Sadly, it is Lohan’s Rachel that is at the center of the film’s narrative, and her character doesn’t work. Lohan is completely unable to take Rachel beyond being a petulant, purposely self-destructive, obnoxious teenager. Obviously, no child should ever be molested, it is something no one should ever have to deal with. While I will not say how the film ends, whether or not Arnold did in fact touch his stepdaughter, I was rooting for him not to have done it, not because no child should go through that, but because I wanted Rachel to have to deal with the ramifications of this massive lie. I wanted her to suffer and to permanently destroy her relationship with her family due to her lying about this. She acts so horribly throughout the movie, that even if Arnold did touch her, it doesn’t begin to forgive her actions. That seems to be both a result of Lohan not having the ability to pull off any of the more serious moments the role calls for and the character being written as far too annoying in general.
In an otherwise warm, touching, caring, emotional movie, it is upsetting to have a character at the center that is so unlikable. It significantly detracts from this film, and stops it from being anything more than average fare that may prove as effective counter-programming in Spider-Man 3’s second week of release.
Article comments
1 - Lisa McKay
Congratulations! This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States, and Boston.com, which will allow even more readers to enjoy it.
2 - Kristina
Perhaps as a fifteen year old girl, I am not mature enough to truly understand good acting. However, I completly disagree with your opinion on Lindsay Lohan's character in this movie. Yes she was rude. Yes she was at times obnoxious. And yes her character was a bit of a cliche. But, I still believed that she managed to deliver during the emotional scenes. In fact she littrly brought tears to my eyes many times during the movie.
P.S. "I wanted her to suffer and to permanently destroy her relationship with her family due to her lying about this."
Watever did she do to deserve that?
3 - Julieanne
when i watched this movie i watched it wif my mum and we didnt really lke it its so diffrent from her otha movies and to see her wif that guy on the lake doin all those things wif him was a little bit shockin and allways swearin shes so rude in the movie i giv it 2 cuz she culd hav done so much betta...