Character Analysis
The Rain Cloud of the Family
Seriously: This woman makes Eeyore look chipper. She's 24/7 doom 'n' gloom—in fact, we don't think she likes to be happy… she'd much rather talk about death. Again.
In fact, it's weird that she's Teresa's sister. Where Teresa is light, Catherine is dark. While Teresa talks about getting a postcard from her newly married son, Catherine is eager to report who died in their old town in Italy and who died in the neighborhood. "You always got such cheerful news," Teresa tells Catherine. "When you smile, we're gonna have a holiday."
Because of her sister's chiding and her own irrepressible sourpuss, it can be easy at first to discount Catherine's complaints about her daughter-in-law and the pains of getting old:
CATHERINE: I'm fifty-six years old. What am I to do with myself? I have strength in my hands. I wanna cook. I wanna clean. I wanna make dinner for my children.
That's just Catherine being Catherine, we think. (Besides, who in the history of mankind has said "I wanna clean"? Not us, that's for sure.)
But as the movie progresses, we hear how Tommy is up all night listening to his mother cry. She's due to move out (which he thought it would be a good idea), but there's some unexpectedly deep pain in evidence. Later, when Catherine warns her sister that she'll be the next one sent out of her home, it's suddenly easier to understand the kind of sadness old age can bring.
Excuse us while we go splash a little water on our face… and remind ourselves that we're not dead yet.