We watched this in my history class, and I never read the book so I don't know if we're supposed to hate her, but I just wanted to slap her through the whole film! And that's being generous as to how I felt. Her constant whining and irritating voice and ignorance just bugged the whole class, I don't know if that's just how Mia Farrow talks because I haven't seen her in anything else. But are we supposed to hate Daisy like that? Or is it just Mia Farrow that overreacted?
[Marcia and Charlie kiss] Charlie:"Marcia I gotta go...something suddenly came up!" ;)
Daisy is supposed to be generally irritating. Also, Mia Farrow is generally irritating. I've been a life long Daisy-hater, so I think some of it may be intentional.
I read the book and although I found Daisy annoying I never though it would be as bad as she was in the movie, plus the fact that I find Mia very unattractive in this movie especially kind of killed the vibe of the book.
Most of the characters in both the film and the book are annoying because they are wrapped so much into their social lives, judging others, and superficial concerns.
The Daisy character is annoying in the book too, but I think this was a case of bad casting. You can tell Farrow put in a good effort but she wasnt cut out for it. The rest of the main characters were well casted imo. Plus iirc, in the book Daisy is a brunette.
I think the problem that we have with Daisy (I felt the same on re-viewing the film yesterday) is that her conflicts are really far from women's reality these days. I mean, you'd expect her to grow up, leave the husband she no longer loves, take responsibility for the accident or at least for her daughter. In the 1970s, there were still marriages around functioning after the materialist system Fitzgerald describes, but a 21st century public is used to strong, independent female characters taking their lives into their own hands. A modern adaptation would probably have to offer more insight into Daisy's motivation and character, so we could understand why she behaves as she behaves. The same goes for Myrtle and Jordan - we only ever see them through the eyes of the men. I don't think it has anything to do with Mia Farrow.
The only time I felt any sympathy for Daisy was when she was telling about how when she found out she'd given birth to a girl, she wished she'd be a "beautiful fool". I appreciated her honesty in saying that.
Scott Fitzgerald stole those lines from Zelda. He "borrowed" lots of Zelda's words from her letters, diaries, and short stories. He was waiting by Zelda's side as she came back to consciousness from the childbirth anesthetic. After she gave birth to her only daughtger, Zelda said, "Goofo, I'm drunk. Isn't she smart -- she has the hiccups. I hope it's beautiful and a fool -- a beautiful little fool."