Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

We didn't see the movie "Passengers" in the theater, but we watched it a couple of weeks ago and both found it disturbing.  This morning in the newspaper entertainment section there was an article about why it didn't do well at the box office.  People saw the Chris Pratt character as analogous to a person who commits date rape, only in this case he selects the most beautiful passenger and deliberately wakes her up so he won't be alone.  He thereby ensures she will not make it to the planet or have a choice in her life or friends or partner.  We've all read the newspaper articles about the abductor who is a "lone wolf" and he selects who he will capture and keep for himself.  And Jennifer Lawrence is so beautiful that the film becomes a fantasy where an ordinary guy grabs what he wants but doesn't deserve.  In the film she accuses him of "murdering" her, yet they end up in love.  It's not believable.  But what horrified me was the director and writer insisting it had never occurred to them that people would react to film in that way.  How ignorant and insensitive to women are they?  I bet the slasher film directors and writers wouldn't be so coy.  They know they're creepy and people going into the theater know a sick fantasy is at the center of the attraction.  But luckily, in this particular case, the moviegoers were not buying it.  So the film becomes an example of the insidious culture of date rape and control of women that hurts all of us.  It becomes a lesson.