I hadn't been paying attention to Killers because it looked so stupid, which is part of my problem with that particular sort of analysis, because I'm not certain that ripping up this sort of film with feminist critique doesn't somehow minimize the fact that it is mostly hampered by its serious crappitude. Put another way, I think this type of critique might subtly indicate that if the movie just got its handling of its female lead in order, it would be okay.

My problem with an awful lot of hollywood crap is that it handles all of its humans-- male, female, gay, straight, inhuman-- so very badly, and I'm not sure bad handling of women isn't simply a single symptom of larger problems, and a feminist critique may miss the point. IOW, saying that Transformers II handles gender roles badly is like saying that massive kidney failure is bad for your complexion. It's true, but perhaps a bit incomplete.

Funny I should mention Transformers, because Shia LeBoeuf is the acting version of the writing problem that I suspect plagues Killers (and a few zillion other movies). I hate Shia's performances because they are never a whole performance. In this scene he's brave, but in the next scene he's scared; in this scene he's determined, but in the next scene he's tentative-- all based on what somebody thinks would play best in that scene, regardless of how it fits into the whole character. It's the "what would play best" part where the writers let their heteronormative flag fly-- but they aren't writing a character, their writing a scene, and so the characters become a pastiche of writers' assorted prejudices and notions instead of whole and coherent characters.

So maybe I'm trying to say, apropos of I know not what, that bad writing is the disease that allows the heteronormative issues to bloom (along with many others).

Sometimes it's lazy writing that is trying to solve narrative problems-- I need someone to go outside so the killer can chop a character, but I can't really think of a reason that a real human would do that, so I'll just make up something stupid.

Sometimes I'm trying to sculpt a character beyond all sense. At some point we can address the train wreck that is Barbra Streisand, who once she won control of her own films made certain that she would be the funniest, deepest, smartest, wackiest, most dependable, sweetest, toughest and all around bestest character in every movie she made. Watch "Prince of Tides" for one of the more egregious examples.

I don't think I'm disagreeing with your point-- just extending it.

Heigl is a great example of...something. I thought "Knocked Up" was despicable on pretty much every level, a fine example of the Apatow we-love-and-resent-mommy-for-making-us-grow-up-so-we-can-get-laid school of relationship stories. But it, like most of her films (probably this one, too) makes me ask the question, "Why does ANY woman read this script and think, oh yeah, I want to make this movie"?