I think she was supposed to be a spoiled rich girl. Yeah, she should’ve done all that stuff, but then there wouldn’t have been the ending where she and Jack had to part and he slipped into the water, yada yada, which is what they wanted to happen. I never cared for the Jack/Rose story. The real story of the Titanic, and the real people who sailed on her, were far more interesting than any made-up Hollywood love story.
That is true, but so many movies have already have been made about the Titanic that they went with the made-up story. I thought the love story, and the drawing, and Billy Zane's melodrama villain were stupid, but a story about the real adults and families on the ship wouldn't have brought the teens who made up so much of the audience into the theaters.