SPOILER: Like the earlier poster, the key in it is the scene in the bar. Prior to it Tess's son came to see her on Christmas Day, only because his probably shady business partners wanted to use her name on their project (which is doubtless the only reason they brought him on board). She smells a rat and refuses. She is forcibly confronted with the fact that she cannot trust her own son and aside from his occasional need to use her for his own financial advantage, they have no relationship (I guess it is hard to avoid feeling like an underachiever if you are the son of a president. Especially when you go through life trading on your last name the way I suspect Tess's son has. I loved the disappointment welling up in Tess's face as her son continued his obviously planned pitch. He had only come because he wanted something. She knew some scam, some manipulation was coming.).
In the bar with Chesnic, Tess acknowledges that she hasn't been much of a mother and because of this she is all alone. She asks Doug about himself, gently bringing up a very brief marriage on his file.
He simply, sadly says, "Everybody but me could see what she was really like."
You conjure up a vista of someone who is a guardian, a protector, trying to be a knight in shining armor to someone who had no wish to be saved. These characters have such depth that in one line you see a whole other very plausible side to his character; a disastrous love life driven by his need to find basket cases to 'save'. Both Tess and Doug have failed, made mistakes at the fundamental relationships of their lives and their loneliness pulls them together.
It is pleasant to see Nicholas Cage understated.
In the bar with Chesnic, Tess acknowledges that she hasn't been much of a mother and because of this she is all alone. She asks Doug about himself, gently bringing up a very brief marriage on his file.
He simply, sadly says, "Everybody but me could see what she was really like."
You conjure up a vista of someone who is a guardian, a protector, trying to be a knight in shining armor to someone who had no wish to be saved. These characters have such depth that in one line you see a whole other very plausible side to his character; a disastrous love life driven by his need to find basket cases to 'save'. Both Tess and Doug have failed, made mistakes at the fundamental relationships of their lives and their loneliness pulls them together.
It is pleasant to see Nicholas Cage understated.