Overview
Commentary
Fundamentally, this movie is about enabling. Kate enables her daughter’s addiction, Richard enables his ex-wife’s failing business, and Les enables her best friend’s emotional decision-making.
Richard chastises Kate for giving money to Claire despite her obvious motive to keep using drugs, yet Richard is indirectly financing Claire by writing thousands of dollars to Kate when unexpected costs hit her farm that he never thought was a good idea. Kate then provides Claire with a home and money as needed.
When Kate is clearly distraught after Claire’s violent outburst and threats to steal the family dog as ransom for money, Les provides a night of good company as Kate drinks, dances, and drinks into a hangover the next morning. We don’t see Kate struggle with drinking in a way we might call dependence, so perhaps we get this scene to understand the degrees of enabling and self-destructive tendencies. It’s not unlike Breaking Bad with Marie’s kleptomania. She undoubtedly leans on alcohol periodically to cope with stress and loneliness, but she doesn’t struggle with cravings as much as tremendous grief and regrettable decisions when drunk. Both Kate and Claire express at various points that they feel their entire life is a complete failure. When Kate gets drunk, she ends up confessing that she dumped a body in a lake to protect her daughter.
Also, it’s a little on-the-nose that her lesbian friend is named Les. I’m not saying there aren’t lesbians named Leslie who use the Les pun all the time, but I am saying that when it’s a movie, you can choose any name you want for whatever reason you want.