"Those who know what's best for us must rise and save us from ourselves" - Neil Peart
A writer is a god; omniscient, creator of his or her own world. If you can write a screenplay, setting up character, plot, and climax in three scenes, having very little space to describe it (the more verbiage, the less likely it will be read), you should be able to write a book applying the same principles...
I've decided to publish this Blog after the fashion of "Julie & Julia,"and start by critiquing 3 films. The goal is to prove to the world that I understand the development of a story. In other words, if you can write films, as I have, with its stringent, specific format, writing a story for a book, where there is so much more freedom, should be easy, right? (Having sat at the feet of the amazing Judy Burns at UCLA for screenwriting class doesn't hurt either).
Yes, it's easier to criticize than to create. But if I understand the complex nature of writing enough to criticize a story you are familiar with, then it might be worth your time to read a story I've written, and put it to the test. Let's face it. Getting an agent or publisher to read a story is the whole trick to the catch 22 that I've been experiencing my adult life. This was Jack London's dilemma the beginning of the 20th century, and it remains 'til today as difficult, if not more so.
The 3 films I will critique are "You've Got Mail," "The Watchmen," & lastly "American Beauty" vs. "The Ice Storm" (the latter comparison to show what works, and what really works as a story).
"You've Got Mail" - This movie's immediate "hook" are two people in separate relationships hiding their online affair. The conflict in this first scene is the fact that they don't know that their business lives will make them enemies. At the climax at the end of the 1st scene, Joe Fox of Fox Books finds out that the woman he's fallen in love with through the Internet is the woman he's battling publicly.
In the second scene, Fox carries this secret with him as both characters realize they're not in the relationship they want. Kathleen Kelly resolves to close her store, and in the climax, Joe realizes he doesn't want to follow in the footsteps of his father going from one loveless relationship to another.
The third and final scene, Joe resolves to use his advantage to woo Kelly into forgiving him, and sets her up to fall for him. After the fashion of The Count of Monte Cristo, he plays both himself and his Internet alter-ego to manipulate her. By the time she's ready to meet the mysterious NY152, she is totally confused who to love.
The climax of the last scene and the movie is when he reveals that Joe Fox is the person she's fallen in love with online. The fact that he stuck with her knowing she was "Shopgirl," had not stood her up at the cafe as she believed, and worked so hard to develop a real friendship makes the ending powerful and poignant.
There are several themes in this film. One being the almost inhuman way big business makes people so competitive that "it's not personal, it's just business," is accepted but immoral. The fact this film is a romantic-comedy doesn't paint the realistic picture of just how devastating it is, and how the "mom and pop" stores are fading more and more from the American scene. The film of course doesn't resolve how impossible spreading wealth evenly among enterprising people is.
The fairy tale to the story is how Kathleen Kelly decides to write stories herself and how easy it is for her to find someone to publish it before it's even written. This isn't the reason I chose this film. The flip side, and to me the films greatest appeal, is the underlying historical and literary references the main characters skirt around because of their partners, one a book editor and another a literary journalist. Kelly is credited by surrounding herself with established children authors, and gains a positive standing because of her good taste.
