Seth Rogen is testing his American audience’s patience with date rape film

Amazing as it may seem, a fat, stoner schlubb of an actor called Seth Rogen is the biggest male star in Hollywood these days. Bigger than Brad Pitt. Bigger than George Clooney.

Since the 26-year-old Canadian burst onto the screen as the unlikely lover of the beautiful Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up, which took $148m at US cinemas, he has been pure, 24-carat box office gold in movies like Superbad and Pineapple Express. He's also the voice of the blob in the new animated hit, Monster vs Aliens.

But Rogen's stature in Hollywood, built on his image as a sweet, goofy everyman, could be seriously undone by what looks like a terrible career misstep. His latest movie, Observe and Report, (see trailer here) is the big Easter weekend comedy opening in the States. It is dark - very dark - and many critics have been appalled by its relentless bad taste.

In one scene Rogen’s character appears to date-rape his co-star, a ditzy blonde

"The equivalent of a finger down the throat," wrote John McCarthy of boxoffice.com. The reviewer for Associated Press said: "The most charitable thing we can say about the otherwise insufferable Observe and Report is that it shows Seth Rogen has some range."

Particularly troubling to many people is a scene in which Rogen's character appears to date-rape his co-star Anna Faris's character, a ditzy buxom blonde shopgirl called Brandi.

Rogen plays Ronnie Barnhardt, a dangerously unhinged, raging, violent bi-polar shopping mall security guard who tries to track down a pervert who has been flashing Brandi, his friend on the cosmetics counter. Barnhardt is apparently modelled on Robert De Niro's portrayal of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, surely a first for a comedy.

Some critics simply couldn't believe what they were watching. "Surely no studio comedy, no matter how supposedly 'dark', would portray its lead character as a rapist, right?" wondered a writer for New York magazine.

But that was exactly what was being shown, the writer concluded. "Hang out at your local multiplex this weekend if you're in the mood to overhear a lot of angry post-movie arguments, as couples debate the totally insane movie they've just seen - a truly dark big-studio comedy in which, yes, Seth Rogen rapes the girl of his dreams."

The sequence in question is pretty clear. Over dinner with Barnhardt, Brandi becomes completely smashed on anti-depressants and endless shots of tequila. After dinner she can barely walk - Rogen has to prop her up - and she's throwing up.

Despite this, Rogen's character promptly has sex with her. There's a long, almost unwatchable scene - which can be seen on the trailer - when Rogen is shown pounding away on top of the apparently comatose Brandi. The filmmakers, and Rogen, argue that the scene is not date-rape - and that it's actually hilariously funny - because it finishes with Brandi appearing to regain consciousness to admonish Rogen's character, groggily, slurring her words: "Did I tell you to stop, motherfucker?" In other words, she appears to give her consent.

‘That sex scene is one of the funniest things I’ve ever experienced in a movie’

But as New York magazine points out, because of the astonishing amount of intoxicants Brandi has consumed, "she certainly can't give any kind of informed consent. She's way too wasted for her yelling at Ronnie to mean anything."

Rogen vigorously defends the sequence. "That sex scene is one of the funniest things I've ever experienced in a movie," Rogen says. "What I love about it is you can literally feel the audience pulling back, thinking 'How is this going to be OK? What could she say to make this right? What is the one thing she could say that keeps me from stomping out of this movie in two minutes?' And she says the one thing. Perfect."

But when Faris, the actress who had to portray Brandi in the scene, was asked about it, she clearly had anxieties. "I do wonder if there's going to be a bit of a gender divide on this movie," she mused. "I think that some guys can see themselves in Ronnie, and understand him, I guess. And I'm not sure that women will go along with that."

She's almost certainly right. Seth Rogen, along with the studios and filmmakers who have money riding on him, look certain to rue the day when, for the sake of pushing the comedy envelope, they destroyed the immensely valuable goodwill on which he has built his unlikely career.

As Nikki Finke put it on DeadlineHollywood.com: "What was the studio thinking by allowing a date rape scene in which Rogen's character has sex with an unconscious female trashed on anti-depressants and tequila? Everyone connected with this picture should be ashamed."