"If you WERE my pa, it'd be different" (you could legally have the $200). Positive sense. Beginning of movie.
"If I knew you WASN'T my pa..." (dropping me off wouldn't be such cruel child abandonment). Double-negative sense. "I'm not your pa," Moze replies. Penultimate scene. He refuses to walk her to her aunt's door. He knows she will recognize him (from prior meeting(s)) or will see the resemblance as the mourners did at the grave site in the opening scene.
In the scene where Moze is lying beat up below street level, having lost everything (his and Addie's), Addie keeps her "sunny side up". We can get it all back, do a little widow business, drop some twenties. Moze looks at her and Addie, such feminine intuition, says, "You're going to drop me off at my aunt's, ain't you?" Moze nods. "Now don't you cry.", Moze tells Addie. "I won't," Addie defiantly. The only time Addie cries in the movie is when that show of emotion suits her-their transactional interests.
Does he drop her off so as not to involve her in his criminality any longer, as a loving father might do? He doesn't have the "scruples" for that.
In the very last scene, Addie, running away from her aunt's house, runs after Moze's truck. He has paused to take a cigarette break, finds the paper moon picture card "To Moze from Addie" that she stuck between the seats. He is torn, he sighs heavily, looks about, and sees the little figure running toward him from behind in his side mirror. As she comes closer and he recognizes her he leaps from the truck and sternly says, "I told you I don't want you ridin' with me no more!" He could have driven off without getting out of the truck. And as my son pointed out, he could have gotten back in the truck and driven off leaving her stranded on the road when the truck starts to roll away. Instead he grabs her luggage and wearily tells her, "Come on." He only does that because she guilts him into it over the $200.
Beyond a reasonable doubt theirs was a transactional relationship in petty criminality at base. Addie had Moze by the short hairs throughout, she knew she had, and she had more and more of his short hairs in his grip as his involvement of her--a child!--in so much criminality continued. The relationship was not exclusively transactional for Addie, she is only 10 years-old and has just lost her mother. It is clear that she loved Moze, as Tatum did Ryan. Both Addie and Tatum wanted reciprocal love, if it was father-daughter and if it wasn't, but when the chips were down Addie had no problem playing the transactional card and did from beginning of movie to end. There is no evidence that Moze loved Addie as his child. He did not look after her interests and safety as even a responsible guardian would.
There is one scene where Addie calls Moze' bluff on dropping her off. It is one of my favorites. They have money in excess of Addie's $200 (thanks to Addie). She wants to give a little to the "poorly" people on the side of the road that they just passed in the car. Moze refuses and reasserts his decision-making authority over bible price-setting. Addie reasserts her authority: "It's my money too you know, $200 belongs to me, and don't you forget that!" Moze rejoins that she can just take her $200 and he'll drop her off at the nearest train station. "How do you like that!" Addie crawls over the front seat to the back to get the money box. Oh shit (in Moze's head). He overplayed his hand and he knows it:
Whaddya doin? (in Moze' head).
Addie pulls out a map and tells Moze he can drop her off at the train station [names place]. Where's that, Moze asks. HERE! Addie replies. All the way over there, I'm not taking you all the way over there. "Then there's one at Sylvan Grove", Addie. "We gotta go through Lucas", Moze. "We gotta go through somethin' to get to Sylvan Grove!", Addie. "I am not complainin', I'm just saying it will take us through Lucas!", Moze. Addie names several other towns they have to go through to get to Sylvan Grove. "Oh, we could do some business [in those towns]", Moze. "I'm getting hungry, are you getting hungry?", Moze. "Uh-huh," Addie in the sweetest little girl voice. She can afford to be conciliatory--she won! But then--She gathers up her boxes to put them back:
This is as clear as the movie makes it that Moze IS Addie's real father and DOES intend to abandon her. As the credits roll and the ending music plays they drive off together. Consistent with that, they could "re-earn" the money together and he drop her off, or just abandon her, again. That is more real life and the screenwriter was exquisitely artful in leaving paternity in this ambiguity. It was also Ryan O'Neal's real life as a father to Tatum. But real life is painful, and it is painful to me to watch. I have a soft spot for children.
