It's about being noticed. Dakota Fanning also played a sexual assault victom in CSI, this is just the next step forward. If she did anything like the roles that got Melanie Griffith, Brooke Shields, or Jodie Foster in the door when they were kids, moviemakers would roll their eyes and sigh that they've seen it done already. "Always make the audience suffer as much as possible." And nothing makes the audience suffer more than hitting them in their virtues. Did we need a graphic portrayal of Jesus's last days? Did we need a five-year anniversary movie of the 9-11 attacks? Of course not, but the short-sighted opinion is that it makes for ground-breaking--and thus entertaining--cinema. And let's face it, pedophiles are the target of a prosecution not seen since the witchhunts. It doesn't even have to be a rape scene, but that just adds more fuel to the fires of outrage. Oh sure, one or two will cry for boycott, but the majority will go to see it, just so they won't have to hear "but you haven't even seen it." They'll see it, realize it wasn't as bad as all that, maybe even recognize the pure message against the vile existance of pedophilia. And wonder when the next Pirates of the Carribean movie is coming out.
Too true!
Ya'll are missing it. On Hannity's radio show yesterday, the point was made that "this film has already raised awareness about the exploitation of children."
So what if they exploited a child to do it?