MovieChat Forums > Dust Devil (1993) Discussion > Unlikeable Lead Character

Unlikeable Lead Character

posted 17 years ago by Devans00
23 replies | jump to latest

I hate when a movie has a very unlikeable lead character. Not only do they get on your nerves, but they are on screen a lot, so you have to keep putting up with their annoyingness.

Wendy Robinson, played by Chelsea Field, was a very self centered, egotistical, numb nuts "heroine". I was begging for something bad to happen to her, but she kept sliding out of danger. While more deserving people got killed and mutilated.

When we first meet her, she and her husband are fighting because she's fooling around on him. Not exactly sympathetic. Later she get stuck in a ditch. A local man is kind enough to get her unstuck from the sand and the only thanks he gets is a face full of dirt as she peels off down the road with not even a thank you. By the way, the good Samaritan is finally paid for his efforts with a beating and torture from the local police.

Next, she not only picks up a weird hitchhiker, but sleeps with him. Um, isn't that what got her in trouble in the first place? Messing around with other men while married?

The only good thing is that she didn't have perfect glamour make-up on the whole time like they do in Hollywood movies.

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

[–] Simian_Jack 10 years ago

One thing that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is that the woman is suffering from depression. People who are depressed often act in ways that are thoughtless and self-centered. No one is at their best under that illness. Wendy is difficult to like, but I find her at least understandable.

[–] venusboys3 9 years ago

NONE of these reasons matter in regards to the OP's initial statement that he dislikes watching movies with unlikeable protagonists. The woman does seem to be the prime focus of the story but she's annoyingly selfish and does stupid things throughout the story. Doesn't matter if she's 'realistic' she's still annoying and adds to the pain of watching this, IMO, fairly bad movie.