And... what happened?
I probably editorialized more than they did.
It was interesting. These are two women who are generally blockbuster types only - neither of them had ever seen Jake in *anything* and had only seen Heath in "A Knight's Tale," if that gives you any indication.
We ended up talking about it for about an hour afterwards. They both thought the first tent scene came about "too soon." (GAH!) That there was plenty of chemistry coming from Jack to warrant it but not enough from Ennis. They also thought it was more of an unrequited love story in that sense - that Jack always felt "more" than Ennis. (GAH squared!)
One of them had a take on the flash to Jack being murdered that I've not heard before, though, and that is worthy of further study. She said she didn't see it as being what Ennis was imagining happened at all - she saw it as Ennis processing the story Lureen was telling him and processing the fact that Jack is really dead (she's lost some people close to her and knows from this) and the filmmaker showing us, the audience, meanwhile, what *really* happened. Kind of a simple-minded, unseasoned-movie-veteran way of looking at it. Or is it?
They both laughed out loud when Jack told L.D. off and Lureen gave that little satisfied smile. They also both said "Oh, NO!" when Aguirre turned out to be watching them. And I just remembered! One of them actually said during the post-divorce scene "Stupid GUY!" (Like - isn't that typical? We've all been there to some extent, huh?)
All in all, they weren't overwhelmed (alas, they are not Brokies). But considering this isn't remotely their usual fare, they both said it was very well-done and that they appreciated that "the filmmaker" let them decide on their own what really happened in a couple of key places and "didn't beat us over the head with a message like 'Crash'."
So it's all good.