. . .
I feel your warmth, got me wanting more,
You've left the door half open
I'm in two minds to explore,
But then again
Am I being honest, being truthful to myself,
Can I see my life without you,
Could I be with someone else.
It seems I've grown attached
Though we're not the perfect match.
I just can't explain ...
On the stage below, the Funny Ladies female impersonator is lip-synching to Gabrielle's Should I Stay? and showing off a pretty spectacular pair of legs. The scene finds Natalie and Carlisle suddenly dancing in the tower ballroom, and instead of the tight pants and top Natalie is wearing a fancy long blue gown. In his fantasy Carlisle sees her in finery suitable for a turn about the ballroom by just the two of them — until the famous Tower Wurlitzer rises from the floor with a ferociously suspicious Ripley at the keyboard:
Should I stay, should I go
Could I ever really stand to let you go?
Can you now find the right words to say
That maybe I'm getting in your way.
It's just a fantasy. Perhaps he didn't recognize them, we reassure ourselves and each other, unable to visualize any manner in which this can end without harm to people we love.
We've gone from fear that Red Riding Hood and Grandma will be eaten by the Wolf, to dread that the Woodsman, ignorant fool that he is, will burst upon the scene to chop off the Wolf's head, and we don't think we can bear that either.
We don't approve of Carlisle's actions. They leave us horrified. But we admire his taste, because we love Natalie too, love her honesty and truthfulness, her lack of self-pity, her cheerful energetic manner and seeming inability to sulk.
...
The walk along the pier
is of a piece with the encounter at the Samaritan
premises:
How did you meet
your husband? Why did you fall in love with him? When
did you fall out of love with him?
— I don't know that I have
fallen out of love with him.
You're here, aren't
you? With me?
There's a sudden austere
quality to his tone, something we saw in his interview
with Hailey. Carlisle doesn't like being
lied to — although how a person who has just assured
someone else that he is a simple quality surveyor,
when he's actually a policeman who has arranged an
interview next day at the police station with that
someone else's husband and son, has the nerve to be
offended by the possibility of a slight bending of the
truth is beyond us.
— I thought I was the
sort of person who could do this, but I'm not,
Natalie discovers.
Can I hold your hand?
Can I kiss you? So
you can make an informed decision?
His kiss is actually
very sweet and tender. Natalie responds passionately for
a moment before breaking away and walking rapidly into
the darkness.
Carlisle gazes after her; somehow we
suspect that he is not entirely dissatisfied with this
outcome.
________________________
Best films (and Fairy Tales) have a very precise sense of place, somewhere you would recognize immediately should you find yourself transported there. We're starting to recognize Blackpool's landmark attractions, partly because Carlisle's important scenes are all conducted in places of historic interest.
Since he is a stranger in town, this seems completely natural: the meeting to exchange notes with his henchman Blythe on the observation deck at the top of Blackpool's tower couldn't be more innocuous.
Interviewing Hailey at high tea in the tower tearoom certainly has its intended effect of putting her more at ease, while the encounter with Natalie at the Funny Ladies drag club was selected by her — hurriedly, in a grocery shop — as a place her husband wouldn't be caught dead in.
But where else would they meet, this loving wife and mother, this Big Bad Wolf masquerading as a despondent itinerant traveller?
...
Some time later we see Natalie
confiding in her unnamed friend and colleague at the
Samaritans certain details seemingly given by an
ostensible caller, ending the recitation with a
rueful,
Whatever she does, she's going
to be unhappy.
— What does she know
about this man?
Nothing. That's the
attraction.
— Is she going to see
this man again?
And after assuring the
other that she has no intention of seeing the young man
again (the sham caller having been dropped from the
discussion), Natalie goes outside and phones Carlisle.
Carlisle takes the call standing on
the glass-floored Walk of Faith atop Blackpool
Tower. As soon as he hears her voice he waves away his
faithful henchman Blythe who is standing much too close
for what Carlisle has to say:
I'd like to see you too.
She sets up another meeting at the same place, promising this time not to run away.
________________________
Sandsifter Five Retrospectives