Week 7

Prompt:

Please attempt a "close reading" of a quote, line, etc from your expected paper topic text.

Response:

Eli Cash: I'm not in love with you anymore.

Margot: I didn't think you ever were.

Eli Cash: Let's not make this harder than it already is.

Margot: OK.

Eli Cash: OK what?

Margot: OK, I'm not in love with you any more either.

Eli Cash: I know. You're in love with Richie, which is sick and gross.

Margot: Do you send my mother your clippings? And your grades in ---

Eli Cash: Please stop belittling me. You never gave me the time of day until I started getting good reviews.

Margot: The reviews aren't that good.

Eli Cash: But the sales are.

                This dialogue happens near the end of the film, before Richie attempts suicide. The scene is set in such a way that Eli and Margot must both walk (opposite sides of) the length of a long bridge in order to meet in the middle and hold this conversation. The set-up for this interaction is perfectly cliché in that it provokes a very particular expectation of what’s to come. In most movies involving romance and/or drama, the temporally extended image of two characters walking towards each other generally leads to some sort of confession or revelation.

                Anderson does not break this trend in his film, but rather uses it to the advantage of a persistent motif: escape. Margot and Eli’s conversation is diametric to what would be expected, yet its content is exactly what these two characters need in order to escape their own illegitimate relationship.  First and foremost, the most obvious aspect of their affair is broken- love. Eli clearly needs to dispose of any attachment to Margot in this sense, and he does so right away. Margot does not react in any way addressing her own feelings, and Eli seems to be caught in the expected drama of the moment when he asks her to “not make this harder than it already is.” Her continued apathy towards the situation flusters him into criticizing her underlying feelings, which happen to be quite romantic. The irony is as beautiful as the cinematography.

                Margot’s provokingly demeaning comments cause Eli to backfire with accusations concerning their relationship. Through the content of both Eli’s and Margot’s confrontational statements, any negative energy between them is made apparent and given an opportunity to mellow out. This type of escape is one of the most advisory, and is well known under the label of “communication”. Anderson’s interpretation of the ability to communicate with one’s significant other creates a situation in which these characters can move on with their lives. Without this dialogue, Margot’s confession of love to Richie as well as Eli’s ultimate decision to attend drug rehabilitation would not occur later in the film.