I can’t believe I’m about to do this, BUT … I have to defend Pretty Woman a teeny tiny bit. In the movie, Richard Gere wants to set her up permanently as a kept woman. No longer paid, but paid apartment, etc., and installed there so he can pretty much do as he pleases, when he pleases.
Up to this point, depiste the fact that he’s paying her, he has treated her as politely and respectfully as he would any woman. She sees that, realizes that she has value above being a hooker and tells him [paraphrasing from memory here], “That’s a really good offer for a girl like me. But I want more.”
There is a turning point. She has been a hooker but no longer wants that life. He makes her a permanent-hooker offer, she says no. He still wants her; they realize they’re in love. The end.
So, I think it’s a tad simplistic to say it’s just an ick story where hooking takes you to the top.
I haven’t seen this for a while…but wasn’t the relationship between Leon and Natalie Portman’s character more along the lines of a Father/Daughter relationship?
First; I am right there along with the others about Clueless being creepy because of the step-sibling thing.
Second; Yeah, I saw the Ghost in the Shell episode, Ranchoth ; I was wondering too. I mean, as a fan I’m used to watching Major Kusanagi’s tendency to use her body and sexuality to provoke others, but that hotel room sequence with the boy was going a little too far.
Third; My contribution would be another anime I’ve been watching lately. I enjoy the series but Tenchi Muyo is a little creepy. I mean, sure Ryoko’s like 5,000 years old or something, but she basically doesn’t age, and acts like a 20-something, so it’s not too bad. But Ayeka? She’s literally his Great-Aunt! Well, half-geat-aunt. She came to Earth to track down her half-brother Yosho because he ran out on his duties as a prince, including an arranged-marriage to her, AND when she finds out he’s grown into an old man while she’s still young, she happily accepts Yosho transferring the responsibility to marry her to his GRANDSON! :eek:
In the uncut version known as “Leon: The Professional” it is more romantic… and honestly not that icky to me… I mean Leon is supposed to be childlike in his non-best hitman ever life… You never get the idea that Leon and Matilda are going to do it. If memory seves she does come on to him at one point and he rebuffs her. It’s more distrubing that he is teaching her how to kill people.
In the regular release Leon and Matilda seem more like playmates, than lovers.
In Clueless, weren’t Cher and Josh’s parents supposed to have been married for like ten minutes five years ago? I seem to remember her specifically saying that he still came around to hang out with her dad, but they didn’t really have a sibling relationship.
I remember watching **Gigi ** when I was about nine, and realizing even then that it was just wrong.
And in Wuthering Heights, the younger Catherine Linton marries two of her first cousins! Her father’s sister’s son, Linton Heathcliff, and her mother’s brother’s son, Hareton Earnshaw. The first marriage she is forced into by Heathcliff, who is scheming to get his hands on Thrushcross Grange by inheriting it from his sickly moribund son; but the second marriage constitutes the Happy Ending.
Don’t you think there’s something to be said for that attitude?
Frankly, I’ve never seen anything particular creepy about Woody Allen’s most recent marriage.
Well, if you didn’t finish it, you can’t say whether this plot satisfies the OP (an actual romance, disturbing to you but apparently not intended to be disturbing). As described, it doesn’t. I imagine the rest of the story would involve her trying to get away from him, not cuddling up and making excuses for his behavior.
And BTW – when is our society going to do something about all this irrational, bigoted, narrow-minded prejudice against stalkers?! :mad:
But not a “romance,” strictly speaking; more of a rescuer/protector/mentor relationship. And it was clear enough he had a code of behavior that would never allow him to touch her inappropriately even if she begged for it, which she practically did.
He actually has his friends photograph (not videotape) them together, just to prove it happened, 'cause nobody would ever believe he would be sitting next to the Homecoming Queen. (And this kid is smart; presumably he knows what date-rape is and, were that his intention, would not be creating photographic evidence.)
He apparently gets so drunk himself, afterwards, that the next morning he cannot remember whether they did it or not. Her memory is slightly clearer. So, who took advantage of whom?
You didn’t think, did you, that a healthy young stud like Tarzan was still a virgin, when he met this weird-looking, pale, bald-all-over she named Jane?
Yet another thing people gag at now, but winked at back in the day. (Hey, didn’t we have a “Sexual Revolution” or something sometime in there?) OTOH, Rick’s intervention on behalf of the one married woman makes it clear that, at least in his judgment, there are some lines that should not be crossed. On the gripping hand, even after that, Rick still does not view Renault as such a sleaze that they can’t have a “beautiful friendship” at the end.
I squirmed in my seat because Albert is such an oily, passive-aggressive buttferret and Rosie is a smart, self-assured woman who deserves better than wiping that jackhole’s bottom for the rest of her life. Mostly it was like a disturbing time capsule of its era: successful men deserve romance despite glaring character flaws, and women aren’t complete until they’ve attached themselves to these men. I know, I know, not a new observation. But creepy nevertheless.
Oh, and speaking of creepy, about a year ago I started a thread about skeevy sex comedies. Worth reading as a corollary to the current subject.
Yeh, yeh . . . You probably hated “Taming of the Shrew” too. Don’t forget, this is pre-feminist comedy. A man had a right – even a duty – to dominate his women, and the man who couldn’t was ridiculous.
Well, technically, he wasn’t a stalker, and indeed, wasn’t in love with Hawn’s character for most of the movie. The whole idea (at first) was to get gleeful revenge on a hated bitch. That makes it less “uncomfortable” to me.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen that movie, but IIRC he (Wayne) also encourages his daughter’s boyfriend (played by Wayne’s uniquely talentless son Patrick) to spank her (daughter/girlfriend) as well. Apparently he was just a rancher with a fetish.
Lost in Translation bothered me because of the real life age difference between Bill Murray (53 during shooting) and Scarlet Johansson (17 when shooting began). In the movie she’s playing a slightly older and he a slightly younger character but it was still a bit icky. (Of course I disliked that movie for enough reasons that this one was minor.)
I liked that film, so I didn’t find it creepy. But also I don’t remember anything …
being physically consummated. I only saw it once, so maybe I blocked it out, but as I recall they just slept next to each other once. They definitely had romantic chemistry, but it was more the bond of kindred spirits rather than a sexual thing.
On the other hand, I never could accept Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets. First, the age difference. I just couldn’t buy it, though I know it happens. Second, I don’t think The Jack is as sexy as everyone else seems to think. Third, he’s a royal-ass jerk through the whole movie and even his “You make me want to be a better man” speech isn’t enough to make me wilt.
If you want some news that will make Bogie seem like Mel Gibson (young) , consider that IRL, Betty had a crush on Burgess Meredith, so I think that Bogie was her best choice by far.
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