Topic: why does alma freze and keep watching ennis and jack kiss

[ksxks]

People often freeze in the face of danger, a sort of primitive response, almost like kids who think if they cover their eyes and can't see you, you can't see them. It's as though Alma doesn't want to give a clue to her presence because what could they say if they knew she was there, and what could she say? And also because she's confronting something she can't quite take in but knows is dangerous and destructive as far as she's concerned - a bit like seeing a poisonous snake or spider.
...
It's convincing that they resort to social generalities but don't quite manage to sound natural, as one wouldn;t in a situation as fraught as this.

Yes.  So true about her reaction.  No matter what she did it wouldn't be okay.  And she didn't have time to think about what to do. 

And then, as to the little "pleasantries" between them, amazing any of them could keep it seeming natural.  Especially as the SS says Ennis could fairly feel the floorboards shake from Jack's psyched up energy.

Here is a series of pics.   Especially the first two.  Alma was seeing this interchange between them, so even if she hadn't seen the passion in their kiss, she sure might have thought these men were acting odd...  And they're all breathless.  And then Ennis hustles Jack out the door.

kathy

[greenfrog]

People often freeze in the face of danger, a sort of primitive response, almost like kids who think if they cover their eyes and can't see you, you can't see them. It's as though Alma doesn't want to give a clue to her presence because what could they say if they knew she was there, and what could she say? And also because she's confronting something she can't quite take in but knows is dangerous and destructive as far as she's concerned - a bit like seeing a poisonous snake or spider.
...
It's convincing that they resort to social generalities but don't quite manage to sound natural, as one wouldn;t in a situation as fraught as this.

HE'S MINE !!!!!

[NoReins]

Yes.  So true about her reaction.  No matter what she did it wouldn't be okay.  And she didn't have time to think about what to do. 

And then, as to the little "pleasantries" between them, amazing any of them could keep it seeming natural.  Especially as the SS says Ennis could fairly feel the floorboards shake from Jack's psyched up energy.

Here is a series of pics.   Especially the first two.  Alma was seeing this interchange between them, so even if she hadn't seen the passion in their kiss, she sure might have thought these men were acting odd...  And they're all breathless.  And then Ennis hustles Jack out the door.

kathy

Kathy - these two photos are amazing. I don't think I've ever actually looked that closely at their expressions before, but their faces say it all, even if Alma hadn't seen them kiss - the little smile between them in the first one and the longing in Jack's eyes (presumably reflected in Ennis's) in the second. I always thought you could feel the electricity between them watching this scene (capturing the sense of the floorboards shaking) but you can see it too. Wow.

[tpe]

We should also try to put ourselves in Alma's shoes.  She had no way of understanding all this.  In many ways, she is an innocent victim at this point -- forced in a few seconds to come tro grips with the possibility of her entire marriage being a total lie.  What else could she have done but freeze and withdraw?  So much that was meaningful to her was at stake...

[smilesalot]

Wow! Love those pics Kathy, that little shared smile between them at the doorway. You can see how they're both trying SO HARD to be normal but they can't help but be all giggly and trembly and giddy from being together after four long years.

I also love the little smile Ennis gives Alma when Jack says the "I gotta boy. Eight months old. Smiles a lot" line. Ennis just looks up and his whole face says, "Isn't he great? Don't you just love him?"

No wonder Alma can't handle it. The last time she saw her husband this happy was tobogganing in the snow, and maybe now she's questioning even that, and what kind of life they've built together.

[ksxks]

We should also try to put ourselves in Alma's shoes.  She had no way of understanding all this.  In many ways, she is an innocent victim at this point -- forced in a few seconds to come tro grips with the possibility of her entire marriage being a total lie.  What else could she have done but freeze and withdraw?  So much that was meaningful to her was at stake...

Absolutely.  This is a shocking, devastating moment for her, and without any real understanding of what is happening.  It would seem, also, she had no one she could possibly talk to about this.  Why she just soldiered on, until her situation changed and she was safe and secure with Monroe.

kathy

[ksxks]

Wow! Love those pics Kathy, that little shared smile between them at the doorway. You can see how they're both trying SO HARD to be normal but they can't help but be all giggly and trembly and giddy from being together after four long years.

I also love the little smile Ennis gives Alma when Jack says the "I gotta boy. Eight months old. Smiles a lot" line. Ennis just looks up and his whole face says, "Isn't he great? Don't you just love him?"

No wonder Alma can't handle it. The last time she saw her husband this happy was tobogganing in the snow, and maybe now she's questioning even that, and what kind of life they've built together.

Love what you said here!  And of course, this has to be one of your favorite scenes -- your name. 

And I always have to say, what an amazing job these two did.  As I've said before, it's not some caricature lust they portrayed here, but absolutely full every moment of subtlety and nuance.  It's easy to play that caricature, but what they did is infuse these characters with a very unique love with their every look and touch and word.

kathy

kathy

[welshwitch]

A lot of what gets us about the movie is this kind of subtlety - I just had the thought ( unlikely to impossible but humor me) of how this would have been done in a silent movie - all rolling eyes and over-reactions!

[smilesalot]

Well actually, WW, not much of a stretch there really. A lot of this movie is silent, and the music kind of moves it along, so much is said in expressions and gestures, a glance under a hat, a fidgety shifting of the feet, or in this scene...with Alma fiddling with her purse. It's amazing how so much is said...just by the way Ennis is leaning against a wall. If we look at the pictures above and then juxtapose that to the way Ennis is leaning against Aguirre's trailer in the beginning of the movie...what a difference, huh? There's the answer to why alma freezes. She knows Ennis' body as only a wife can, and the message his body is sending is NOT one she wants to hear.

[tpe]

We should also try to put ourselves in Alma's shoes.  She had no way of understanding all this.  In many ways, she is an innocent victim at this point -- forced in a few seconds to come tro grips with the possibility of her entire marriage being a total lie.  What else could she have done but freeze and withdraw?  So much that was meaningful to her was at stake...

Absolutely.  This is a shocking, devastating moment for her, and without any real understanding of what is happening.  It would seem, also, she had no one she could possibly talk to about this.  Why she just soldiered on, until her situation changed and she was safe and secure with Monroe.

kathy

I had wondered whether she confided with Monroe.  I don't know whether she did this soon after the first reunion, but I think it is likely that she must have told him later about what she saw.  You are right, though: at the moment, she had nobody to confide to -- her life seemed to have revolved around Ennis and the children.  It makes the betrayal much harder to swallow...

[ksxks]

A lot of what gets us about the movie is this kind of subtlety - I just had the thought ( unlikely to impossible but humor me) of how this would have been done in a silent movie - all rolling eyes and over-reactions!

Funny!  "Rolling eyes and over-reactions."  Crazy.  And like the SNIT would be something like that scene with Rudolph Valentino and what's-her-name, Ennis would have to swoon in Jack's arms.

In kind of the same vein, it is always interesting to be watching the scenes without the sound (such as in music videos, or even stills) and see how much comes across without words.  Oh, but the words, the words!  Beautiful, perfect, essential, poetic, spare words.

kathy

[ksxks]

Well actually, WW, not much of a stretch there really. A lot of this movie is silent, and the music kind of moves it along, so much is said in expressions and gestures, a glance under a hat, a fidgety shifting of the feet, or in this scene...with Alma fiddling with her purse. It's amazing how so much is said...just by the way Ennis is leaning against a wall. If we look at the pictures above and then juxtapose that to the way Ennis is leaning against Aguirre's trailer in the beginning of the movie...what a difference, huh? There's the answer to why alma freezes. She knows Ennis' body as only a wife can, and the message his body is sending is NOT one she wants to hear.

Wow -- that is so true.  Not just all the expressions and his face and all that, that she sees, but actually his body, humming with this energy and loose at the same time.  Not to mention, how he was all day waiting for Jack.

kathy

[ksxks]

I had wondered whether she confided with Monroe.  I don't know whether she did this soon after the first reunion, but I think it is likely that she must have told him later about what she saw.  You are right, though: at the moment, she had nobody to confide to -- her life seemed to have revolved around Ennis and the children.  It makes the betrayal much harder to swallow...

You think she told Monroe later?  Before that Thanksgiving dinner?  I wonder about this, will have to give it some thought, think about what kind of person Monroe is.  He didn't seem the slightest bit uncomfortable with Ennis, which is interesting in itself -- he didn't see him as a threat at all.  Which could mean he knew Ennis's inclinations were elsewhere.  But if he knew this, what would his attitude have been?  What kind of social perceptions did he have?  Maybe he was a little ahead of his time, and maybe the grocery business put him in touch with all kinds of people and he might have had tolerance for people who were different.  Although gay was not an acceptable "different."  So, if he did know, would he be the kind that wouldn't want such a man around his step-daughters?  He wouldn't really have anything to say about that, though.  But once his and Alma's kids were born, would he want Ennis to stay away.  Anyway, at the T'giving dinner, he was just mellow, and didn't over-react to Ennis's storming out of there, either.

Just thinking out loud.



kathy

[tpe]

You think she told Monroe later?  Before that Thanksgiving dinner?  I wonder about this, will have to give it some thought, think about what kind of person Monroe is.  He didn't seem the slightest bit uncomfortable with Ennis, which is interesting in itself -- he didn't see him as a threat at all.  Which could mean he knew Ennis's inclinations were elsewhere.  But if he knew this, what would his attitude have been?  What kind of social perceptions did he have?  Maybe he was a little ahead of his time, and maybe the grocery business put him in touch with all kinds of people and he might have had tolerance for people who were different.  Although gay was not an acceptable "different."  So, if he did know, would he be the kind that wouldn't want such a man around his step-daughters?  He wouldn't really have anything to say about that, though.  But once his and Alma's kids were born, would he want Ennis to stay away.  Anyway, at the T'giving dinner, he was just mellow, and didn't over-react to Ennis's storming out of there, either.

Just thinking out loud.

kathy

I did notice that Monroe and Alma exchanged looks at the end of the dinner table scene, and I had wondered if this indicated that they had shared knowledge about Ennis.  I really can't prove that Monroe knew about Ennis, but I do consider it plausible.  Even if we assume that Monroe did not know before this scene, it would have been plausible that he got to know more after the scene.  How could Alma explain the outburst to Monroe after Ennis had left?  Was she even up to it?

[welshwitch]

If he runs the only supermarket there is, and that seems likely, he presumably has to deal with all the local chacracters and be reasonably non-commital about his own likes and dislikes. He seems, in the peanut scene, to be reasonable and not liable to fly into tantrums - the same in the TG scene. there of course he knows he's got Alma - she left Ennis, married him and is pregnant, so he's in no danger of losing her. I don't think Ennis's going there is a very regular thing, moer something Alma does because she feels secure with Monroe and knows Ennis is having a much worse time than she is.

If I had to guess, given her character I'd say she won;t have discussed Ennis's sexuality with Monroe 9or anyone else). There are all sorts of plausible reasons for her having left ennis; some of them must have been apparent when she was working in the supermarket. Monroe, on the other hand, may well have heard the local gossip about Ennis - Ennis clearly thinks he's being looked at oddly in Riverton because he says so, and unless he's totally paranoid that's presumably true. So monroe may well have a sense that he's prefectly safe from Ennis, since Ennis wasn't really interested in Alma and is no threat.

[tpe]

Monroe did strike me as a level-headed character.  And I do think he was accepting of Alma and truly loved her.  I do think it is quite possible that he would not have asked probing questions to her about Ennis, especially if he knew that this was a bad subject.

Whether Alma told Monroe or not, I remain uncertain.  Alma had great self-control and it took her years -- till the thanksgiving scene -- before she finally cracked and confronted Ennis.  But confront him she did, and I wonder that, given time and circumstances, she would not have confided inevitably to Monroe, who was so supportive and caring.  I did feel that the children did inevitably come to know, and this is perhaps either through their own insight or through things discussed quietly in Monroe's house.

[ksxks]

You think she told Monroe later?  Before that Thanksgiving dinner?  I wonder about this, will have to give it some thought, think about what kind of person Monroe is.  He didn't seem the slightest bit uncomfortable with Ennis, which is interesting in itself -- he didn't see him as a threat at all.  Which could mean he knew Ennis's inclinations were elsewhere.  But if he knew this, what would his attitude have been?  What kind of social perceptions did he have?  Maybe he was a little ahead of his time, and maybe the grocery business put him in touch with all kinds of people and he might have had tolerance for people who were different.  Although gay was not an acceptable "different."  So, if he did know, would he be the kind that wouldn't want such a man around his step-daughters?  He wouldn't really have anything to say about that, though.  But once his and Alma's kids were born, would he want Ennis to stay away.  Anyway, at the T'giving dinner, he was just mellow, and didn't over-react to Ennis's storming out of there, either.

Just thinking out loud.

kathy

I did notice that Monroe and Alma exchanged looks at the end of the dinner table scene, and I had wondered if this indicated that they had shared knowledge about Ennis.  I really can't prove that Monroe knew about Ennis, but I do consider it plausible.  Even if we assume that Monroe did not know before this scene, it would have been plausible that he got to know more after the scene.  How could Alma explain the outburst to Monroe after Ennis had left?  Was she even up to it?

The look they shared was about Ennis's story about bronc-riding wasn't it?  But still, that look could mean any number of things.  I do agree, though, that it's quite likely that after that whole outburst between them and Ennis storming out, that eventually Alma might well have told Monroe the whole story.

kathy

[ksxks]

I couldn't remember, so I just went and checked the Movie Recital thread, to see if Alma, in the Thanksgiving/kitchen scene, said that she'd seen Ennis and Jack that day.  But she didn't.  Just talked about not going up there to fish, because of her putting the note on the end of his line.  So he still doesn't even know that she saw them.

kathy

[tpe]

I couldn't remember, so I just went and checked the Movie Recital thread, to see if Alma, in the Thanksgiving/kitchen scene, said that she'd seen Ennis and Jack that day.  But she didn't.  Just talked about not going up there to fish, because of her putting the note on the end of his line.  So he still doesn't even know that she saw them.

kathy

Yes, as far as the kiss, I don't think Alma would ever tell him.  Fear may be part of the reason...

[ksxks]

I couldn't remember, so I just went and checked the Movie Recital thread, to see if Alma, in the Thanksgiving/kitchen scene, said that she'd seen Ennis and Jack that day.  But she didn't.  Just talked about not going up there to fish, because of her putting the note on the end of his line.  So he still doesn't even know that she saw them.

kathy

Yes, as far as the kiss, I don't think Alma would ever tell him.  Fear may be part of the reason...

I could spend some time imagining how their lives might have been different if she had told him she had seen them.  Probably not that next morning, but after he got home from that first fishing trip.  But her not telling him has such veracity for the story, the character.

kathy

[tpe]

I could spend some time imagining how their lives might have been different if she had told him she had seen them.  Probably not that next morning, but after he got home from that first fishing trip.  But her not telling him has such veracity for the story, the character.

kathy

Had the marriage ended sooner, would it had been better for all?  Had Alma nor froze when she saw it -- had she come out and confronted them, would the shock and trauma have forced Ennis's hand?

[welshwitch]

What an interesting question! Part of me says yes, Ennis would have been so horrified to be confronted by his wife who knew ther was at least something "queer" about her husband that he'd have watched Jack drive away as he'd done four years earlier. The other part says that after that kiss Jack wouldn't have given up so easily, and maybe once things had settled down perhaps if he'd reappeared Ennis would have gone on with the fishing trips, but I'm not so sure he wouldnl't have been even more jumpy about the whole thing and even less able to get away.

Alma clearly isn't the "Stand by Your Man" type - she ditches Ennis, but later, when she has husband number two lined up - whether she's have been so keen to divorce him while she still had two very young children is another question. Of course, if she had, maybe then, at that point and after the reunion, Ennis just might have been more malleable, and also more alone. If the grounds for the divorce had been Ennis's behavior with Jack, he would have had no access to the girls and therefore less reason to stick around in
Rriverton.

I think I've argued myself around to thinking that if there had been a huge confrontation, started by Alma when she saw them, the whole story would have ended quite differently, or could have, at least.

[tpe]

This would have been equivalent to outing Ennis, no?  It would have left him no choice but face up to his fears.  Not so sure how that would have ended.  It could have ended with him totally distancing himself from Jack.  But it is also likely that this would have pushed him straight into Jack's arms.

Alma reacted the way most people would react when faced with such a sight.  I think people tend to be more cautious when faced with something they could not understand in an instant.  Had she been a bit more impulsive/aggressive, things might have indeed come to a head much earlier.

[welshwitch]

Whether you put it down to "When in doubt, do nothing" or just good old cowardice, the fact that Alma simply does nothing at this point dictates the rest of the story. What if she'd asked Ennis not to go, demanded that if he goes he comes back later in the evening and doesn't stay out all night? There's a degree to which she colludes here and with the later fishing trips - if she didn't, there would have to be some other solution but she never forces Ennis to choose between her and Jack.

[jesseanne21]

Whether you put it down to "When in doubt, do nothing" or just good old cowardice,the fact that Alma simply does nothing at  this point dictates the rest of the story. What if she'd asked Ennis not to go, demanded that if he goes he comes back later in the evening and doesn't stay out all night? There's a degree to which she colludes here and with the later fishing trips - if she didn't, there would have to be some other solution but she never forces Ennis to choose between her and Jack.

WW, you are so right...if Alma was a little more like Lureen and had marched down the stairs when she say Ennis and Jack kissing and demanded to know what was going on things would have gone very differently.

[ksxks]

Whether you put it down to "When in doubt, do nothing" or just good old cowardice, the fact that Alma simply does nothing at this point dictates the rest of the story. What if she'd asked Ennis not to go, demanded that if he goes he comes back later in the evening and doesn't stay out all night? There's a degree to which she colludes here and with the later fishing trips - if she didn't, there would have to be some other solution but she never forces Ennis to choose between her and Jack.

Very interesting.  You're so right, about Alma's colluding in this.  Odd that I never exactly looked at it that way before.  She knows who Jack is, knows who her husband and Jack are to each other, and continues to "let" Ennis go away with Jack without her showing her hand, saying what she knows.  I know in the beginning it was probably her feeling helpless -- the man was king, she needed him for supporting her and two young kids; but later on, she could go out to work and feel more independent of him...and then not all that long afterwards got herself to the place where she could divorce him easily.  So I understand in the beginning years her not confronting him with what she knew, but later on, she could have, once she didn't need him for security anymore.  I guess she waited until she was totally free of him (of his child support and probably alimony when she was still single) and secure with Monroe, and then she did confront him.

kathy

[CrimsonSky]

You think she told Monroe later?  Before that Thanksgiving dinner?  I wonder about this, will have to give it some thought, think about what kind of person Monroe is.  He didn't seem the slightest bit uncomfortable with Ennis, which is interesting in itself -- he didn't see him as a threat at all.  Which could mean he knew Ennis's inclinations were elsewhere.  But if he knew this, what would his attitude have been?  What kind of social perceptions did he have?  Maybe he was a little ahead of his time, and maybe the grocery business put him in touch with all kinds of people and he might have had tolerance for people who were different.  Although gay was not an acceptable "different."  So, if he did know, would he be the kind that wouldn't want such a man around his step-daughters?  He wouldn't really have anything to say about that, though.  But once his and Alma's kids were born, would he want Ennis to stay away.  Anyway, at the T'giving dinner, he was just mellow, and didn't over-react to Ennis's storming out of there, either.

Just thinking out loud.



kathy

I never thought I'd say this Kathy, but I see it totally differently I thought Monroe seemed very uncomfortable in the Thanksgiving scene, almost like an outsider in his own home.He stops carving the turkey so Ennis can tell his story about the rodeo, then when Ennis is finished Monroe looks at Alma, as if to check that it's ok to carry on,I suppose it could just be that he was just being polite, but it felt to me like he didn't appreciate having to interrupt what he was doing for Ennis,and he would've appreciated Alma telling Jr that Ennis would tell the story once Monroe had finished carving the turkey  but he didn't feel that he could say anything(actually, typing that just made me think that there's a similarity there with Jack's Thanksgiving scene with LD, maybe that's what put the idea in my head? It never stops, does it?   ) 
 I think Alma wore the trousers in the relationship with Monroe,and he would've been aware that wasn't the case with Alma and Ennis,even if Alma hadn't told him anything about her and Ennis, he would've realised that from the scene in the supermarket.Monroe strikes me as the sort of guy that is always bemoaning the fact that girls always like the bad guys and never the "nice" guys like him, so in that sense he might have felt inferior in some way to Ennis(assuming Alma hadn't told him about Ennis and Jack, which personally I don't think she would). Not to mention the fact that physically Ennis was taller and more muscular than Monroe, I think Monroe would've found him very intimidating physically as well, that's the only reason I can think of for him not getting up off his chair when he heard all the commotion from the kitchen, he was very slow to react, and when he does he hardly reacts at all, Ennis, for all his faults as a husband, would've been in there like a shot if it had been the other way around.

You would think that afterwards Monroe would've asked Alma for an explanation, but I get the feeling that Alma would've said she didn't want to discuss it and Monroe would've just left it, he doesn't seem like the type to push the issue. I don't think Alma would've told Monroe about Ennis,she couldn't bring herself to confront Ennis about it for years, she was in denial about it herself for years, even went to the trouble of setting the "trap" with the fishing line, rather than just telling him what she'd seen, and then when she does confront him, it's with the creel case story, if she really wanted to force him to admit it, why not just say that she's seeing him kissing Jack? there's no way he could've said that didn't prove anything I think that even after the divorce, Alma didn't want to believe that Ennis was in love with another man, maybe because of what she thought that might say about her, wasn't she a good enough wife, a "real" woman, if her husband preferred being with a man to being with her? She might have worried it would reflect badly on her if she told Monroe, and didn't want to put her new marriage at risk, either way, I don't see that she had anything to gain from telling him.   

Blimey, I can't believe I wrote such a long rambling post about Monroe, of all people! :-[ Jack and/or Ennis is one thing, but Monroe?!           

[ksxks]

I never thought I'd say this Kathy, but I see it totally differently I thought Monroe seemed very uncomfortable in the Thanksgiving scene, almost like an outsider in his own home.He stops carving the turkey so Ennis can tell his story about the rodeo, then when Ennis is finished Monroe looks at Alma, as if to check that it's ok to carry on,I suppose it could just be that he was just being polite, but it felt to me like he didn't appreciate having to interrupt what he was doing for Ennis,and he would've appreciated Alma telling Jr that Ennis would tell the story once Monroe had finished carving the turkey  but he didn't feel that he could say anything(actually, typing that just made me think that there's a similarity there with Jack's Thanksgiving scene with LD, maybe that's what put the idea in my head? It never stops, does it?   ) 
 I think Alma wore the trousers in the relationship with Monroe,and he would've been aware that wasn't the case with Alma and Ennis,even if Alma hadn't told him anything about her and Ennis, he would've realised that from the scene in the supermarket.Monroe strikes me as the sort of guy that is always bemoaning the fact that girls always like the bad guys and never the "nice" guys like him, so in that sense he might have felt inferior in some way to Ennis(assuming Alma hadn't told him about Ennis and Jack, which personally I don't think she would). Not to mention the fact that physically Ennis was taller and more muscular than Monroe, I think Monroe would've found him very intimidating physically as well, that's the only reason I can think of for him not getting up off his chair when he heard all the commotion from the kitchen, he was very slow to react, and when he does he hardly reacts at all, Ennis, for all his faults as a husband, would've been in there like a shot if it had been the other way around.

You would think that afterwards Monroe would've asked Alma for an explanation, but I get the feeling that Alma would've said she didn't want to discuss it and Monroe would've just left it, he doesn't seem like the type to push the issue. I don't think Alma would've told Monroe about Ennis,she couldn't bring herself to confront Ennis about it for years, she was in denial about it herself for years, even went to the trouble of setting the "trap" with the fishing line, rather than just telling him what she'd seen, and then when she does confront him, it's with the creel case story, if she really wanted to force him to admit it, why not just say that she's seeing him kissing Jack? there's no way he could've said that didn't prove anything I think that even after the divorce, Alma didn't want to believe that Ennis was in love with another man, maybe because of what she thought that might say about her, wasn't she a good enough wife, a "real" woman, if her husband preferred being with a man to being with her? She might have worried it would reflect badly on her if she told Monroe, and didn't want to put her new marriage at risk, either way, I don't see that she had anything to gain from telling him.   

Blimey, I can't believe I wrote such a long rambling post about Monroe, of all people! :-[ Jack and/or Ennis is one thing, but Monroe?!           

Yes, funny, writing a treatise on Monroe!  I see your points about him.  I guess he's so mild-mannered, I couldn't read him.  It seemed to me he probably felt secure with Alma, that Ennis was a loser in the ways that were important to her and to him, Monroe.  But certainly there is room for Monroe to have insecurites about Ennis, just the raw manliness of him.

As to Alma and her oblique way of telling Ennis she knew, I see that, too, and that always bothered me.  Also that she probably didn't tell Monroe.

kathy

[welshwitch]

OK, she froze when she saw them kissing and said nothing the next day, or at any time after. Yet she set the note-on-the -fishing-line trap - why ? What ddi she want to prove? That they'weren'tfishing and that Ennis has been lying to her? But once she had the knowledge she did nothing with it literally for years. So he never had the chance to admit  (or deny) anything, as he doesn't at Thanksgiving, so was she just keeping her knowledge to herself, as she did  after the reunion, and feling smug about it?  You know, "I know something you don't know I know"? ( Any minute now I'm going to get into known knowns and known unknowns and unknown unknowns!) Did she intend to use it against Ennis in the divorce? But she didn't apparently, and couldn't have backed it up with any evidence anyway.

It strikes me that Alma was as incapable of breaking out of her comfort zone as Ennis was. Of course Monroe is no problem - he comes over as lacking Ennis's strength, physical and mental. So with him she has material comfort and a husband who's probably easier to deal with than Ennis ever was. I can see why she prefers him, but I still can;t see why she acts as she does after the reunion kiss or later.

[Twisted]

I haven't read the thread yet, but here's my opinion.

Was Alma a christian girl? I think that she had never even heard about gays, so she was so shocked when she saw Ennis and Jack kissing, that she couldn't move even if she wanted to.

Little OT but... When i saw the film the first time, i froze myself when i saw Alma open the door and look at them. I thought, that plaese please don't say or do anything. If she had said something to Ennis, while they were still married, it might have change things, and a lot.