Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

What's up with Jenny?

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Kazza:
I know that there have been various timeline discussions on here, but there is one that always strikes me when I watch the film and I thought that I’d run it by you good folks. See if anyone has a theory as to why this was filmed the way that it was. My apologies if this has been discussed before.

When we first see the Del Mar girls at the ranch Junior is about 18 months or so, and Jenny looks about 6 months old.

When we see them in the grocery store when Ennis goes looking for Alma, Junior looks about 4, yet Jenny seems only to have aged a few months (if at all).

Are Ennis and Alma not feeding their youngest child? Did they trade her in for a younger model? What’s going on? ???

Karen

Brown Eyes:
Heya Kazza,

Well, you're hitting on some of the most perplexing aspects of that darned "timeline".  The age problem with the girls is certainly one big issue.  Another wierd aspect of the timeline is just how long the relationships with Randall and Cassie seem to go on if one pays close attention to background details and clues as to how many years pass.  It's something like 4 or 5 years... Which strikes lots of people as awfully long for casual relationships.  It does help explain why Cassie is so emotionally invested by the end.  Still, I feel like the audience is meant to believe that both the Cassie and the Randall (probably especially the Randall) relationships are very casual from the point of view of our boys.

I also have never heard a great explanation as to why Jenny is called Jenny in the film... what the hell ever happened to Francine? :-\ ;)

Kazza:

--- Quote from: atz75 on October 22, 2006, 10:03:23 pm ---Heya Kazza,

Well, you're hitting on some of the most perplexing aspects of that darned "timeline".  The age problem with the girls is certainly one big issue.  Another wierd aspect of the timeline is just how long the relationships with Randall and Cassie seem to go on if one pays close attention to background details and clues as to how many years pass.  It's something like 4 or 5 years... Which strikes lots of people as awfully long for casual relationships.  It does help explain why Cassie is so emotionally invested by the end.  Still, I feel like the audience is meant to believe that both the Cassie and the Randall (probably especially the Randall) relationships are very casual from the point of view of our boys.

I also have never heard a great explanation as to why Jenny is called Jenny in the film... what the hell ever happened to Francine? :-\ ;)

--- End quote ---

Amanda, I'm glad I'm not the only one perplexed.

I know that we've all noticed and discussed the various continuity errors that crop up, but these are incidental to the actual story line. However, I can't see any explaination as to why these timeline inconsistancies seem to be so evident. I agree that from the emotional persepctive of Ennis and Jack their relationships with Cassie and Randall appear to be casual. I can see how the meetings between Jack and Randall could have been carried on in secret for a number of years, but a girl like Cassie would surely be looking for the relationship to be moving forward. Then again, there is a school of thought out there that believes that Jack wasn't seeing Randall, but if we use the original story as a base I think that we have to accept that Jack was getting his itch scratched somewhere.

Doesn't spoil the film for me in any way - remember vividly just how blown away I was after the first viewing - but I do wonder at some of these seeming inconsistancies. Maybe these issues crop up in every film, we just don't rewatch and disect them as avidly as we do this one.  ;D

As for Jenny/Francine's name - who knows? She appears in the film so little it's a bit of a mystery as to why her name was changed.

Karen

Mikaela:
I believe there are very mundane and pragmatic reasons for all these Jenny questions.

"Jenny" is easier to say and easier to recognize in a spoken sentence than "Francine".

And as for the mysterious increase in age difference between Alma Jr. and her sister at the time around the Reunion - that's to do with them needing one kid who was old enough to take direction and perform in a number of scenes. The Alma Jr. who needs crayons, who topples the peanut display, who copies her mother in doing her own cooking, wearing her cute little apron and all, who does the colour book thing with her mother, who takes one more bite of dinner, who comes running to ask her daddy for a big fish, who has to cling to her mother for some time while Alma's watching Ennis drive away with Jack.... The little actress simply couldn't have been much younger than she was, while performing her part in all of those scenes.

While having Jenny myseriously and seemingly *not* age much at the same time, means they could safely keep her out of those Del Mar domestic scenes; - because as a baby still we can infer that she'd be taking naps or being in her crib (if that's the right word), even during those scenes that take place in the middle of the day.

The screenplay has both Jenny and Junior present and helping mom with the cooking when Ennis comes home and is given Jack's first postcard by Alma. I bet when actual filming rolled around, they discovered that one little girl was more than enough to corral.  :)

Kazza:
Mikaela, your explaination makes perfect sense. Rather than being a glaring mistake or something of that nature it was merely to smooth the film making process. No point in trying to direct and manage two small kids when only one is needed to interact with other chatacters.

It did seem a little bizarre that something so glaring would have been overlooked as part of the making of a film, where things are usually planned in meticulous detail.

Thanks.

Karen

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