The narrator is clue-less, absolutely clue-less. She is worried something must have been done to the leading lady (who breaks down in tears during a crucial scene) She then keeps asking, “Are you okay?”
Passage after passage in the closing pages, the narrator thinks like this (while not doing A THING):
Concern for Holly suddenly welled in me, yet I was cut off from reaching her. She seemed so inaccessible on that roof . . .
— Complicit, p. 330
Self doesnt know whether to laugh or to cry.
Holly, the actress, has just been raped and still has to get up at 4 a.m. and show up on set. The director has a screaming fit and makes her repeat a scene sixteen times.
The response from the narrator? “None of us dared to look at him or at Holly . . . Everyone pretended not to notice that Holly was crying, even though we all knew she was. The boom operator turned his back, the camera operator switched off the camera and glanced at his phone.”
YIKES! Hello, narrator, this would be the perfect time for you to approach and hug or offer some other form of comfort. Can anything be more awful than the narrator’s passivity, her “Are you okay” questions.
Narrator: I walked over to her, about to ask if she was okay . . .
AAARGH!!!
When the Executive Producer (the rapist) leaves the set, Holly performs her lines perfectly!
Next chapter: more passive musings from the narrator:
“In retrospect, I have no idea how Holly did it. If what we all suspect happened on the previous night did in fact happen, then . . . I can’t begin to imagine her state of mind the day we re-shot the rooftop scene . . . I hear that kind of violence, it leaves you in a certain state. Really traumatized. Holly somehow managed to fool us all into thinking she was okay.”
Really, really sick of the narrator’s rationalizations. If Holly had been raped (she was) and the narrator suspected it, shouldn’t she do something more than keep asking Holly: Are you okay? Maybe SHE SHOULD BE CALLING THE POLICE AND FILING A POLICE REPORT.
The narrator again, with her keen powers of observation: “Holly seemed like a totally different person afterward . . . ” Oh wow, so she’s not totally obtuse. She noticed Holly seemed “different.”
At this point . . . narrator, could you stop describing Holly’s mood swing and actually do something more than ask if she’s okay? The narrator has clearly decided to distance herself, and adopt an attitude of fake concern.
Narrator again: “But she wouldn’t let me in . . . rape was just too terrible to name . . . I sit for a moment and marvel at Holly’s nerves of steel . . . after you’ve gone through something so horrific . . . “
Can’t stand this narrator’s smugness, let me tell ya. Another woman confesses to her that she’s been raped by the Executive Producer (very Harvey Weinstein FEELZ). Narrator: “Are you okay?”
Narrator: I placed a tentative arm on her shoulder, realizing it would be awkward if I didn’t try to offer some comfort.
You see how obtuse she is?
The other rape victim confesses she’s been raped and this is the narrator’s reaction: “I was bewildered . . . it could have been anything, just a casual one-night stand.”
Oh. My. Gawd.
She tells the rape victim: “Sometimes Hugo relies a little too heavy on partying to blow off steam . . . We all have too much to drink sometimes . . . It’s perfectly within your rights not to have to drink with Hugo ever again, if you don’t feel comfortable.”
Seriously? Seriously, narrator?
What can you expect from someone who texts a rape victim: “Are you coming to the wrap party?” She then keeps text-ing the woman, even when the film finishes shooting, she still wants to be “friends.” Simply unbelievable.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Kanlaon 