The director and scriptwriter had a twist ending to get to and much of the movie as a means to that end. It was also intended to be an erotic thriller so that had to be accomplished whether or not it was reasonable.
The husband has everything but it all goes wrong while having phone-sex with his wife while driving. He is paralyzed from the waist down and can no longer perform below the waist. She leaves him. Along comes a hired hand to fix the house so that he still can get around and upstairs. Then the wife reconsiders and comes home. The husband fails at sex so he insists his wife should have some pleasure with the hired hand. She does not wish to do this so she only pretends to do it by making noises her husband will be able to hear. She stands downstairs near the room of the hired hand to do this so it is silly to think he will not hear as well which he does. He helps by making noises as well. He gets a bit excited and moves in to get close to the wife but she rebuffs him. She is uninterested in him. She does get to know him better and is friendly to him but never comes to desire him sexually. After quite a while she discovers that the handyman is actually her husband's estranged father that left home when her husband was two years old. The father knew this all the while he was pretending to have sex with his son's wife and during the time he actually tried to have her! (He is a creep!)
The son has now been told the handyman is actually his father. The wife of course is quick to point out the sex was only make-believe. Unknown to the wife were bad memories that make him insist his father leave the house immediately. The father appears to agree. As the son takes the stairlift to the 2nd floor, the wife carries some dirty clothes to the 1st-floor laundry room. Now the erotic thriller starts and quite frankly turns a bit into soft porn. Dad gets a strange look on his face, takes off all his clothes, and walks into the laundry room to have his way with the wife. She is unwilling and dismisses him and tries to get around him. He rips off all her clothes and starts to rape her on top of the washing machine. The actress has a rather unemotional look on her face and I am certain this was under the direction and per the script. The reason I think this is so the audience might later conclude that she grew to like it! I think this was how the film was originally marketed. She was even instructed to dig her fingernails just ever so slightly into the father's back. Not too much...just a bit. It must be ambiguous. The husband of course hears the actual sex going on and comes down the stairlift calling his wife's name. She does not look up so he (and we) can't see her face. The director did not want the husband and wife to lock eyes because that would of course make it more difficult for her to not show the emotion of rape vs consensual sex. Again, the director seemed to be trying to achieve ambiguity as to the willingness of participation of the wife. The father closes and locks the door. The husband can't get the door open (a silly notion that just because he is a paraplegic that he could not get through a laundry room door.) The husband makes his way outside to look through the window. Again his wife is looking away and he can't see her face. In some form of symbolism, the water-hose breaks loose from the wall spraying all over the window as we assume the father orgasms and the wife has a slight (again ever so slight) orgasm as well. Did she like it or did her body just betray her? We are supposed to wonder. She said no, so she was raped! I will repeat for clarity that this was rape. As this is happening the husband calls the police.
The scene changes to the end of the long driveway where the husband has wheeled himself to meet the police. This is silly! He would not leave his wife alone with this creep. This is necessary per the director and the script however to give the father (and wife?) time to clean up the rape scene and place the wife in the music room calmly playing the cello when the police arrive later. She'll deny the whole incident and says her husband hasn't seen his father since he was two years old. The father is not visible at this time. The husband is astonished. The police laugh and leave. (Can you think of any country on earth where the police would just leave?) She then just gets up to start a meal as if nothing has happened. Then the father shows himself to still be present by spinning around in a chair. (What a very clever place to hide from the police. Who would think to look in a chair in a different room?) As silly as this seems, it was obviously done under the control of the director and scriptwriter to make it look as if the wife was ready to take on the father as her lover and disregard her husband's feelings. The husband is distraught and turns his wheelchair to leave the house. As he wheels away heartbroken, with his back to her, his wife finally shows the emotion that would reveal the truth that she is doing all of this in fear of the father. It is further pointed out by the way she pulls away from the father in disgust when he reaches to put his arm around her. (It's really too bad there aren't a couple of young police officers around to protect you...but you just sent them away.)
Of course, there is a lot more adventure! More ambiguous sex between the father and wife. The father beats the son. The wife attacks the father to defend her husband. A close family friend comes by and gets murdered (Still think you should have sent those policemen away?) The wife attacks him one last time and he throws her down the stairs severely injuring her. The husband finally cleverly kills his father and we get to that twist ending where we have been headed the whole movie. As the credits roll the husband and wife are both wheelchair-bound. Her chair is more dramatic with head support and electric controls. As he flirts with her and feeds her with a closeup of him teasing her mouth with a green-bean, the movie ends. Again I say this last scene was the goal from the outset.
I think the marketing of this movie surrounded some erotic relationship evolving between the wife and some stranger after the husband's injury. I don't think it worked out well and just seemed creepy. What did happen was that the husband's ability to finally defeat his evil and twisted father was the elixir for his mental health and their marriage.
The husband has everything but it all goes wrong while having phone-sex with his wife while driving. He is paralyzed from the waist down and can no longer perform below the waist. She leaves him. Along comes a hired hand to fix the house so that he still can get around and upstairs. Then the wife reconsiders and comes home. The husband fails at sex so he insists his wife should have some pleasure with the hired hand. She does not wish to do this so she only pretends to do it by making noises her husband will be able to hear. She stands downstairs near the room of the hired hand to do this so it is silly to think he will not hear as well which he does. He helps by making noises as well. He gets a bit excited and moves in to get close to the wife but she rebuffs him. She is uninterested in him. She does get to know him better and is friendly to him but never comes to desire him sexually. After quite a while she discovers that the handyman is actually her husband's estranged father that left home when her husband was two years old. The father knew this all the while he was pretending to have sex with his son's wife and during the time he actually tried to have her! (He is a creep!)
The son has now been told the handyman is actually his father. The wife of course is quick to point out the sex was only make-believe. Unknown to the wife were bad memories that make him insist his father leave the house immediately. The father appears to agree. As the son takes the stairlift to the 2nd floor, the wife carries some dirty clothes to the 1st-floor laundry room. Now the erotic thriller starts and quite frankly turns a bit into soft porn. Dad gets a strange look on his face, takes off all his clothes, and walks into the laundry room to have his way with the wife. She is unwilling and dismisses him and tries to get around him. He rips off all her clothes and starts to rape her on top of the washing machine. The actress has a rather unemotional look on her face and I am certain this was under the direction and per the script. The reason I think this is so the audience might later conclude that she grew to like it! I think this was how the film was originally marketed. She was even instructed to dig her fingernails just ever so slightly into the father's back. Not too much...just a bit. It must be ambiguous. The husband of course hears the actual sex going on and comes down the stairlift calling his wife's name. She does not look up so he (and we) can't see her face. The director did not want the husband and wife to lock eyes because that would of course make it more difficult for her to not show the emotion of rape vs consensual sex. Again, the director seemed to be trying to achieve ambiguity as to the willingness of participation of the wife. The father closes and locks the door. The husband can't get the door open (a silly notion that just because he is a paraplegic that he could not get through a laundry room door.) The husband makes his way outside to look through the window. Again his wife is looking away and he can't see her face. In some form of symbolism, the water-hose breaks loose from the wall spraying all over the window as we assume the father orgasms and the wife has a slight (again ever so slight) orgasm as well. Did she like it or did her body just betray her? We are supposed to wonder. She said no, so she was raped! I will repeat for clarity that this was rape. As this is happening the husband calls the police.
The scene changes to the end of the long driveway where the husband has wheeled himself to meet the police. This is silly! He would not leave his wife alone with this creep. This is necessary per the director and the script however to give the father (and wife?) time to clean up the rape scene and place the wife in the music room calmly playing the cello when the police arrive later. She'll deny the whole incident and says her husband hasn't seen his father since he was two years old. The father is not visible at this time. The husband is astonished. The police laugh and leave. (Can you think of any country on earth where the police would just leave?) She then just gets up to start a meal as if nothing has happened. Then the father shows himself to still be present by spinning around in a chair. (What a very clever place to hide from the police. Who would think to look in a chair in a different room?) As silly as this seems, it was obviously done under the control of the director and scriptwriter to make it look as if the wife was ready to take on the father as her lover and disregard her husband's feelings. The husband is distraught and turns his wheelchair to leave the house. As he wheels away heartbroken, with his back to her, his wife finally shows the emotion that would reveal the truth that she is doing all of this in fear of the father. It is further pointed out by the way she pulls away from the father in disgust when he reaches to put his arm around her. (It's really too bad there aren't a couple of young police officers around to protect you...but you just sent them away.)
Of course, there is a lot more adventure! More ambiguous sex between the father and wife. The father beats the son. The wife attacks the father to defend her husband. A close family friend comes by and gets murdered (Still think you should have sent those policemen away?) The wife attacks him one last time and he throws her down the stairs severely injuring her. The husband finally cleverly kills his father and we get to that twist ending where we have been headed the whole movie. As the credits roll the husband and wife are both wheelchair-bound. Her chair is more dramatic with head support and electric controls. As he flirts with her and feeds her with a closeup of him teasing her mouth with a green-bean, the movie ends. Again I say this last scene was the goal from the outset.
I think the marketing of this movie surrounded some erotic relationship evolving between the wife and some stranger after the husband's injury. I don't think it worked out well and just seemed creepy. What did happen was that the husband's ability to finally defeat his evil and twisted father was the elixir for his mental health and their marriage.