MovieChat Forums > A Dangerous Woman (1993) Discussion > i found myself feeling very uncomfortabl...

i found myself feeling very uncomfortable with the ending Spoilers

posted 8 years ago by Bronte_Sista
3 replies | jump to latest

Mackay took advantage of Maggie. It was really uncomfortable to watch him come on to her and initiate sexual contact and then rebuff her and sleep with her aunt later. At the very least, he could have worn a condom! He was a drifter and an alcoholic and he knew it. I felt particularly uncomfortable because the film treats the situation very positively. Can someone with an intellectual disability truly consent to sex? (i,e, was she truly cognizant of the fact that she could get pregnant or get an STD from him? Did she understand the financial undertaking of having a child and raising it on her own? Did she understand that in all likelihood, as he proved, he would not remain in the picture?) What a disproportionate power dynamic. I might have felt better if he had actually attempted to form a serious relationship with her, but it seemed more like he was drunk, horny, and lonely and available. Sex with her was a way of "cleansing" himself since he attached her to some abstract notion of purity.

In the end everyone is happy. He even shows up six months after the baby is born for a family visit! Even the aunt doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that he screwed both of them. i think if the writers wanted to tread down that path, the story deserved a serious look at the complexities, not a glossed over fairy tale ending.

[–] nw_sea1 8 years ago

I think what he did was very wrong. He knew she wasn't neurotypical, he knew he'd never want a relationship with her, but he slept with her anyway. And she thought it meant he was in love with her, or at least that's what she thought in the book (it's been awhile since I've seen the movie).

I think she was able to give consent--she had normal intelligence. But she was naive and love-starved--she thought someone finally loved her, instead of just using her.

In the book it was also implied that he was using Frances for her money--he owed his publisher for a large advance he'd got to write his second book, which he never wrote. He never paid them back, but would periodically call them to pitch ideas for books that he never got around to writing. But Feances offered him a place to write, gave him the caretaker's job which gave him time to write at night, and offered to pay back the publisher.

[–] nw_sea1 8 years ago

I hated the ending of the movie. The book ended soon after Mac admitted they'd had sex, not showing whether Frances forgave him or broke up with him, and not saying whether Martha even went on to have the baby or not.

[–] nw_sea1 8 years ago

Ok, now I've watched the movie again. Another thing different in the book is that Frances and Mack were sleeping together for about a month before the thing that happened at the end, and they were talking about marriage.

i found myself feeling very uncomfortable with the ending *Spoilers*

i found myself feeling very uncomfortable with the ending Spoilers