A perfect woman does not need to have an affair- because she has a perfect marriage. Carolyn does realize this. She slowly lets go of her need to be perfect and searches for happiness instead. She finds an outlet for her anger at the shooting range. The gun comes to represent freedom for her. She almost lets herself fall back into romantic love with her husband, and perhaps given time she would have, unfortunately she could not let go of her desire to be perfect in time. .
Carolyn's need for perfection had an even more profound affect on her daughter, Jane. Jane adopted her mother's sarcasm as a defense against parents who were more involved in their own lives than her. Carolyn needs love. She is still a child and is dependant on her parents to show her how healthy relationships work. Missing that she turns to other sources. Her friend Angela is at first a model- people seem to love her. Even Jane's father seems to love Angela more than he does Jane, although in a different way. When Jane meets Rick it appears that he is Obsessed with her. Yet even this Mania love is welcome to this girl. She allows herself to be charmed by this strange boy. Her love for him develops first into Storage- or friendship love, then Eros, or attraction. She wants physical confirmation of her worth, and wants to return it to him. Whether this love develops further into Romantic love is left to the observer- as it is unclear by the end of the movie. Rick's love was- in fact not Mania at all, but rather closer to Agape love. Rick sees the beauty in all things. His love develops into eros as well with Jane because she returns his love. Although he is viewed at the beginning of the movie to be the strangest and most twisted person in the movie, he is actually the healthiest.
While Rick is the most healthy in the movie, his father, Frank, is probably the least. Frank seems to never have learned how to deal with his emotions.
