MovieChat Forums > Take Me to the River (2015) Discussion > Ryder being gay was completely unnecessa...

Ryder being gay was completely unnecessary to the story; takes away...

posted 7 years ago by Airman87
4 replies | jump to latest

Ryder being gay added absolutely nothing to this story and may have actually taken away from it.

It seems the only purpose was to 100% convince viewers Ryder had absolutely no physical attraction to Molly of any kind. In which case, the issue is then with the audience member's sick pedophilia, rather than the story.

Heck, Ridley could have even dressed the same way and it wouldn't effect most viewers opinions (he is from California in Nebraska...even a straight guy would dress out of place).

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When logic and science aren't on your side, you always lose.

[–] minicii 7 years ago

I hate to tell you, my dude, but, like IRL, people aren't always going to be gay as a plot point.......sometimes they're just gay.

[–] Airman87 7 years ago

That's lovely, but this is a movie with a heterosexual actor. Making his character gay was deliberate, like it or not.

If he was merely gay beyond a plot point, as you suggest, the viewer wouldn't have been reminded every 15 minutes of his orientation.

_______
When logic and science aren't on your side, you always lose.

[–] DaveinNYC 7 years ago

If he were straight, as a viewer you would question his innocence and possibly be demonization him in your mind and the scenes with the uncle would not have been uncomfortable in the same way. It had to be clear he was the victim for the whole film to work.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

This family was the king of all “sweep it under the rug” families. Ryan being gay was just one more thing for them to ignore and avoid. Ryan wanted to come out to his relatives at this gathering but the mother, perhaps partly wanting to protect him, told him not to. It was an early clue that the Nebraska family is dysfunctional.