And I don't LIKE horror movies
Dec. 20th, 2011 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vr_trakowskiI just watched Waitress, and after some thought I have to classify it as a horror movie.
Every man in it (except Joe, and he’s an ass half the time) is evil--yes, even Dr. Whatshisface, who’s blithely violating medical ethics, cheating on his wife, and basically putting an abused woman into danger. Earl is obvious, and Dawn gives in and marries her insane stalker because she thinks she can’t find anyone better.
Meanwhile every hope Jenna has is gradually taken away, while she’s trapped deeper and deeper into an abusive relationship and her rather pathetic friends look on, and her lover does nothing but abuse her in his own way. I’m not saying she’s not at all responsible for her own life and choices--but she doesn’t get any help from the people who say they care about her, either. I do like that she’s not perfect either, though.
And in the end, as befits a horror movie, the protagonist miraculously escapes. I admit that Joe’s arc was interesting, and also points for not just killing him off.
But it’s like the usual touch at the end of a good dark story, when the twist comes that proves the darkness is still there--Jenna succumbs to the thing whose coming she dreaded, and--gasp!--miraculously loves her infant on first sight. Oh, and all her fears about motherhood are apparently baseless, to judge by subsequent scenes, where all is happiness and sweetness--never mind that she’s a single mom trying to raise a kid on her own and run a more-than-full-time startup business. I thought it would have been much more interesting and genuine if she hadn’t loved the baby, or only learned to do so gradually.
Not a film I will recommend.
Every man in it (except Joe, and he’s an ass half the time) is evil--yes, even Dr. Whatshisface, who’s blithely violating medical ethics, cheating on his wife, and basically putting an abused woman into danger. Earl is obvious, and Dawn gives in and marries her insane stalker because she thinks she can’t find anyone better.
Meanwhile every hope Jenna has is gradually taken away, while she’s trapped deeper and deeper into an abusive relationship and her rather pathetic friends look on, and her lover does nothing but abuse her in his own way. I’m not saying she’s not at all responsible for her own life and choices--but she doesn’t get any help from the people who say they care about her, either. I do like that she’s not perfect either, though.
And in the end, as befits a horror movie, the protagonist miraculously escapes. I admit that Joe’s arc was interesting, and also points for not just killing him off.
But it’s like the usual touch at the end of a good dark story, when the twist comes that proves the darkness is still there--Jenna succumbs to the thing whose coming she dreaded, and--gasp!--miraculously loves her infant on first sight. Oh, and all her fears about motherhood are apparently baseless, to judge by subsequent scenes, where all is happiness and sweetness--never mind that she’s a single mom trying to raise a kid on her own and run a more-than-full-time startup business. I thought it would have been much more interesting and genuine if she hadn’t loved the baby, or only learned to do so gradually.
Not a film I will recommend.