and Theresa sacrifices her virginity for the harsh reality of sex without mutual love.
At home, her passive mother and abusive father make her feel justified in actually being guilty of the sins of which they accuse her. Theresa has two older sisters, Bridget, who is already pregnant with her second child, and Katherine, who is in constant search of an abortionist to end her latest pregnancy.
Katherine, an airline stewardess in the age before flight attendants, is a wild girl who Theresa envies for her beauty and wild ways, and Theresa is soon following in her older sisterÆs footsteps. She takes a room in the house owned by KatherineÆs latest husband in order to be free from her fatherÆs watchful eye, and she is soon cruising bars and experimenting with drugs by night.
Brooks creates a strong contrast between the virginal Theresa who tenderly works with deaf children during the day and the wanton Theresa who begins to find herself (or, perhaps, to lose herself) in the dismal discos and bars at night. On one her first nights out, sees herself smiling back in the form of a prostitute propositioning a possible customer in a passing car. Brooks stages his fantasy sequences so the viewer begins to question the fine line between TheresaÆs real life and the imagined world in which she lets herself go. These sequences become fewer as the movie progresses and Theresa feels less need to pretend because she is actually turning fantasy into reality, but the effect is to sometimes question whether a scene is occurring in her mind or has actually happened.
At one point, for example, TheresaÆs father is suddenly hospitalized. The film shows a montage of his body being prepared for burial, a craved stone angel looking rather menacingly on a cemetery, and the family gathered for the wake. As Theresa leans in to kiss his dead face, he suddenly opens his eyes and laughs at her grief. This becomes a fascinating, if rather o...