I HATE all the Jewish stereotypes in this movie (and I'm not even Jewish)!! They are really insulting. As well as Sarandon's working-class character being portrayed as rude & slutty, as if making low wages automatically equates with low class. Her behavior at the Thanksgiving dinner was repulsive.
I also don't buy the yuppie WASP (and one of my favorite actors!) James Spader as Jewish, or being a part of that "clan".
Bad movie!
I am a Jewish person who has lived in St. Louis for my entire life, I really wasn't bothered by the movie. Please don't get upset about it. I don't know if you've ever been to St. Louis, but the City of St. Louis (and surrounding St. Louis County) is a very unique place with a very unique culture. A famous question people from St. Louis ask each other is "Where did you go to high school?" Once you tell someone where you went to high school, they make assumptions about you based on sterotypes. These stereotypes are so much a part of our culture and way of life, that we often end up living up to them (whether we want to or not).
While the characters in the movie are a bit stereotypical, I think the movie (I haven't read the book) is actually pretty accurate. In St. Louis, stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. However, there is more to the characters than just the young yuppie Jew and the older South City hoosier. The two characters have also lost a person close to them. Nora lost her son, and Max lost his wife. I think that loss and grief plays a big part in their relationship. While the dinner scene was a bit extreme, I think it was done to illustrate the differences in the characters and their backgrounds.
Please don't feel insulted, I don't. I think it's a pretty nice romantic story. Plus, there haven't been many movies made in St. Louis, and we pretty much love any movie made on location in St. Louis.
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Thanks for some thought-provoking posts, nia & king -- I'll watch the movie again & try to view it from your perspectives.
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People don't like stereotypes because there's always an element of truth in them. The truth,stereotypically, sometimes hurts.........
shareI didn't think stereotypes were as bad as they are on some films, BUT I did think some characters were one-dimensional. Hollywood lags behind the real world in dealing w/ ethnic characs. How many TV shows have you seen where the Muslim woman needs to be saved from the Muslim man by the handsome white cop/FBI agent/etc.? This goes for East Asians too- the men are either wimpy or overbearing. In recent times, there are ethnic ppl (esp black) who are in high positions on TV, BUT have no personality/flavor/etc. It's just plain sad...
shareShe was rude and she was slutty and her low wages didn't do that. She was also a pig.
shareI can see how people might be offended by the portrayal of the Jewish characters but what I thought this film accurately caught, during the dinner party scene was one of the apparent but frequent anomalies in society, in that wealthy, well-educated Jews do tend to often hold quite left-wing, liberal pro-Democrat Party views in contrast to a lot of working class, blue-collar gentiles like Sarandon's character. I thought this was a nice observation, because outside of the Jewish community high earners do often tend to support fiscally conservative parties like the GOP, whereas one would expect working class voters to gravitate to a party that better supports their interests.
What I also liked about the dinner party scene is that Sarandon's character wasn't portrayed as stupid, bigoted or wicked for holding conservative political views. Her politics as with the liberal Jewish family she dines with were just presented in a matter-of-fact way without any judgment.
Speaking as a liberal, I thought that was refreshing. The film wasn't taking sides against the gentile conservatives, who are often portrayed as racists and dumb reactionaries.