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funny thing about husbands. (jack and laureen's marriage)

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forsythia12:
i always wondered about the scene with leshawn, randall, laureen and jack.  when laureen said "funny thing about husbands,....they don't ever want to dance with their wives"...did she really want jack to dance with her?  what was going on with their marriage at this point?  why did jack ask leshawn to dance?  was it just to 'stick it to laureen' since she was complaining all night?
i noticed that at this point in the movie was the first sign something was really wrong because at the thanksgiving dinner, laureen seemed fairly proud of jack for standing up to her old man, and jack defended laureen's parenting, and cooking in that scene.  he even brushed her shoulder when he walked by her to turn off the t.v..
and , (i know this has been debated) when ennis asked jack if him and laureen 'was normal and all', jack said yes....but in the last camping scene, jack finally admitted there was problems when he said "as far as our marriage goes, we could do it over the phone".  he also admitted to having another affair in this scene..so why the different tone?  was this just a long, drawn out marriage that slowly fell apart, or was jack and laureen finally just being vocal about their problems? obviously, we know what their problems were from the outside, but for them, i wonder the course of events that led up to this.  there's speculation that laureen knew about jack being gay, but she said 'funny thing about HUSBANDS' and not specifying jack.  was she seeing that leshawn had the same issues with randall that she had with jack?

any thoughts on this?

optom3:
O.K I m going off topic slightly here,but my first husband of 7 years was gay and loved nothing more than to dance!!!!!First on the floor,last off.My curent husband of 14 years straight has never ever danced with me,!!!!!

As for the film,I think there may have been a sub conversation going on.As in husbands dont want to do anything with you.I would think that Lureen had long since surmised that Jacks attraction to her may have been the money, and possible escape route it could provide for him.She may have puzzled as to why he had not left when he plainly wanted nothing to do with her.

I also suspect that she had a pretty good idea that Ennis was competition for her affection,whether the true extent of the relationship was ever realised by her.We can all put our own interpretation on that.We know thatAlma is in full possesion of the facts.But are left guessing with Lureeen. We know from the SS that on the phone her voice was "cold as snow" so she disliked Ennis. What we can only guess is, whether that was because of his close relationship with Jack,or becuse she had put 2 and 2 together.

My guess would be that Jack got up to dance as a metaphorical finger in the air to her.I hate to say bad things about Jack but we already know he is economical with the truth,even to Ennis ,and I suspect by this stage a certain degree of bitterness was pervading all aspects of his life.This must have rubbed off on his wife as well,hence the sarcastic quip about husbands and wives dancing.
We also know from the SS that she was not even prepared to admit there was anything wrong with her son.This is really starnge for a mother,who are usually the first to notice any problems.Yet Jack the "dreamer"was aware of a problem but as it was Lureeens money ,had his hands tied.
She comes across at the end as very cold and embittered,maybe caused by Jacks indiffrence to her,but that even extends to her refusal to do anything about her son.
Put in that context,it is perhaps unsurprising tht the bitterness spills out even at social occcasions.

forsythia12:
thanks fiona!
yes, i agree with what you say.
i just wonder what events led up to this sudden vocal show of apathy towards each other....when before, every problem seemed buried, and not discussed to anyone.....yet, here's laureen telling absolute strangers about how jack doesn't want to dance with her.
i also wonder if laureen was hurt by jack's lack of attention that night, him dancing with leshawn, or had she been hurt for quite some time now.
she seemd indifferent to him going up to wyoming, at least emotionally indifferent, as her complaint chiefly revolved around a new model coming in...

why do you suppose they even went to that party?  social 'show' since the newsome name was a big deal in childress?

delalluvia:
forsynthia
Lureen wasn't talking about dancing.  Well, not the vertical kind anyway.  ;)

By this time, she's starved for sex and affection.  He's obviously not sleeping with her.  To throw her off the possibility of anything other than a husband who's lost interest in his wife sexually, he asks LaShawn to dance.

See?  He's interested in other women.

His tactic works well, note the look on Lureen's face.

forsythia12:
okay....

good point.

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