The key element in Hoffman’s scene is the way the two sisters’ lives collide at this moment, and for that to work, Hoffman needs to create a genuine sense of what each sister’s life is truly like. She can’t do this from a single point of view, since at this stage in the story each sister seriously misunderstands the other. She can’t write brief, separate scenes from the two points of view, since that wouldn’t let her build to the climax of Jimmy’s body. She has to jump from head to head.
