MovieChat Forums > The Slap (2011) Discussion > Rosie is such a weak character.

Rosie is such a weak character.


I just can't understand how a woman can stay with a man who says "i want to get so drunk that I forget you and that kid even exist". What a weak weak woman, I understand that by the looks of it she doesn't work and may need financial stability but Rosie and Gary seem like 2 big hippies who wouldnt really care about things like that anyway. However Melissa George plays the character to perfection, what a chameleon she is. Props to Melissa.

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She was great as Rosie.It showed a new side of Melissa George. I hated Rosie, she is the kind of woman that you would see on Wife Swap Australia. I read the book and saw the movie but I came away with the feeling that Gary just gave up on life and HE felt that he was stuck with Rosie and Hugo.His resentment of Hugo was very clear. Not saying he is any sort of Saint becaue he was a disgusting pig of a man. Between his drinking and her disturbing need to breastfeed her son as a way to make herself feel better they make one screwed up family.
Bitch get out of my way!

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Yes, dontcare........, I agree with what you say. I think that Rosie & Gary have found themselves stuck with each other, and so Rosie looks to her kid for emotional `support'.

The OP calls Rosie weak, but I'd say she's really damaged, and that she views herself as strong and a survivor. She's made her bed - with Gary & Hugo - and so she has to lie in it. I believe that her jealousy of the families of Harry & Hector - nice houses, ample money - creates a kind of paralysing resentment in her which simply spilled over when Hugo got slapped by one of these so-called privileged people. I have worked with abused and traumatised people, and their expectation of further trauma and abuse renders them `stuck' in a kind of loop where attack on them by others is almost a given. Their expectation that others will treat them badly can make them seem mewling and defensive. Melissa George nailed this behaviour wonderfully, and of course she could not have done this without a decent script. Her rationalisations around taking the assault to court made sense to her, but we the viewers could see how this was keeping her son locked into victimhood, and this would then most likely become his own reality in the future.

Thus, you have to ask yourself..................
What was more damaging to Hugo - the original slap, or his mother's reinforcement of the event on the child's memory??????????

I know what my answer would be.

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His mother's reinforcement and constant breastfeeding when he is clearly way too old for that. It's just disgusting.

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What was more damaging to Hugo - the original slap, or his mother's reinforcement of the event on the child's memory??????????

I agree Hugo is more messed up by Rosie's overdramatising and lack of discipline than by the slap. Thats not to say I think what Harry did was right or that he is any better a parent. I completely disagree that her breastfeeding him is abuse as breastfeeding past infancy is actually considered healthy by many experts.

I don't think Rosie's all bad though. As you can see by her looking after Anouk's mother she has a kind, caring side. I see her as misguided.

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I can't stand the Rosie character. She pushes my buttons big time!

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I wanted to slap that kid myself in the first episode. Rosie is like a dippy,hippy who is envious of others and also thinks other people should take care of her kid? The breast feeding a full grown kid is gross too. I had no sympathy for her at all.

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In all fairness, Hugo's parents do love him. In a country/world full of abused unwanted kids, Hugo has a mother who dotes on him and despite her flaws, is attentive and kind to him.

Rosie is damaged and she is sticking with her husband, she is facing the consequences of her actions which very few people seldom do.

Rosie may not be the perfect mother...but I doubt there is such a person, as there are perfect kids

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No they don't. They really don't love him. Gary resents and generally ignores him meanwhile and Rosie's created a spoiled brat of a child who will go one to have an entitled, victim-mentality and be wholly unprepared for the real world. She coddles and infantalizes him and gives into his every whim. While that may loosely resemble love, it isn't. Just because he's not being beaten or physically neglected doesn't mean he's not being damaged and abused.

Rosie is a histrionic, self-righteous, dimwitted fool of a woman who really isn't facing any sort of consequences for her actions, largely due to the fact that those around her perpetually coddle her in the way she goes Hugo. She's not some kind of martyr or hero of a woman, she's actually rather disgusting.

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Everybody needs love. Have you held your hostage today?

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