MovieChat Forums > Toast (2010) Discussion > Mean-spirited and Reactionary Movie

Mean-spirited and Reactionary Movie

posted 13 years ago by Keechie
2 replies | jump to latest

Mrs. Potter, A working class woman with her sophisticated cooking and cleaning and non-sophisticated sexuality warms the heart of a very rigid and self-centered man, And because of her being a stepmother, Having "common" attitude and curvy butt, We're supposed to hate her and root for Nigel's social-climbing success!
Apparently people behind this movie are completely unaware that this condescending and reactionary point of view comes from the same source of family and society conventions that labels homosexuality as "unnatural" and "perverse".
The vulnerability of Nigel's mother and the scene where he dances alone with her dress belong to another movie, A movie with understanding and compassion.

[–] cookiela2001 13 years ago

I don't think the film portrays Mrs. Whatshername villainously. (I don't know how she comes across in the book.) I think the film's weakness is it doesn't really take a firm stance on her positive aspects, either....or why the son has to react the way he does, without apology...but its not like the movie smears this female character, either.

[–] som1950 12 years ago

Slater's memoir on which the movie is quite faithfully based shows him as being mean-spirited. Neither the book nor the movie defends, let alone advocates, the priggish nastiness of the boy (who not only gets far better food than before Mrs. Potts came along, but a less rigid and therefore less censorious father).

I'm certain that the movie-makers share your view of the boy's intolerance (that's too weak a label) as loathsome. By showing a warm and loving Mrs. Potter/Slater the movie is not mean-spirited. Rather, it is about a mean-spirited child.