What SkyFrog said (welcome to the boards, btw). How many middle-aged guys actively trying to score with 18 year olds would be turned off by the girl being a virgin? And if the Mina Suvari character was really as experienced and jaded as she claimed, she’d know that. I could see an argument to be made that she really is a slut, and is pretending to be a virgin in a miscalculated attempt to be more desirable, but I don’t think your wife’s interpretation holds up.
Hey, he wasn’t unemployed! He was a cook at that burger joint.
Heh your wife either over analyzed that scene or sees the worst in people.
The girl lived 24/7 in a fantasy world (much like Kevin Spacey’s character) she made up stories so she wouldn’t be ‘boring’ or ‘ordinary’ (remember her speeches about that’s the worst thing someone can be and how crushed she was when her friend’s boyfriend saw through her image) the seduction of her friend’s father was just another fantasy only this one started to become real. Worried that he wouldn’t find her any good and reject her (which would have been another horrific blow to her world) She had to confess her virginity and be honest for the first time in her life.
You are so busted.
I’m afraid that your wife is insane. But I’m sure she has redeeming qualities besides that, so don’t feel too badly. 
Hubby and I had the exact same split interpretations.
I thought she was lying, playing the scared virgin, but really a manipulative dynamo.
Hubby thought she was being completely sincere, a frightened little girl.
I started a nearly identical OP to this back when the movie came out, BTW.
The whole movie is basically about how fantasies (Spacey’s fantasy about the girl, his wife’s fantasy about an affair, etc.) don’t stand up to close scrutiny. “Look closer” is not only the tagline used to sell the film, it’s the encapsualted message of the film. The story about Spacey and the cheerleader is a “typical” male fantasy about sex with young teen girls… a fantasy which has a brutal flipside of reality, as shown when she reveals that she is indeed a virgin, not the wanton he had been fantasizing about. The real-world consequences of his fantasy slapped him (and hopefully the audience too) in the face at that moment, and he backed off.
In other words, I agree with the OP. Though everyone is welcome to their interpretation (which is the hallmark of a great film), I find it hard to imagine any other valid take on that particular storyline.
I thought the same thing as your wife when I first saw it. “OMG I can’t believe he *believes that shit!” She is obviously a manipulator through and through.
I’ve seen it 3 times and haven’t changed my opinion. I guess that makes me insane by some accounts.
Oh, I don’t know.
I’ve seen Holocaust revisionism and Biblical apologetics that are far more contrived than Mrs. igloorex’s interpretation.
Hello Again,
Ok. I’m watching the scene again right now and I can’t imagine how else you can read it.
It starts out with her fears of being ordinary (providing the reason she’s trying to seduce an older man) He tells her she couldn’t be ordinary if she tried (flattering her ego that got her to this point). She takes a sip of beer and nearly chokes on it. He touches her near her thighs she gasps in fear. He unbuttons her shirt she lays there frozen like a deer (if you’ve ever undressed an uncertain virgin you’ll instantly recognize that look) She tells him she’s a virgin he pulls back. She’s says “I thought you said I was beautiful” (once again a tiny girl with a big mouth terrified) “I feel so stupid, I’m sorry.” She starts to cry. A few moments later she’s in the kitchen eating with him. She’s obviously trying to put the mask back on but it’s not quite back yet. She tells him she’s still a little weirded out but she’s ok. She asks how he is. The whole scene seems to be the climax of the movie. The point of this movie was all about the masks people put on (the repressed gay father next door and his horrific family life they try to pawn off as normal, the wife that has totally lost touch with anything real instead fills the emptiness with furniture, Spacey in his HUGE midlife crisis pretending to be a teenager, his daughter with her manufactured angst, and a girl that lives in a fantasy world)
Nothing in any of this suggests anything other then she’s being honest for the first time in her life. Her earlier playground bragging REEKED of BS to me from the first time I saw this movie. I saw girls like that all the time that had big mouths with nothing real to back it up. All a show to prove she wasn’t ordinary that all came crashing down when she tried to make it real.
I have always taken her to be a virgin but pretended to be the biggest slut - mainly to hide the insecurities she had. Heck, I was guilty of this when I was a teenage virgin.
Simple response – female of the Spacey demographic and I agree with the OP and not his wife.
I’ll agree with the majority opinion here, also adding that when I first saw the movie one thing that struck me were the paradoxes in all the characters:
- The tough-as-nails macho dad with a latent homosexual thing going;
- The driven mom (Annette Bening’s character) who showed a very vulnerable side when faced with failure (I can’t remember exactly what happened, but I seem to recall she broke down crying at one point because she had a hard time selling a house);
- Kevin Spacey: ostensibly in this suburban family-man role, but with a lot of seething dissatisfaction;
- And playing right into this, the “promiscuous” cheerleader who is really a virgin.
I figured all of these were very deliberate.
Don’t forget the “crazy” kid who was easily the most sane, level-headed, and confident of the bunch.
I thought the “macho military man who’s really gay” was the lamest element of the movie. It’s a tired, tired stereotype.
igloorex, your wife is dead wrong. I’m 100% behind what SlyFrog and Miller said on the matter.
I’m a 37-year-old male.
Me too. My theory is that he wasn’t in the military, but is one of those people who lies about serving.
While Mrs. igloorex’s interpretation might have been plausible from a reading of the script, Suvari’s performance clinches it – she does a wonderful job of being scared and embarassed. Her character wouldn’t have been able to fake that.
–Cliffy
Mrs. igloorex’s interpretation might be more plausible IF we hadn’t been treated to the scene just prior of Ricky verbally taking Angela apart. Ricky had basically confronted Angela with the things she thinks about herself deep inside but doesn’t allow herself to think up front. As it was, with that scene, and Suvari’s genuine vulnerability, I think she was telling the truth.
I’m a 41 year old woman (Bening demographic!) and I agree with the OP version. I also agree with all who have said the movie is all about the masks we wear and the freedom we may find in just being who we are really.
Male, agree with the OP, not his wife.