Why? I just saw this movie on Starz, and why is the question that comes to mind. Was Jimmy Smitts that badly in need of work? Or did he just not read the script correctly? Let's review, shall we?(Spoiler alert, sorry!) First off, a college professor who is well-known for his free love mentality, married to a woman he met while her professor some ten years hence, is seduced by a young woman who's his star pupil, the babysitter for his young children, and the Dean's daughter, no less. At first he does the right thing in telling her no, yet he doesn't take seriously her repeated(and escalating)advances. Nor does he **tell** anyone, his wife or the girl's father, about her behaviour. That's mistake #1. Then he openly banters with co-workers about her "crush" on him. Mistake #2, yes? She's already spending unusual amounts of time at his home and office, both for babysitting and for private tutoring sessions with this man. Mistake 3. When he **finally** gets around to taking her seriously enough to tell her to back off, she throws the predictable fit and he does the predictable pinning himself on her to stop her struggles. They kiss, he's hooked, they...well, ya know. Daddy, who's lost his wife in a car crash & transfers his grief/love for his wife onto his daughter in the sickest of manners, finds out and abuses his child in the worst way, leaving her mentally confused and ready to believe suggestions that her teacher raped her.
Smitts is portrayed here as a confused, sexually hyped, bumbling idiot of the highest order. In this age where a father is afraid to hug his kids for fear someone will take it the wrong way and level accusations, this man is openly spending time with a young girl in a manner which people can view as ambiguious, at BEST. He remains clueless as to the ramifications of continuing to spend time with her when half of England sees her draping herself on him every chance she gets. And when his world comes crashing down around him, he's wide-eyed with confusion. Unbelievable, and the father/daughter relationship is just sick.
I didn't think the shower scene with the girl was unrelated to the movie as some suggest. It portrayed subtly the awakening of a young woman to her body and the power of her own sexuality and fortells what can happen when the lines between fantasy and reality are blurred to dangerous results. Would that the rest of the movie had been done as well.
Smitts is portrayed here as a confused, sexually hyped, bumbling idiot of the highest order. In this age where a father is afraid to hug his kids for fear someone will take it the wrong way and level accusations, this man is openly spending time with a young girl in a manner which people can view as ambiguious, at BEST. He remains clueless as to the ramifications of continuing to spend time with her when half of England sees her draping herself on him every chance she gets. And when his world comes crashing down around him, he's wide-eyed with confusion. Unbelievable, and the father/daughter relationship is just sick.
I didn't think the shower scene with the girl was unrelated to the movie as some suggest. It portrayed subtly the awakening of a young woman to her body and the power of her own sexuality and fortells what can happen when the lines between fantasy and reality are blurred to dangerous results. Would that the rest of the movie had been done as well.