"Just Add Water" Observations/Inferences/Recalls

Observations
- Opens with a black screen and the repeated phrase "Thanks for coming, would you like a receipt with that? Don't forget to take a mint!"
- Voice over mentions routine life as houses that are almost identical are shown.
- Desert area of California, but flashbacks show that it used to be thriving.
- Ray picks up trash and tells Nora to keep the change.
- The grocery store is called "Right-Valu."
- The house is really dark and Ray's wife seems very withdrawn and off.
- Talk about the son's violence and anger and his dad's failed promises.
- A phone call comes in that Ray's mother is in a coma. The son is very nonchalant about this information.

Inferences
- Ray's life if very repetitious, but he doesn't seem to be getting bored with it. Is he going to shake things up a little bit as the movie progresses?
- The whole town seems to be stuck in this routine, just like Ray.
- It used to be better there. (Remember the billboard that shows a fishing resort.)
- Ray is very generous and always optimistic.
- "Right-Valu" might be the place where Ray meets respectable people, unlike those who live in the rest of the town.
- Is she mentally not all there, or is she hiding something? It seems as though she never leaves the house.
- There's a strange relationship between Ray and his son, and maybe they don't always see eye to eye or have the same values.
- Ray seems worried about his mom's coma, but his son doesn't. Maybe there's some tension in the family regarding people not getting along?

Recalls
- The type of town (with the neighbors who know each other, off-beat families with issues they don't necessarily want to make public, the relationship between the main character and the cashier at the local grocery store) kind of reminds me a little bit of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape."