Elliot was a pedophile


In all actuality Elliot was not a pedophile, but in this day and age he might be labeled as such just for being friends with Lucy.

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Very true, actually.

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What planet are you on?

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What a ludicrous statement.

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What's ludicrous, the subject line or the body of the post (if you read it)? The subject line is ludicrous, the body is spot on.

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Agreed. The OP missed the mark with the subject line.



Kindness...A little bit of it goes a very long way.

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yeah was thinking the same thing as I was rewatching this tonight. Like scenes when he falls asleep in Lucy's bed they'd probably have to change it because people would get upset or get the wrong idea!

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I hate the fact that we now live in a society where adults cannot be friends (and even parents in some cases) with children. In addition, adults have to be afraid of children in the fact that they had better make sure another adult is around. When I was a kid, I welcomed the idea of adults taking an interest in me, teaching me, guiding me and even playing with me. Never once was there inappropriate behavior from adults. I feel sorry for both children and adults today and I fear for how children will develop for the lack of that contact. We're successfully producing a generation of kids that cannot speak to adults, have no work ethic and are socially retarded.

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I found myself getting uncomfortable when he's rubbing her tummy/chest, & felt relieved when he asks her mother to take over. What a comment on our social attitudes.

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What did Elliot even do that would make people think such a thing?

I have two step children. A boy and a girl who were rather young when I met their mother. Needless to say, things between us developed fairly quickly and we knew early on that we would probably get married. Therefore, I had to establish a relationship with their children.

That is critical to the sucess of such a relationship when children from earlier relationships are involved. Elliot did the same thing with Lucy in the film and she was their biggest fan and supporter. My step children were rather young at the time (the boy 7 and the girl 3) but that was ten years ago.

Their mother and I have been happily married and they too are a big part of our happiness. Elliot was only trying to do the same thing. He ended up having a very special relationship and bond with Lucy just as I have with my step children.

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I would have to think that the reason that Elliot might appear to be a pedophile is merely the mark of what became "a perfect storm" thoughout the film. That is to say that Lucy's mother allows a total stranger to enter the house where she lives with her child, allows him access to the entirety of their lives, and then shacks up with him in what appears to be a method (and one seemingly well-hewn, given that she just got done with another actor who was paying her bills)of survival.

Elliot likes Lucy, says that she is the greatest part of her mother (something that is bound to look devisive all by itself), sleeps in the same bed with her (he falls asleep after the whole ice cream overdose thingee, but her mother, who protests mildly--You can't sleep with my daughter,or something to that effect--still seems to allow it), and picks her up in a carriage (unbeknownst, it would seem, to Paula and the school that Lucy attends), telling the classmate with the big breasts that she has charmisma, too.

In times before, I liked this movie. I grew up with this movie as part of what I considered to be a staple of what is now the modern experience of divorce and moving on from it afterwards. Now, as a parent and married person who has been divorced themselves (but now remarried), I see it as a disaster. I am bothered by Paula's gold-digging behavior, her easy way with climbing into Elliot's bed and talking redecorating as he pours out his heart, her too familiar banter with her child, and laziness (C'mon, you're 33 and looking for a dancing job and then GROAN off the stage? Not the best way to interview if you REALLY want a job). Paula wanted a way out, a safety net, and was just lucky that Ted Bundy didn't walk in the door.

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I have to disagree to some extent with this. I think it needs to be remembered that Elliot had a least to the apartment. He could have gotten the courts involved and had Paula thrown out. Granted, that might take some time but eventually, she would be out of it.

I look at is Paula looking out for her daughter for fear of being put out on the street with nowhere to go. Paula had no job and no money and would be in a real pickle. It was Elliot who let them stay out of the goodness of his heart. He despised Paula initially just as she did him.

Gold digging? Maybe to a small extent but she does get a job and one that she doesn't care for all that much. She warmed up to Elliot after realizing he was not that bad of a person and the same thing goes for Elliott with respect to Paula.

Sure, there were some questionaable moves made by Paula but at the end of the day, she was happy with Elliott and so was Lucy. We never know what happens (a sequal would not have worked well there) but I think it's safe to say that Elliot did go home to her and they were together for a very long time...

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I hate the fact that we now live in a society where adults cannot be friends (and even parents in some cases) with children. In addition, adults have to be afraid of children in the fact that they had better make sure another adult is around. When I was a kid, I welcomed the idea of adults taking an interest in me, teaching me, guiding me and even playing with me. Never once was there inappropriate behavior from adults. I feel sorry for both children and adults today and I fear for how children will develop for the lack of that contact. We're successfully producing a generation of kids that cannot speak to adults, have no work ethic and are socially retarded.


I tend to agree.

While it's good we're more on the lookout for pedos and have warned children to be more aware, the cost is that people assume every adult male who takes an interest in kids is out to diddle them.

I wonder if a healthy balance is possible.

--

Non-sequiturs are delicious.

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I disagree , one thing if the guy was just hanging around Lucy all the time and not seeing her Mom. but he is .he's not a stranger .

"So, a thought crossed your mind? Must have been a long and lonely journey"

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Can anybody honestly say that somewhere at the back of their mind a little thought didn't pop up when the two of them were interacting? You may have dismissed it instantaneously, but it popped up all the same. It's sad that that's how we think - and I appreciate not everyone will admit to having had that thought. But the OP is right. Nowadays any mother with a prepubescent daughter allowing a strange male to move in would have the same thought - or she damn well ought to.









Awight we're The Daamned we're a punk baand and this is called Carn't Be Appy T'day!

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Nowadays any mother with a prepubescent daughter allowing a strange male to move in would have the same thought - or she damn well ought to.



...but ....he's not a stranger .


Absolutely true!

The movie clearly takes place over a period of months.

The relationship between Elliot and Lucy didn't just happen 10 minutes after they meet.

It is understood it is developing over time, during the preparation and rehearsals for the play.

Elliot does nothing inappropriate at any stage and only ever touches Lucy with Lucy's and her mother's approval.

It's a sad indictment of our society that virtually any movie which involves a man in some sort of social relationship with a child or teenager, no matter how straight-forward seems to automatically now have a thread with a similar title to this one, opened up by some attention-seeking clown.

Sadder still there are others willing to contribute to the nonsense with brainless comments taken completely out of film context such as " Look at him sleeping in Lucy's bed. My! My!

or
Can anybody honestly say that somewhere at the back of their mind a little thought didn't pop up...


or
The thought did cross my mind.

To those unfortunates thinking this way, get your collective heads out of the gutter and try to get back in touch with the real world and stop dreaming things up, that simply aren't there.



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He was not only a stranger, he immediately informs her he sleeps in the nude and walks around that way in the middle of the night. Other than that I just love RD in this role:)

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oh let me guess YOUR favourite line from the movie ?



'' you know what Cynthia fine said ''



you lovveeee that line don't you !!!!

you could just watch that scene again and again and again

and again :)

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Well, it was a very different time, there wasn't the paranoia about child sex abuse like there was later on. Quinn Cummings was a very "cute child," but not a "beautiful child" or a Lolita-type, so viewers of the film aren't as concerned about an inappropriate relationship as we would be otherwise.
There is some "flrtatious banter between Elliot and Lucy but the lines are not delivered in a shady way with any detectable subtext, it's more comedic. Like when Lucy is speaking of her mother's former fiance Tony the actor, and she says
"Tony was sexy."
And Elliot says "What, I'm not sexy?"
And Lucy bursts out laughing, "Yeah right."
Then Elliot says "Listen, in three more years, kid, you'll be going ape over me."
It is flirtation and it is precocious, but it's done in an extremely lighthearted, comedic way, so there is not meant to be any underlying subtext of inappropriate intentions.

Go scratch!

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