Rachel, Rachel

Rachel Cameron (Joanne Woodward) is a shy, 35-year-old spinster schoolteacher living with her widowed mother in a small apartment above a funeral home that was once owned by her late father in a small town in Connecticut. Haunted by memories of her unhappy childhood and her mortician father, Rachel spends each frustrating day taking care of her mother and working with the schoolchildren. School is soon let out for summer vacation and Rachel figures it will just be another lonely and boring summer for her. (It's implied that she may even hate summer as her job provided somewhat of an escape from her domineering mother who's always trying to compare her to her sister, who married a successful businessman in Boston.) Rachel's closest friend is Calla Mackie (Estelle Parsons), a fellow unmarried teacher who persuades her to attend a revival meeting, where a visiting preacher, named Reverend Wood, encourages Rachel to express her need for the love of Jesus Christ. Rachel is overwhelmed by God's grace, baring so much pent-up emotion, that she is humbled after the service. While comforting Rachel, Calla suddenly begins to kiss Rachel passionately. (It is never explained if Calla is a lesbian, bisexual, or if she merely reacted to the emotion of the moment.) Rachel's reaction is to withdraw from the friendship for the time being. Note: Brief daydreaming sequences of the adult Rachel also appear, including those showing her imagining seizing a stolen moment with the school's possibly sexual-harassing principal; taking an under-loved boy in her classroom home with her; and rocking an expected baby in a park while children play nearby. Rachel realizes that only by exposing herself to life is the way she can she experience it. She therefore gives herself to a former high school friend, named Nick Kazlik (James Olsen), who is in town for a visit with his parents which she and he sleep together after first meeting. Mistaking her first sexual encounter for love, she fantasizes about a future with Nick. Her hopes are shattered, however, when Nick, put off by her seriousness, abruptly ends their affair. A short time later, Rachel discovers that she may be pregnant. Determined to accept the consequences of her actions, she decides to go away and have the child. After Calla has helped her find a teaching post in Oregon, Rachel learns that her pregnancy is merely a cyst requiring minor surgery. After undergoing surgery to have the cyst removed, she tells her mother, in the hospital, that she has decided to relocate, and that her mother may accompany her or not, as she wishes. Her mother quickly agrees to go, in a way that suggests she realizes her dependence on Rachel and perhaps even will take her less for granted from now on. Rachel sets out with hope for the future, having learned that she has choices, that she is able to give and receive sexual pleasure, that it is possible for her to take on life actively, rather than wait for it to find her. In the final scene, as Rachel leaves town with her somewhat reluctant mother and looks for the last time at the familiar sights of her home town, she speculates on what the future may bring.