I know Hollywood doesn't cast average looking people in anything but she should be fighting off 2 or 3 professional guys at the same time for dates.
"It's the system, Lara. People will be different after the Revolution."
I was thinking the same thing. They probably should have included some line about how she likes scumbags or is a junkie or something. (I guess there is the possibility that 'staches were chick magnets in the seventies though.)
sharebelieve it or not, you can be pretty and like the wrong type of guy.
shareShe said in the film she'd just gotten out of a relationship, perhaps with exactly the sort of professional you think she should've been dating.
shareSome women like bad boys. She probably saw something in his character that she found endearing. You would be surprised what type of men some women are interested in.
shareSome women like bad boys. She probably saw something in his character that she found endearing. You would be surprised what type of men some women are interested in.
... is a mammal with a day job?
"It's the system, Lara. People will be different after the Revolution."
Well, it's obvious she was intrigued by his bad boy life.
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There are a lot of women like that. I was dating one once -- who told me she was dating other guys, too -- and I saw a note on her table to call a man at the county jail. I asked "you are also dating a guy who works at the county jail?" She said, "well, he is IN the county jail." He'd been a boyfriend. I sure knew how to pick 'em. It was a wild time.
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But the OP seems to think the film is far-fetched because a young doll like Jenny gave herself to a skeezy small-time crook like Max, who isn't exactly handsome. Apparently, she should be dating a young stud lawyer who looks like Channing Tatum
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Funny thing about Dustin Hoffman -- and ESPECIALLY in Straight Time -- is that we were told he was an "ugly star" to replace the Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson generation, but actually he managed to look quite handsome in certain lighting , from certain angles. He gets some close-ups in "Straight Time" that are Pure Movie Star Handsome -- his face is tan and chiseled, the moustache and longer hair give him a "cool macho." And his smile is charming.
Hoffman could do that -- project good looks that seemed impossible given his oversized nose and nerdish features.
Hoffman had a notoriously short physique but it was taut and muscled in his young star years. There's footage on YouTube of a female questioner telling Hoffman that he is "cut" and he explodes into minutes of deep, choking laughter thinking that she means "cut" as you do to your uh, male member as a rite of passage.
So between handsome close-ups, a "cut" physique and the menacing danger of the character coupled with his tender love for a woman -- you can see how Hoffman would win this woman.
For awhile.
There's also the sympathy factor to consider. When Max first met her at the unemployment agency he was affable but somewhat nervous, a bit vulnerable even. Eventually he told her exactly what he was: an ex-con trying to make good in the working world. It was clear from that point on that she wanted to help him in some way, and agreeing to go out with him was possibly part of that. She may have been an early incarnation of a certain white SJW type that we know well today, a lady who is internally guilt ridden about her privilege (despite the lousy job) and felt a need to step outside her comfort zone. She may have had the do-gooder mentality of a public defender. Dating Max could have represented some kind of rehabilitation project, a muddy instinct further amplified and confused after he broke parole and went back to his thieving ways. Being young, Jenny had a complex stew of emotions brewing within her that she didn't quite know what to do with, which in my view included an intrinsic attraction to Max, her white privilege guilt, a social worker's instinct to help people, and thrill seeking adventurism. I found the ending particularly interesting in that it seemed she got fed up with Max completely after being sickened by the news of the bank robbery casualties, yet ultimately still wanted to be at his side for the police chase that was sure to come. Max confirmed his fundamental decency (outside his profession) by refusing to allow her to come along. It's an interesting contrast to other films of this period with men on the run dragging along their relatively innocent girlfriends, like Badlands and Zabriskie Point.
sharea bit older and street wise would have been better.
sharewhat do you mean? when she is on a date with dustin hoffman's character? should guys have been hitting on her while she was with him for dinner?
shareyeah, i was thinking she looked a little too young to get taken in with dustin hoffman's character. i mean, she looked no older than 25 and he looked at least 40. but things like this can happen in real life. after all girls always get suckered in by the bad guys.
share