[Quick Summary: Julianne has a crazy plan to disrupt the wedding of Mike, her best friend from college, whom she's had unresolved feelings for.]
I have mourned the flimsy rom-coms of the last decade.
Recent heroines don't make enough bad decisions with dire heart consequences.
With a stream of good decisions, there's not enough will-they-won't-they suspense.
The scene below is a great example of a bad decision with dire consequences:
- Julianne sends an email from Mike's father-in-law-to-be to Mike's boss.
-She is trying to make it look like the FIL wants the boss to fire Mike --> causing problems between FIL and Mike --> cancelling the wedding --> allowing Mike to be available for Julianne.
-Note the script includes her physical reactions to double crossing her best friend.
INT. WALTER'S OFFICE - DAY
Julianne enter the spacious corner office, high above the city. Closes the door, quietly, behind her. So anxious, she is practically hyperventilating. She goes, slowly to the vacant cherrywood desk. Its computer and monitor standing silent. She is stalking it, like a deadly animal. And then. She is there.
Talking to herself, her own desperate support network...
JULIANNE (softly): You can do this.
Scared, filled with doubt and conflict. Her hands clutch at each other. Then, one flicks out. And the computer goes ON. The screen GLOWS. Waits for her. Her mouth is sand, her stomach water. She pulls the paper from her pocket...
...looks at it. Looks to the monitor. And begins. To type...
JULIANNE (mumbling to herself): E-mail address. To Ben Isaacson, Senior Editor, Sports Illustrated, from...Walter Wallace.
And stops. Her heart is thumping.
JULIANNE: See, you can do it. It's easy.
Doesn't look easy. Licks her lips.
JULIANNE: You do it fast, it's over. Like it never happened.
She sits. And recites as she types...
JULIANNE: Ben. I need a favor.
Here we go. This it. Types...
JULIANNE: My daughter's every happiness. And my wife's. And least of all, my own. Are in your hands.
Nods, okay. Breathing hard. Types...
...She hits a KEY. The screen goes BLANK. The computer asks ... DO YOU WISH TO SEND? She tells the computer...
JULIANNE: Are you crazy? Get him fired?
Types...NO. The computer asks...HOLD FOR LATER? And she types...YES.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: More bad decisions, please.
My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)(1st draft)
by Ronald Bass
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