If you’ve seen Jay Kelly (George Clooney), a recent Netflix film release, you may be interested in a breakdown of the brief therapy scene. Accordingly, everything that follows here is A SPOILER about Jay’s relationship with his older daughter, Jessica (Riley Keough).
The scene in question begins as a flashback involving Jay visiting with Jess, who lures him into a surprise visit to her shrink, Carter (Josh Hamilton).
For a reminder, here’s the Jay Kelly trailer, though it only has a couple brief glimpses of the angry/hurt adult daughter and none of Carter:
First Problem
Tricking a loved one into attending a therapy session is not recommended. Did Carter endorse this part of the plan? If so, it was a major misstep. On Jess’s part, she believed she’d never get her dad to go otherwise. So the solution is hostage-taking? When’s the last time a hostage felt comfortable and at ease in foreign territory?
Second Problem
Presumably, Jess never directly requested her father’s cooperation regarding therapy. Who knows? Something positive might’ve come from it.
Third Problem
Although resistant, Jay does agree to sit in on the session. The planned focus, he finds out, is a letter she wrote to him about feeling abandoned in childhood. A twist is that instead of her reading it, Carter takes the role, ostensibly because Jess would never be able to accomplish this through her tears.
So, it’s Carter who proceeds to cry as he reads. His tears switch off abruptly, however, when Jay puts a halt to this off-putting letter-read and storms out.
Better Solutions If This Were Real Life
- Jess could start with actually asking Jay to attend therapy with her—perhaps via a mailed letter! (Not necessarily the more deeply felt letter we already know about.)
- A refusal, though hurtful, would at least provide more information for Jess, more to process (preferably with a more competent therapist?).
- A non-refusal could lead to them seeking a different therapist—someone skilled in family therapy who’s never met either of them and thus is likely to be and feel more fair-minded to both. This new and safe space might become the place for that letter. (For his feelings too, of course.)
- If they instead find themselves in Carter’s care, how about Jess reading her own letter, messy emotions and all? How about Jay thus being less inclined to abandon a daughter who’s tearfully addressing her own feelings of, you know, parental abandonment?
- Jay might still avoid dealing with the truth. But in the film he’s currently re-examining his life— why not write her a letter (email? text?) of his own (before even considering asking her to attend that tribute to his career)?
