I'm sorry, I actually hated the Jodie character more then Roger Allum's slimy adulterer, which I'm sure wasn't the intention! I would've wept no tears if it was her lying in that field....!
Whilst I accept all the character's were supposed to self-obsessed to a point, Jodie was unsympathetic in every way, an obnoxious unpleasant child, who did not even redeem herself as the film went on.
The scenes where she enthuses at length about having sex, using lurid 'comical' descriptions of her private parts (which unfortunately were 80% of the repetitive scenes written for her), were distasteful and unfunny, like some deranged scribblings from Gary Glitter's secret diary!
To cement this by have a mock-song playing during the credits about 'letting Jailbait Jody on the tour bus' was just horrible and took the film's humour into more unpleasant and unwanted territory.
I appreciate the actress is 18 and that there are schoolgirls probably like this but do we really want to such a person included in a satire about sexual relationships?
To be fair, Barden, played it excellently and the fault is purely in the writing. A scene where Drewe's novel is read to her about how Tamara's father also deserted her as did Jodie's own, would've been the natural leap to have Jodie see the comparisons between herself and Tamara Drewe and do the right thing and 'grow up' within the film giving the character a decent journey.
Instead Frears would rather celebrate her becoming a jailbait sex-mad underage groupie being forced into doing the right thing, mistaking this for satire.
Shame, this was a fun film with a lot of missed opportunities to make it fully gel in it‘s final scenes.
"IT'S AN OPPINION - IT CAN'T BE WRONG!" - The GREAT Jack Black!
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Zabonam
14 years ago
I appreciate the actress is 18 and that there are schoolgirls probably like this but do we really want to such a person included in a satire about sexual relationships?
Unfortunately that type of character isn't too far removed from the normal type of behaviour associated with the youth of today. Infact if you aren't like that you are usually on the outside looking in.
Finding someone with decency and good principles instilled in them nowadays is quite rare.
While the comments and the jail-bait stuff weren't needed I suppose it does help in keep the tone of the movie. In such that it does make you feel uneasy. Having her 'grow up' and realise her mistakes would have been too 'Hollywood' in the terms of happily ever after.
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marxthedude
14 years ago
Maybe, but all the charcter's had moved on in some way by the close of the film, except her who (atleast according to the end credits song) got to live out her fantasy of becoming a sex-toy for a rock-star.
I know this is only a comedy and not exactly "Fish Tank" but I still found it distasteful in this context.
Also, even if her charcter was suppossed to be realistic, some of the dialogue she was given was horrendous. So if you were suppossed to be amused by her, it failed as she was so unlikeable, unlike her friend is which the level seemed to be about right.
Kudos to Barden tho who played the role with gusto and conviction but Jody should never have been written this way in the first place.
"IT'S AN OPPINION - IT CAN'T BE WRONG!" - The GREAT Jack Black!
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pythoner
13 years ago
Exactly, she wasn't meant to be likable, She was meant to be an annoying, obnoxious, rude, bored teen and she did it brilliantly!
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gds555
14 years ago
marxthedude: In your Sep 13 2010, 16:50:27 posting, you say, "The scenes where [the character Jody] enthuses at length about having sex, using lurid 'comical' descriptions of her private parts (which unfortunately were 80% of the repetitive scenes written for her), were distasteful and unfunny, like some deranged scribblings from Gary Glitter's secret diary".
Conceivably my attention was wandering, or just possibly from time to time I was having trouble following Jody and Casey's accents, but I don't recall anything that strong coming out of Jody's mouth. I note from your IMDb profile that you're U.K.-based. Could it be that some of Jody's more sexually explicit dialogue was cut from the American release, in deference to the paranoias about adolescent sexuality and so-called "pedophilia" that have been running rampant in this country for many years now?
I'd be interested in any further observations that viewers of the film can give, and/or in any inside information that anyone has to contribute.
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marxthedude
14 years ago
I recall a piece of dialogue about Cooper's character "sucking [or flicking] her saucepan lids", coupled with the imagery of her laid out on a bed in a seductive pose. That was a bit much for me! Most of her dialogue was full of sexual wanting throughout, or atleast deeply hinting at it.
I say again, I've seen "Kids" and "Thirteen" which are far worse than anything heard here but in a comedy drama about sexual affairs I feel it unpleasant to include scenes like this with a child character, purely for laughs.
"IT'S AN OPPINION - IT CAN'T BE WRONG!" - The GREAT Jack Black!
M A R C
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