Jack Lemmon was a frequent over-actor and he had some funny moments in the movie, like walking into a plate glass window while carrying roses. But that Lee Remick could shine those blue eyes.thedoc wrote:The final scene of "The Days of Wine and Roses",
As a parent and grandparent, I can't understand anyone who would choose booze over their child.
In the beginning Lee Remick followed Jack Lemmon into hell because he asked her to, each wanted to please the other, and at first hell is fun.
Later in the movie, she asked him to join her in hell, and without the child he would have done that. The allure was strong.
In the end, the mother saw that her husband was sober and a better influence for the child. She did not wake the child because she did not want to be remembered as she looked, in case she never came back. Her child’s peace of mind was more important to her than existing in her child’s life as the destructive role model that she knew she was. To overcome the demon requires more self-esteem than drunks, who are extremely negative people, normally have when alone, which is what encourages the vice.
Imagine the true story of the immigrant father with not one child but two, and he has to work to survive, so the authorities take both young children and put them in the county home, forcing him to return to drink, only now he and the wife are bitter and cannot be together anymore, a fresh hell. Life can be cruel.
Joseph Cotton as Daddy looked stern and hard to please. Fictional Lee likely had issues with that during the fictional formative years.
When you see that choice is an illusion such folks become comprehensible, which rarely inhibits blame until all the blame is gone.
