Morally Bankrupt

At what point in world history, was YOUR moral value deemed the model to live by? Are you really that full of yourself? Is it hard to breathe with your head that far up your own ass? Get over yourself, and quit watching film with meaning.

"Nothing says "OBEY ME" like a severed head on a fence post."

don't know about "bankrupt" but the movie sure didn't go where i thought it will. i thought the new boyfriend was made to look like the one person who won't judge her like eveybody else did and the movie was built to the moment she finally tells him. and even if she doesn't, i can't see how he won't find out from the other people in her life.
i can understand her decision to keep that secret from him but it was too late at that point.

I think the 'lying is good sometimes' message is consistent with a lighthearted romantic comedy.

What intrigued me was the exploration of the theme of expectations and disappointments. The way the parents and fiancee' built this 'flawless diamond' up in their heads was a recipe for disaster. No one could live up to being flawless. I liked that in the end the father comes clean that he knew she had been smoking since she was 13 - he knew she wasn't flawless but chose to think of her as something else. Why do they do that? Why can't they just accept a flawed human being? In the end, he shows that he can.

Another part of this theme is the effect it would have on a sibling. The brother was another Jan Brady wanting to whine 'Amy Amy Amy!'. How does a sibling respond? One way is to give up and become an embittered loser. The fact that the parents were revealed to be at least partially self-aware led me to believe they had tried long and hard with that child but he chose to turn to drugs then couldn't get out.

There is also the effect on the object of unrealistic expectations. She could have crumbled under unrealistic expectations but didn't. She could have become a raging egomaniac, but didn't. She was portrayed as a genuinely decent person.

I think the message of her 'fall from grace' (as ridiculous as it was) leading to a maturing of her relationship with her father is the nugget I will take from this movie, despite its other flaws. Is that morality? If so, then the movie really isn't bankrupt.

I disagree with you completely. The story is about virtue. It's better not to know about someone's indiscretions if it means shattering one's opinion of that person. Everybody's parents believe their Johnny could do no wrong but what good does it benefit Johnny to shatter his parent's opinion of him by confessing his indiscretions? Telling the truth is both liberating and imprisonment. That's the moral. She was imprisoned by Johnny's judgement when she confessed but free with the new boyfriend when she kept the secret