Claire Story Arc Botched?

I saw the movie the other day. I didn't think the movie was all that great, but the Claire storyline really stands out. Maybe it was the Lost fan in me (Claire Sheperd from Australia? Come on), or maybe all the boobies, but her story arc in particular seemed pretty botched in the execution.

While it's obviously easy to feel sympathy for Claire when she gets blackmailed into sex in the initial encounter, immediately afterward she's whining to the guy about not even being close to getting a green card. To me it played like she was the one fishing for the arrangement. Kind of playing him into assisting her.

When he offers up the arrangement to her there's no horror or disgust on her part. It's all business. Same thing when she owns up to her bf later on. No remorse. "I've just been prostituting myself to another man for the last month and a half. You have feelings about that? Tough. Deal with it." Ouch.

Her big standing up to the guy scene towards the end of the movie would also have worked a lot better if she'd been coerced into the entire thing; that she was taking power back over the situation. Except that she willfully gave up power in the situation in the first place. Instead she just came off like a sleazebag as big as he was. Or even more so, considering she had an on again/off again bf she seemed to care quite a bit about waiting in the wings who she was cheating on, while Liotta's character was cheating on a wife he obviously didn't love.

The final scene of her waving off the INS guys at the airport with a see ya kind of attitude didn't make her seem all that remorseful about what she'd done either.

I just assume the whole point of her storyline was to highlight the exploitation which can go on in the Immigration system. Making Claire a willful participant in her own exploitation comes across as a "she shouldn't have been wearing that dress" defense.

I find it hard to believe that's what the filmmakers intended.

Thoughts?