I find this part of the film to be pretty interesting, but maybe I'm just looking too much into it, or maybe I'm missing something really obvious. But throughout the whole film we notice certain things about his parents and how they interact with Ricky. The father is very stern, abusive and cold towards him. His mother is detached, reclusive and distant. They're also anal, the house is perfect, it's clean, we see the father cleaning his truck, everything is in order. I don't need to go into these details any further as they're all apparent and if you've seen the film, you've noticed.

What my question is though, is how they act before and after Ricky comes home from school. There is a scene where his parents are sitting on the couch watching TV, the mother is paying attention and actually watching and the father is sitting forward, he's into it, enjoying himself and even laughing. But the moment they hear the door, his mother looks away and off into nothing, his fathers smile is removed, he sits back on the couch and closes his emotions off and crosses his arms.

Are they different people when he's not around? Is there an abusive relationship between husband and wife or does the abuse only live between father and son, and the mother likes to pretend it doesn't exist?

What exactly is this moment trying to portray? I feel like it's something, but I'm not quite sure what that something is...Anyone got any opinions?