each other. They seem to have lost their connection.
What happens to Roy is out of his control and his obsession with it is out of his control. Her reaction is probably more set in reality than we'd like to think. -
ABBAcat — 9 years ago(January 31, 2017 08:50 PM)
I hope Roy came back and hooked up with Jillian, unless he fell for some hot alien. It would have been funny to have the end of CE3K mirror the end of American Graffiti with Roy looking down from the spaceship, watching Jillian's car driving along a highway leaving Devil's Tower, the same way Kurt watched the white t-bird from the plane.