thakur@eddie.mit.edu (Manavendra K. Thakur) (09/22/90)
ACCIDENTAL TOURIST came highly recommended as an "artistic" film, so I
was watching for artistic things to happen. When Hurt walked to the
phone and the camera followed his feet, I knew that feet would be an
important thing to watch. There were several more scenes of feet until
the "turning point" of the story, where he and we meet the dog trainer
lady. The first thing we see of her is her HAND--ah HA, said I.
The point of the story, of course, is the growth in personality of the
main character from a closed, insulated individual to a more open
person. I think that the change from feet (taking people from place to
place but they never touch) to hands (touching) parallels his change.
From the point where he begins the change (unknown to him, of course),
there are intermixed "hands" and "feet" scenes, until--in one of the
final scenes--he hands pills to his ex-wife and there is a shot of just
their hands (he has learned to touch/be touched).
Questions:
1) Does anybody have a different interpretation of the hands and
feet theme in the movie? I'm sure it was there, I'm just not sure
I got it.
2) Is there any similarity in THE TWO JAKES? There is a similar
scene early in TTJ, where Jake #1 walks around the desk and we
follow his feet, and then he notices, while stooping to pick up
something, that the other Jake is wearing identical shoes. Was this
just cute (because they have the same name) or did it mean something
that I missed?
Dennis Pelton
att.com!ncsc6!dgp