[Cboldt]

If Gibson has the freedom as a human being/artist to make exactly the movie he wants to, why shouldn't a critic/essayist have the freedom to say exactly what she thinks? Why is it called whining?

Just my two cents. The review is certainly not whining. I'll tke the critic at her word, that she has recahed her conclusions with thoughtful deliberation, and has accurately presented her opinion.

But using the same forum to present the fact that many people were put off by her review? That is whining. Maybe even vindictive, you know, tit-for-tat?

[equus]

Well, being a writer myself, I can suggest to you that what happened is she showed all the responses to her editor, and they thought, hey there's more of a story here than we thought, why don't you write about it. And that editor is right. A voluminous response, much of it hate mail, is interesting from a journalistic point of view--it's a story in itself.