Anne Hathaway - Princess to Lureen

[Melisande]

Let's all discuss the wonder, beauty and talent that is Anne Hathaway!

[Alex]

2005 Guide to Modern American History As Told Through Anne Hathaway's Hair in Brokeback Mountain

http://thegildedmoose.blogspot.com/2005/12/gilded-moose-teaching-guides-anne.html

[Alex]

Princess Hathaway is blooming into a movie star

http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2005/12/27/princess_hathaway_is_blooming_into_a_movie_star/

[LM]

    SPECTACULAR!!

[Alex]

   WOW!!!!!!

[michaelflanagansf]

Here's a Lureen related question: I noticed when she is talking to Ennis how she tears up when saying that he should visit Jack's parents and that she passes along that he drank alot.  There is also the certain coldness when she tells Ennis she knows who he is.

Before I ask this question let me preface it by saying I know there is no way to know this, but I'm interested in people's impressions:  Do you think Lureen knew that Jack wanted to move in with Ennis, and does she hold Ennis (partially?) responsible for Jack's death because (without Ennis) Jack took unwarranted chances?

Or are the tearing up and drinking comments a more general sort of regret?

[Dave Cullen]

Do you think Lureen knew that Jack wanted to move in with Ennis, and does she hold Ennis (partially?) responsible for Jack's death because (without Ennis) Jack took unwarranted chances?

My vote is yes, definitely to the first one.

And to the second, either she had something to do with the death, or if not, then yes, she was prolly very bitter toward ennis and blamed him.

either way, i think she blamed him for most of it.

[cole4477]

I like to think Lureen loved Jack--they didn't have much of a marriage-but during the 17 years they were together, surely she felt something for him, and he felt something for her.

Why would she, the one with the money, stay married if she didn’t love him?  For the same reason she teared up--she felt some form of love for Jack (who wouldn't if your husband looked like Jake?)

[Wayne SF]

Okay, First I want to say that the scene anne hathaway does on the phone with Ennis is one of the best bits of acting I have EVER seen.  She is spouting off her 'story' about how Jack died.  Then she says half of Jack's ashes was sent to Lightnin; Flat .  Jack wanted his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain. I thought it was a pretend place".  Now, and this is critical.  Ennis says, "no ma'am.  We hearded sheep on Brokeback together in '63".  Now listen to Lureen.  At THAT MOMENT, she puts two-and-two-together.  She lets out a whimper and her eyes start to water.  She has just figured out who Ennis was, to Jack.  And that they met in '63 for Ch*#&$ Sake !!!  Jack was in love with Ennis before he even MET Lureen!!!  Now, the part that is a puzzle and up for much debate, is her very last sentence.  "Go up to his parents.  I am sure they'd appreciate Jack's wishes bein' carried out"....long pause..."About the ashes I mean".  Now what the f&#^ does that mean?  What other of JAck's wishes could she be alluding to?  I have put it together in my mind, but I want to hear what some of you guys have put together.

[lauren]

Wayne, I agree that this is a piece of great acting. What a great admission by Ennis in this scene – he tells a stranger that Jack wanted his ashes scattered on BBM BECAUSE he and Jack spent a summer there in 63. He even corrects her with ‘no, maam.’ He’s essentially telling her he wants his ashes scattered there because he and Jack were in love.  And, I love that moment that Lureen puts two and two together and whimpers, and how she realizes he was in love long before Jack even met her. I think you have to assume Lureen knows Jack is gay before the phone conversation because she puts two and two together in that moment. If she didn’t know he was gay, she wouldn’t have reacted the way she did.

So, that long pause after ‘Jack’s wishes bein’ carried out…..” That long pause is not an accident – it’s there for a reason. It’s a very long pause, and it looks like she’s reflecting on something before she shakes herself out of it to say, “about the ashes I mean.” I’d love to know what you think of this, Wayne. Here’s my theory: I think it must mean that Jack told her either just before he died or sometime before (or she has found out another way, perhaps by a note left by Jack) that he had this other wish. The only thing I can make sense of right now is that Jack’s wish was to make a life at his parents’ place with another man (although Jack probably didn’t explicitly say it was his fishing/hunting buddy from Wyoming). Before his death, Jack had already told Lureen he wanted a divorce.

But, just reading the dialogue again, when she says, “Go up to his parents. I’m sure they’d appreciate Jack’s wishes bein’ carried out…” That sounds like his parents (or his mother) knew of Jack’s wish. Was the wish then for Ennis to go back there to find the shirts?. Jack would have wanted Ennis to find those shirts and know just how much he loved him, to bequeath to Ennis this ultimate representation of their love for one another. This would fit with Jack's mother offering Ennis the opportunity to go up to Jack's room (and find the shirts).

Some have thought maybe Jack committed suicide, and if he did, he may have left a note. But, I just don’t think Jack would have done this – the story doesn’t seem to lead in that direction. Jack may have been despairing, but just MHO I can’t see him leaving Ennis in this way.

Wayne, how have you worked this out?

[brokebackLJ]

Yeah I'm still trying to figure it out.
Maybe it was Jack's wishes to be with Ennis, but then she interrupts so she doesn't give Ennis the wrong impression that his parents would've ever wanted Jack and Ennis to be together....so she says about the ashes. It's kind of heartfelt, there's a part of her that understands, I think, the love they have...although it might be the tiniest part....

[Wayne SF]

Okay, there is alot of connect-the-dots here.  And of course, the story version could be (probably ?) is different from the movie.  Anyway, Lureen finally figures out the Ennis-Jack connection.  She knew Jack was gay, but maybe not in SUCH a long term 'relationship'.  Now, three different people I have taken to the movie (on three different occassions) have told me they saw Lureen's father as one of the bashers.  I didn;t see that (even after seven viewings!!).   However, seveal people have proposed that theory on this blog before as well, so I think that's where that theory comes from.  That, and when LD challenges Jack to let Bobby watch football because 'you want the boy to grow up to be a man, don't you?'.  Implying Bobby couldn't be a man, with Jack as a father.  So Ang Lee may be following a different thread there, than what Annie had envisioned.  So why would Ang put that thread into the movie, unless Jack was murdered.  Further (big leap here), if dad was in on the murder, Lureen knew...not the gory details...but she knew...and was therefore indirectly complicit/accomplice.  THat would explain her monotone, 'cold slip-sliding' tone across the phone to Ennis at the outset of the Lureen/Ennis conversation.  Help me out here.

[peteinportland]

Wayne, the line "about the ashes, I mean" is not in the book. Larry and Diana added that. I want to know the answer to this also. I love this scene on both ends of the phone as there are so many levels of heartbreak going on with both of them. This scene is the one that shreds me inside.

What other wishes did Jack have that Lureen felt she had to make the distinction? I'm not sure I buy what you and Lauren are saying, but I am not sure of another answer. I wish other posters would give us their thoughts.

One of my favorite lines in the movie is in this speech: "But you know Jack. For all I know it is a pretend place where the bluebirds sing and there is a whiskey spring." That line really speaks to the perception that she (and others) have of Jack.

[Scott88]

My reading is that Lureen is referring simply to Jack's wish to have spent a life with Ennis.  After having made the connection about Jack & Ennis (i.e., that they were in love), I think Lureen deduced this wish from the fact that Jack always looked forward to seeing Ennis on their "fishing trips", was always willing to travel hundreds of miles to spend time with this man, etc.

So she realizes, deep down, that Jack's wish was to be with this man in a committed relationship.  That's the wish of Jack's which went unfulfilled because they never did get that ranch together...

[Wayne SF]

PeteinPortland..Okay, we have to make some more leaps here.  Lureen refers to Jack's 'wishes'.  John Twist (Jack's dad) refers to Jack's 'plans'...as in 'like most of Jack's plans, it ain't never come to pass'.  I think the two are interchangeable here...wishes and plans.  So....we know what Jack's plans were.  Namely to move Ennis Del Mar/Randall up to the John Twist ranch and build a cabin and lick that ranch into shape.  So, I think Jack had told Lureen about his plans to divorce and move Randall up to the ranch.  Now, this is not a popular theory, and everyone has lambasted me everytime I have proposed it.