Is This The Creepiest Kiss In Cinematic History?

Twenty years ago, writer/director Amy Heckerling put a Beverly Hills spin on a Jane Austen classic with Clueless. We’re honoring this pop culture powerhouse with Clueless Week on Decider. Click here to follow our coverage.
Yesterday, I made the bold and controversial claim that Clueless was the greatest Jane Austen adaptation of all time because it was not a romance; it was a comedy. That said, the film does crescendo with a romantic kiss between the film’s two star-crossed lovers, Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and Josh (Paul Rudd). They’ve spent the entire film bickering, flirting, and bringing out the best (and worst) in each other. So, when they finally kiss, it’s sweet and the audience feels catharsis.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_ArO8UCfyk]
It’s great, right? Until you remember that she’s only 16 years old and that they’re ex-step-siblings. Or, you could say that Cher is underage and they have grown up as siblings. So, within that sweet, lovely kiss, there are multiple layers of creepiness.
How creepy is Cher and Josh’s romance? Let’s look at their sibling status first. When we first meet Josh and Cher, they’re aggressively teasing and bullying each other the way siblings do. They disagree on music, style, and, oh yeah, their actual sibling status:

So, Josh thinks of them as siblings, while Cher says they aren’t. Technically, she’s right because they aren’t bound by blood or marriage now. However, Cher’s lawyer father still considers Josh to be his son. He tells her in one of the film’s earliest scenes, “You divorce wives, not children.” Even if Cher doesn’t want to have any familial attachment to Josh, it’s clear that both he and her father consider themselves part of a solid family unit. So, it’s a tiny bit sketchy, right? It’s not straight out incest, but there is a problematic vibe. You can overlook it as Cher does, but it’s there.

Now lets address the age difference. Cher is barely 16 years old and Josh is a college freshman (which means we should suppose that he’s no older than 19). That means that she is under 18 and he is over 18, and that’s when things can get legally sticky. According to the State of California: “Any person who engages in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is not more than three years older or three years younger than the perpetrator, is guilty of a misdemeanor.” If Josh is in fact 19 years old or younger, they are legally in the clear.

Josh and Cher can legally date, kiss, and have sex, but I would add that if you need to make justifications for their romance, then it’s kind of inherently creepy.
Of course, the Jane Austen romance it’s based on is also has a creepy vibe. In Emma, Mr. Knightley is a good seventeen years older than Emma, which would be fine if they were strangers who met as adults, but he’s literally known her since she was a baby and has always been a paternal figure in her life. Adding to the familial weirdness, Mr. Knightley’s younger brother is married to Emma’s older sister — I don’t know why, but I find that even sketchier than the age gap. When Emma realizes that she loves Mr. Knightley, it’s a shock to her system. Why? Because much like Cher, she’s only ever seen this potential love interest as a fraternal figure.
It’s not impossible to see someone in a new light and realize that you love them, but there has always been something in the Cher/Josh (or Emma/Knightley) pairing that tilts into feeling “uncomfy.” True love can overcome all obstacles, but can it ever conquer an inherently creepy vibe? [Watch Clueless on Netflix]
 

Like what you see? Follow Decider on Facebook and Twitter to join the conversation, and sign up for our email newsletters to be the first to know about streaming movies and TV news!

[Photo: Everett Collection]