Monday, August 27, 2018

TODAY'S NUGGET: The Wedding Singer (1998) - The Unfulfilled Desire

[Quick Summary: The wedding singer, who is engaged to the wrong woman, and a waitress, who is engaged to the wrong guy, fall in love.]

I have issues with this script, but it's ok.

I was pretty impressed, however, by how fast we get a hint of the protagonist's unfilled desire (interior conflict to come)* - by page 3!

In the scene below:
- Robbie, the wedding singer, can't wait to get married (unfulfilled desire). 
- He thinks his life is all smooth sailing.
- He has just wrested the microphone from the Best Man and saved his client's wedding reception. 

ex. "Robbie raises his glass and everyone in the thankful crowd follows suit in a smattering sort of way. The tension is broken.

Many look at Robbie hopefully, many still disturbed. The bride is ashen, unable to look at her husband, who sits by her side sweating.

ROBBIE (continued): C'mon everybody, we've all done crazy things. I had dreams of being a rock star and I was living what I thought was a rock'n'roll lifestyle. 'Til I met a girl who made me realize what's really important in life. And I'm marrying her next week. [Uh-oh.]

The crowd applauds. Robbie acknowledges it.

ROBBIE (continued): The point is, when you're in love, the emptiness is gone and there's no reason to do stupid things. Cause you got something to live for - each other. And the way I've seen these two look into each others' eyes all day long, I can tell they're gonna live for each other the rest of their lives. Cheers! [He's a romantic.  We sense that he's soon to be disappointed.]

The entire room fills with the warmth generated by Robbie's love inspiring speech."

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I liked how we got to Robbie's current status quo quickly, with a light comedic touch, and set us up for where we'll be going.

The Wedding Singer (1998)
by Tim Herlihy (rewrite by Carrie Fisher, 11/8/96)

*This is known as Step 1: The Chemical Equation (Setup):  "A scene or sequence identifying the exterior and/or interior conflict (i.e., unfulfilled desire), the "what's wrong with this picture" implied in the protagonist's (and/or the antagonist's) current status quo."

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