*** SPOILERS -- ENTIRE PLOT REVEALED ***
There have been people here who have called this film sexist with a dangerous message, and others who insist this is a figment of the imagination.
These are the facts of what this film expects us to believe:
A woman is forcibly kidnapped at her home. She is threatened with a knife, and when she screams, she is given a brutal headbutt, knocking out one of her teeth, swelling up her cheek, leaving her face gashed and bleeding. She loses consciousness. When she regains consciousness, she is continually tied up with rope to her bed, and her mouth is always kept shut with tape. Her abductor claims he has the right to kidnap her because they had sexual relations within the previous year. He is physically and verbally abusive to her. He instructs her to call her mother, and then threatens that he will slit both their throats if she tries to tell her mother she is kidnapped. She is treated like an animal in a cage. Her abductor insists, though, that he "simply wants her to get to know him" and that once she knows him, she will see how adorable he is and fall in love with him. He also tells her he's spent his entire life in mental hospitals, but she apparently takes little note of this fact. However, she tells him she will "never love him" and that he is wasting his time. Yet he persists, taking every rebuff and rejection as a sign to pursue even further, to never give up.
Miraculously, our abductor's plan works! After a couple days, he returns to her after he was beaten to a pulp and robbed on the street. (Of course, this was in retaliation to a robbery at knifepoint committed by him previously.) While she is tending his open sores, she begins to complain openly about the "animals" which did this to him. She starts to caress his body while she tends his wounds, and before long she is kissing his open sores, and not long after that she's telling him "don't come" and "don't pull it out yet" while she screams in ecstatic pleasure to his pounding. After they have sex, she tells him, "Ah, yes. NOW I remember you." Remember, boys, THAT'S the way to get a woman to remember you. After all, a woman NEVER forgets a good f**king. After the woman is rescued and finds herself safe among family and friends, what does she do? Call the police? Press charges? Start her way through a painful emotional process? NO! The first thing she does is go out and find her Cary Grant so she can bring him back to meet the family! Cary Grant gets the girl! They all drive off into a sunset (REALLY!) and live happily ever after. THE frigging END.
These are just the facts of the film. It's a nice story. I'll let you come to your own conclusions.
Having known women friends who have been physically and verbally abused, stalked for months, and harassed while dating, this film was anything but funny. While no one in their right mind will walk away with the impression that kidnapping and assault will win a woman's heart, the impression will be formed in the subconscious (especially upon the young and impressionable) that yeah, she really does want it rough; yeah, she really does want you to force her around; yeah, they all like the bad boys after all; and yeah, "no" really means "yes", they just don't realize it. People mention S&M in regard to this movie. Irrelevant -- people who practice S&M do so based on trust and loving relationships; kidnapping is based on fear, mistrust, and violent force. The two are polar opposites of each other.
Even the scenes of sex and nudity are unnecessary and distracting. Wow, women masturbate. How shocking. Wow, people sweat and moan during sex. How exciting. None of it advances the plot much. The scenes only seem to be there to get that artsy-fartsy NC-17 rating, which supposedly adds a touch of class and respectability to an otherwise boring and tedious film.
There have been people here who have called this film sexist with a dangerous message, and others who insist this is a figment of the imagination.
These are the facts of what this film expects us to believe:
A woman is forcibly kidnapped at her home. She is threatened with a knife, and when she screams, she is given a brutal headbutt, knocking out one of her teeth, swelling up her cheek, leaving her face gashed and bleeding. She loses consciousness. When she regains consciousness, she is continually tied up with rope to her bed, and her mouth is always kept shut with tape. Her abductor claims he has the right to kidnap her because they had sexual relations within the previous year. He is physically and verbally abusive to her. He instructs her to call her mother, and then threatens that he will slit both their throats if she tries to tell her mother she is kidnapped. She is treated like an animal in a cage. Her abductor insists, though, that he "simply wants her to get to know him" and that once she knows him, she will see how adorable he is and fall in love with him. He also tells her he's spent his entire life in mental hospitals, but she apparently takes little note of this fact. However, she tells him she will "never love him" and that he is wasting his time. Yet he persists, taking every rebuff and rejection as a sign to pursue even further, to never give up.
Miraculously, our abductor's plan works! After a couple days, he returns to her after he was beaten to a pulp and robbed on the street. (Of course, this was in retaliation to a robbery at knifepoint committed by him previously.) While she is tending his open sores, she begins to complain openly about the "animals" which did this to him. She starts to caress his body while she tends his wounds, and before long she is kissing his open sores, and not long after that she's telling him "don't come" and "don't pull it out yet" while she screams in ecstatic pleasure to his pounding. After they have sex, she tells him, "Ah, yes. NOW I remember you." Remember, boys, THAT'S the way to get a woman to remember you. After all, a woman NEVER forgets a good f**king. After the woman is rescued and finds herself safe among family and friends, what does she do? Call the police? Press charges? Start her way through a painful emotional process? NO! The first thing she does is go out and find her Cary Grant so she can bring him back to meet the family! Cary Grant gets the girl! They all drive off into a sunset (REALLY!) and live happily ever after. THE frigging END.
These are just the facts of the film. It's a nice story. I'll let you come to your own conclusions.
Having known women friends who have been physically and verbally abused, stalked for months, and harassed while dating, this film was anything but funny. While no one in their right mind will walk away with the impression that kidnapping and assault will win a woman's heart, the impression will be formed in the subconscious (especially upon the young and impressionable) that yeah, she really does want it rough; yeah, she really does want you to force her around; yeah, they all like the bad boys after all; and yeah, "no" really means "yes", they just don't realize it. People mention S&M in regard to this movie. Irrelevant -- people who practice S&M do so based on trust and loving relationships; kidnapping is based on fear, mistrust, and violent force. The two are polar opposites of each other.
Even the scenes of sex and nudity are unnecessary and distracting. Wow, women masturbate. How shocking. Wow, people sweat and moan during sex. How exciting. None of it advances the plot much. The scenes only seem to be there to get that artsy-fartsy NC-17 rating, which supposedly adds a touch of class and respectability to an otherwise boring and tedious film.