you're always sorry

 
[continued "spoiler alert" for Shoot The Moon - this is the last post about that last scene]

        Albert Finney, the ex-husband who gets battered at the end of the movie, is the same actor who portrayed the lawyer Julia Roberts' character worked for in Erin Brockovich.

Under one of the videos about this movie, one commenter had typed in, 

"What did I just watch?!"

        That was kind of how I felt.

In an earlier scene, one of the children is unhappy with the dad (Finney's character) and he says to the daughter, "I'm sorry."

        She points out, "You're always sorry."

Something I noticed after I went back and watched that last scene again was: before he gets in his car and drives on his path of mad destruction, he and his ex-wife are standing together, talking.  Talking about how good the tennis court is, and how we're being "grown up" about the divorce, etc.

        Her boyfriend who built the tennis court, Frank, joins them and they're all friendly, and being nice.  Making an effort.

        George compliments Frank on the tennis court - "great work."

        Frank asks George if he would like something to drink.

        Frank says he has to go and starts moving toward his car.

                And the second time watching this, I realized through the whole friendly-getting-along scene, George is looking around - over there, over here, down there... then he looks at his companions again, his ex-wife and her boyfriend, then he looks around some more.

The looking-around is easy to miss if you aren't trying to specifically spot something - I wanted to see, When did he turn from being friendly and conciliatory and peaceful, to being Crazy-Destruct-o-Monster?

...And watching it a second and third time, I came to the conclusion the guy was planning, in his mind, the whole time while pretending to get along with everyone.  He was looking around, planning where he was going to drive - first, then second, then next, and next... planning how much destruction he could perpetrate in a short period of time before he was stopped.

        I thought about that for a while.

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