It's true, you know. Mae West--certainly as she acts in this movie--is trash. She's good-hearted, certainly, but she's still trashy. Oh, she wants good things, but she's got low tastes, and she's not, despite what she says, intellectual. She's trash. She's a good person regardless, but she's out-of-place in the
circles her new wealth affords her.
Then again, quite a lot of the people in the circles aren't good people. They're just different. They've been exposed to different things than she has.
It's not that I don't think they might have things in common. It's that . . . I can't even explain what I mean. You aren't supposed to sympathize with Delilah, for one. You just aren't. She's intended to be the villain. I can see her point, I think, but still.
I'm not sure I could have a conversation with this character. She's not half so friendly as she was in the last movie, though I wonder how much of that is based on the corner she's being pushed into. I just couldn't think of marrying someone based on a roll of the dice (it's my problem with one of the plot lines in Friends, too). I wouldn't marry someone for a title. There are better ways to climb the social register.
I guess the problem I have is that she treats men as toys. Even the one she says she wants. It's a game. It's one she plays very well, but it's a game.
Though, now I think about it, that's pretty much exactly as anathema to me as the way the rich treat it in this film--as a way of life. I don't understand either, I guess, and it's hard for me to get into it.
January 10, 2007
