Good movie. Good story. Go see it.
Give your characters courage.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Could have been great, if it had tried to be great. All(?) it needed was a story.
Rachel Getting Married isn’t great because nothing happens. Or, everything that we expect will happen happens. There just aren’t many surprises. I hear some of you yelling and throwing your fists in the air, asking if this idiot actually watched the movie, but to me, this film was a classic case of a story relying too heavily on quirky, diverse characters that we love, but failing to push the characters out of the proverbial room.
I’m of the opinion that revealing backstory, in particular backstory that all the characters know, but the audience doesn’t, isn’t something happening. Backstory, when used correctly, complicates the situation / story / scenario for the characters as much as it complicates for the audience. Rachel Getting Married places an elephant in the room but waits much too long to show / tell us it has been sitting there all along. Everyone else (in the film) knew, and I didn’t. That’s just not fair. Is it? = you tell me.
So, I think that if RGM had revealed information that radically changed the way we, the audience, and they, the characters, see the story, then it would have been a bit more successful. In Revision = Check to make sure your backstory changes the stakes not only for the audience, but also for the characters in your story.
However, what I found extremely fresh about the backstory is that we didn’t see it. We only hear it through the words of the characters. It is all too easy for film to visually recreate backstory so that the audience “sees it,” but RGM refrains from doing so. And for that, amidst all the in your face directorial decisions—the fork in the road, the bouncing camera, the guy with the home video camera, holding hands to cut the cake—I appreciated RGM.
…It’s extremely difficult to buy into a story based on the consequences of a car crash and then there is a second car crash and the second car crash has no consequences.
…You could also argue RGM isn’t supposed to me a story, but a portrait. Who looks at a portrait for 113 minutes?
Rachel Getting Married isn’t great because nothing happens. Or, everything that we expect will happen happens. There just aren’t many surprises. I hear some of you yelling and throwing your fists in the air, asking if this idiot actually watched the movie, but to me, this film was a classic case of a story relying too heavily on quirky, diverse characters that we love, but failing to push the characters out of the proverbial room.
I’m of the opinion that revealing backstory, in particular backstory that all the characters know, but the audience doesn’t, isn’t something happening. Backstory, when used correctly, complicates the situation / story / scenario for the characters as much as it complicates for the audience. Rachel Getting Married places an elephant in the room but waits much too long to show / tell us it has been sitting there all along. Everyone else (in the film) knew, and I didn’t. That’s just not fair. Is it? = you tell me.
So, I think that if RGM had revealed information that radically changed the way we, the audience, and they, the characters, see the story, then it would have been a bit more successful. In Revision = Check to make sure your backstory changes the stakes not only for the audience, but also for the characters in your story.
However, what I found extremely fresh about the backstory is that we didn’t see it. We only hear it through the words of the characters. It is all too easy for film to visually recreate backstory so that the audience “sees it,” but RGM refrains from doing so. And for that, amidst all the in your face directorial decisions—the fork in the road, the bouncing camera, the guy with the home video camera, holding hands to cut the cake—I appreciated RGM.
…It’s extremely difficult to buy into a story based on the consequences of a car crash and then there is a second car crash and the second car crash has no consequences.
…You could also argue RGM isn’t supposed to me a story, but a portrait. Who looks at a portrait for 113 minutes?
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