Storytelling : (spoilers) did mikey really hypnotise his dad?

...mikey was really convincing, and i've been hypnotised! the reason i ask is because maybe the father just took this opportunity to listen to his son's thoughts and decided it was best to do what he said to make him feel better, in light of what was happening with the family. for those who might post back saying something along the lines of ,"you idiot, why would he leave his unconscious son and fire the maid?!", if you think about it, the father knew his son wouldn't wake up anyway, and could have wanted to make his younger son, the only of the three that really had a future, feel better, and as for firing consuela, there are plenty of maids, and maybe she wasn't doing a good job in the aftermath of jesus being murderd and solondz just didn't want to show it because it would look odd juxtaposed with the other scenes following the hypnosis.

Yes, Mikey DID hypnotise him. Your points are Bollocks.

And it was hilarious.

I share the same confusion, and agree with smithcoreys arguments. But could on the other hand see why the hypnoze could be true.

I don't know.

While seeing the movie for the first time, I saw it as the father wasn't really hypnotized and he was just playing along when he fired Consuela. Playing along to the extreme, yet playing along for the one remaining son he has hope for. Looking back at it, I still don't know.

You Fools! Of course he was hypnotized! They made it clear earlier in the movie that all Consuela did was work, so why would he fire her to make the kid feel better? I'll give Solondz credit though, he didn't make it clear...and here we are.....

at one point when he is being hypnotized, he raises his eyebrows, signifying he is playing along.

This is such an old thread, but I do wish to point out that she probably wasn't that great of a worker. The scene of her on the floor cleaning the brown residue on the floor showed this. She was out of breath and taking forever to clean it up. Much of the work she did was pointless and effortless, and she made it look like she was building a stone house.

She was just depressed. She was just a typical person who thinks she has the worst life in the world, but in reality, her life was not that bad. She victimized herself, just as her grandson did. This is the same woman that said her grandson wasn't a bad guy for raping and murdering a woman. She wasn't a good worker and she wasn't a good person. Mikey was the voice of reason in that regard.

And Goodman did have a facial reaction to something Mikey said during the hypnosis. There was such a camera fixation on Goodman's face during that scene that I thought it was evident that we were supposed to see the raise of the eyebrows and almost chuckle of sort. We, the audience, were being let it on the secret that he was just playing along.

very good last point Killingthejoy

Another great point by the OP: "if you think about it, the father knew his son wouldn't wake up anyway, and could have wanted to make his younger son, the only of the three that really had a future, feel better"

Calling that argument "Bollocks" is ignorant, plus Bollocks just sounds stupid.

Yeah' you're right. The raise of the eyebrows was some evidence that he was in on it, however, I don't comprehend how he would fire Consulea to appease his little prick of a son. Yeah, Consuela was a delusional idiot for justifying rape, but I think if the father was in on it......letting the maid go was wrong.

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This is such an old thread, but I do wish to point out that she probably wasn't that great of a worker. The scene of her on the floor cleaning the brown residue on the floor showed this. She was out of breath and taking forever to clean it up. Much of the work she did was pointless and effortless, and she made it look like she was building a stone house.

She was just depressed. She was just a typical person who thinks she has the worst life in the world, but in reality, her life was not that bad. She victimized herself, just as her grandson did. This is the same woman that said her grandson wasn't a bad guy for raping and murdering a woman. She wasn't a good worker and she wasn't a good person. Mikey was the voice of reason in that regard.

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I agree. The scenes in which she is scrubbing the stain off the floor, and dusting(?) the curtain rail were sort of uncomfortable to watch. She was slow, sweating and almost looked like she was in pain.

Even though it lead to their deaths... I think Mikey had the right idea about telling his dad to fire her.