Frank Wheeler Quotes in Milk Money (1994)

V: There is a place you can touch on a woman that will make her go crazy.

Frank Wheeler: Where?

V: Her heart.

V: I need a hundred bucks or I'm gonna get slapped, you think you can do that?

Frank Wheeler: Here, take it.

V: Where'd you get all this money?

Frank Wheeler: My friends and I want to see a naked lady.

V: How much of a naked lady?

Frank Wheeler: As much as a hundred dollars will buy.

Frank Wheeler: [brings Tom into the kitchen where V is on the phone] Look, Dad... it's a girl! What do you say?

Tom: [puzzled] Thank you?

V: [V agrees to flash the boys, but Frank covers his eyes] What's the matter?

Frank Wheeler: I can't do this. I want to be a gentleman.

V: [noticing the candy he is eating] Doesn't a gentleman bring enough for everybody?

Frank Wheeler: Which brings us to... intercourse! Can I have a volunteer?

Frank Wheeler: My mother died before I was born.

V: I don't think that's possible.

Frank Wheeler: Okay she had me first and then she died right after.

Frank Wheeler: [Speaking into a dictophone] Knowing what you've got - comma - knowing what you need - comma - knowing what you can do without - dash - That's inventory control.

April Wheeler: So now I'm crazy because I don't love you, right? Is that the point?

Frank Wheeler: No! Wrong! You're not crazy, and you do love me. That's the point, April.

April Wheeler: But I don't. I hate you. You were just some boy who made me laugh at a party once, and now I loathe the sight of you. In fact, if you come any closer, if you touch me or anything, I think I'll scream.

Frank Wheeler: Oh, come on, stop this April.

[He touches her for an instant and she screams at the top of her lungs before walking away. He chases after her]

Frank Wheeler: Fuck you, April! Fuck you and all your hateful, goddamn...

[He breaks a chair against a wall]

April Wheeler: What are you going to do now? Are you going to hit me? To show me how much you love me?

Frank Wheeler: Don't worry, I can't be bothered! You're not worth the trouble it would take to hit you! You're not worth the powder it would take to blow you up. You are an empty, empty, hollow shell of a woman. I mean, what the hell are you doing in my house if you hate me so much? Why the hell are you married to me? What the hell are you doing carrying my child? I mean, why didn't you just get rid of it when you had the chance? Because listen to me, listen to me, I got news for you - I wish to God that you had!

Frank Wheeler: I've been with a girl a few times. In the city. A girl I hardly even know, who is nothing to me. But it's over now, really over. And if I weren't sure of that, then I guess I could never have told you about it.

April Wheeler: Why did you?

Frank Wheeler: Baby, I don't know... I guess it's a simple case of wanting to be a man again after all that abortion business, some kind of neurotic, irrational need to prove something...

April Wheeler: No. I don't mean why did you have the girl, I mean, why did you tell me about it?

Frank Wheeler: What do you mean?

April Wheeler: I mean, what's the point? Is it supposed to make me jealous or something? Is it supposed to make me fall in love with you or back into bed with you or what? What would you like me to say Frank?

Frank Wheeler: Why don't you say what you feel, April?

April Wheeler: I don't feel anything.

Frank Wheeler: In other words, you don't care what I do, or who I fuck or anything, hum?

April Wheeler: No, I guess that's right, I don't. Fuck who you like.

April Wheeler: Don't you see? That's the whole idea! You'll be able to do what you should have been allowed to do seven years ago, you'll have the time. For the first time in your life, you'll have the time to find out what it is you actually want to do. And when you figure it out, you'll have the time and the freedom, to start doing.

Frank Wheeler: This doesn't seem very realistic.

April Wheeler: No, Frank. This is what's unrealistic. It's unrealistic for a man with a fine mind to go on working year after year at a job he can't stand. Coming home to a place he can't stand, to a wife who's equally unable to stand the same things. And you know what the worst part of it is? Our whole existence here is based on this great premise that we're special. They we're superior to the whole thing. But we're not. We're just like everyone else! We bought into the same, ridiculous delusion. That we have to resign from life and settle down the moment we have children. And we've been punishing each other for it.

Frank Wheeler: How do I know you didn't try to flush our entire fucking family down the toilet?

[first lines]

Frank Wheeler: So, what do you do?

April Wheeler: I'm studying to be an actress. You?

Frank Wheeler: I'm a longshoreman.

April Wheeler: No, I mean, really.

Frank Wheeler: I mean really, too. Although starting next Monday I'm doing something a little more glamorous.

April Wheeler: What's that?

Frank Wheeler: Night cashier at a cafeteria.

April Wheeler: I don't mean how you make money. I mean, what are you interested in?

Frank Wheeler: Honey, if I had the answer to that one, I bet I'd bore us both to death in half an hour.

Frank Wheeler: Everything you're saying makes sense; if I had a definite talent, if I were a writer or an artist.

April Wheeler: Listen, listen to me. It's what you are that's being stifled. It's what you are that's being denied and denied, in this kind of life.

Frank Wheeler: Then, what's that?

April Wheeler: Don't you know? You're the most beautiful and wonderful thing in the world. - - You're a man.

Frank Wheeler: All I know April is, I want to feel things. Really - feel them, you know. How's that for an ambition?

John Givings: You a lawyer, Frank?

Frank Wheeler: No, I'm not.

John Givings: I could use a lawyer...

Mr. Howard Givings: John, let's not get started again about the lawyer.

John Givings: Pop, couldn't you just sit there and eat your wonderful egg salad, and quit horning in?

[Returns his attention to Frank]

John Givings: See, I've got a good many questions to ask and I'm willing to pay for the answers... Now, I don't need to be told that a man who goes after his mother with a coffee table is putting himself in a weak position, legally; that's obvious.

Mrs. Helen Givings: John, come and have a look out this fabulous picture window.

[She walks to the window]

John Givings: If he hits her with it and kills her, that's a criminal case...

Mrs. Helen Givings: Oh, look, the sun's coming out!

John Givings: If all he does is break the coffee table and give her a certain amount of aggravation and she decides to go to court over it, that's a civil case...

Mrs. Helen Givings: Maybe we'll see a rainbow! John, come have a look...

John Givings: Ma, how about doing everybody a favor? How about shutting up?

Frank Wheeler: Well I support you, don't I? I work ten hours a day at a job I can't stand!

April Wheeler: You don't have to!

Frank Wheeler: But I have the backbone not to run away from my responsibilities!

April Wheeler: Won't you miss the city?

Frank Wheeler: Nothing's permanent, right?

April Wheeler: Right.

Frank Wheeler: Sweetheart, what are you talking about? Where are we going to live?

April Wheeler: Paris!

Frank Wheeler: What?

April Wheeler: You always said it was the only place you'd ever been that you wanted to go back to. The only place that was worth living. So, why don't we go there?

Frank Wheeler: You're serious?

April Wheeler: Yes! What's stopping us?

Frank Wheeler: What's stopping us? Well, I can think of a number of different things.

Frank Wheeler: You know what this is like? April, honestly? This talking like this. The whole, the whole idea of, of going off to Europe this way. This is the way I felt going up to the line, the first time, in the war. I mean, I was, I was probably just as scared as everyone else; but, but inside, I never felt better. I felt, I felt alive! I felt full of blood! I felt - everything just - everything seemed more real. The guys in the uniforms. The snow on the fields. The trees. And all of us, all of us, just, walking. I mean, I-I was scared, of course; but, I just kept thinking, this is it, you know! This - is the truth!

April Wheeler: I felt that way once too.

Frank Wheeler: When?

April Wheeler: The first time you made love to me.

Frank Wheeler: Actually, there's been a change in plans. I thought maybe it was obvious. April, here is pregnant.

Mr. Howard Givings: Congratulations!

Mrs. Helen Givings: Oh, April, I can't tell you how pleased I am! Oh, but I expect you'll be needing a bigger house now. Won't you?

John Givings: Hold on a second now Mom. Hold on a second, Mom. I-I don't get this? I mean, what's so obvious about it? I mean, okay, she's pregnant. So what? Don't people have babies in Europe?

Frank Wheeler: Suppose we just say that people anywhere aren't very well advised to have babies unless they can afford it.

John Givings: Okay. Okay, it's a question of money. Money's a good reason. But, its hardly ever the *real* reason. What's the real reason? Wife talk you out of it or what? Little woman, decides she isn't quite ready to playing house? No. No, that's not it. I can tell. She looks too tough and mad as hell. Okay, then, it must have been you! What happened?

Mrs. Helen Givings: John, please. You're being very rude.

John Givings: No, no. What happened, Frank? You get cold feet? You decide - you're better off here, after all? You figure, it's more - comfy here in the old hopelessness emptiness, after all? Well, that did it! Look at his face. What's a matter, Wheeler? Am I gettin' warm?

Frank Wheeler: Have you been to Paris?

April Wheeler: I've never really been anywhere.

Frank Wheeler: Well, maybe I'll take you with me then, huh? I'm going back the first chance I get, I tell you. People are alive there. Not like here.

April Wheeler: When I first met you, there was nothing in the world you couldn't do or be.

Frank Wheeler: When you first met me, I was a little wise guy with a big mouth.

April Wheeler: You were not! How can you even say that?

Frank Wheeler: Morning all.

Jack Ordway: Franklin, good to see your shining face. What's the news?

Frank Wheeler: Fellas, I'm moving to Paris.

Jack Ordway: In deed, and I'm moving to Tangiers.

[laughs]

Frank Wheeler: You'll never guess what they eat in Paris? You'll never guess?

Jennifer Wheeler: What?

Michael Wheeler: What?

Frank Wheeler: Slimy snails!

Jennifer Wheeler, Michael Wheeler: Snails?

Frank Wheeler: Slimy snails and icky frogs legs!

Milly Campbell: We should have a toast or something. To Paris!

Frank Wheeler: To Paris!

April Wheeler: To Paris!

Shep Campbell: To Paris!

April Wheeler: Where are you going?

Frank Wheeler: If its all right with you, April, I'm gonna go use the bathroom. Okay?

Frank Wheeler: April, if you need a shrink, it will be paid for. Obviously.

Frank Wheeler: April, we can be happy here. I can make you happy here. We've had a great couple of months. It doesn't need to end. We're gonna be okay. I promise.

April Wheeler: I hope so, Frank. I really hope so.

Frank Wheeler: April, this was really nice. I mean it was a swell breakfast. Really, I - I don't know when I've ever had a nicer - a nicer breakfast.