The Slap promises to be the gateway into a much broader cultural conversation about the merits of physical discipline for children. However, to get to the slap, your patience is severely tested as there’s barely enough content to keep your eyes from glossing over. Still, The Slap presents us with an opportunity to examine modern-day parenting through the lens of extreme characters.
After witnessing the slap, it seems natural to want to assign blame. Gary and Rosie (the parents of Hugo, the child that got slapped, I estimate to be 5 years old) are so stereotypically comical that it is hard to relate to them. Gary, a struggling artist, has a distain for people that have money. Rosie, a hippy mother, isn’t one to set boundaries. She abnormally clings to her child like velcro to the point where it’s a bit disturbing.
Together, Gary and Rosie give their son, Hugo, free reign to do whatever he wants, which makes him a pain to be around. Gary and Rosie run to Hugo’s aid whenever he misbehaves. Hugo isn’t exactly social and he doesn’t play well with others. Plus, Hugo is still breastfed, which the extreme portrayal takes Rosie out of reality.
Finally, during a game of waffle ball, Hugo uses a wooden bat. After he strikes out, he flails the bat around at the other children. After refusing to drop the bat, Harry (an adult) snatches the bat from him. Hugo then kicked Harry, then Harry overreacted by slapping Hugo.
Clearly, Harry is wrong for slapping a child, especially one that isn’t is his, that’s indisputable. With that being said, what role did Gary and Rosie play in this? Have they been turning a blind eye to their child’s glaring behavioral problems? Does Harry have unresolved anger or aggression issues? It’s easy to point the finger at Harry (and rightfully so), but there’s plenty of blame to go around.
Questions like these are the meat and potatoes that brought the audience to the screen. It’s just a shame that we had to get through a thick layer of fat and annoying narration to get to the substance.
What did you think of The Slap?