TODAY'S NUGGET: Cold Mountain (2003) - 3 Obstacles in the Way of Romantic Longing

[Quick Summary: Inman, an injured Confederate soldier, makes his way home to his sweetheart Ada in Cold Mountain.]

This was a nice adaptation, well written, all about longing...but I got bored.  Here are my three reasons:

1) FEELINGS ALONE ARE NOT A FILM.  Inman meets Ada. He goes to war. She stays at Cold Mountain. They long for each other, which is very real.

But longing does not cause either to be pro-active or reactive (unlike guilt or shame) and thus have no repercussions or consequences for us to watch. 

I think this is better as a novel, and not a film.  Roger Ebert puts it better:

By the end of the film, you admire the artistry and the care, you know that the actors worked hard and are grateful for their labors, but you wonder who in God's name thought this was a promising scenario for a movie. It's not a story, it's an idea. Consider even the letters that Ada and Inman write to each other. You can have a perfectly good love story based on correspondence, but only, I think, if the letters arrive, are read and are replied to. There are times when we feel less like the audience than like the post office.

2) LACK OF SUSPENSE. Again, Roger Ebert puts it best:

Nothing takes the suspense out of Boy Meets Girl like your knowledge that Boy Has Already Met Star.

3) SECONDARY CHARACTERS STEAL THE SHOW. It's not good when I'm more interested in Veasey's antics than Inman's pining.

EXT. RIVER, EN ROUTE TO SALISBURY. DAY.

...On a parallel track across the river, RIDERS...impossible to say whether Home Guard or a Federal Raiding Party. Inman splashes out of the water, pushes Veasey down, silencing him. The riders pass. Veasey spots something shining in the grass, picks it up. IT'S A LONG TWO-HANDED SAW.

VEASEY (CONT'D): Hey! Look at this! (flexing it) This is a good saw.

INMAN (getting up): It's not yours. You take it, you make us another enemy. You're a Christian - don't you know your commandments?

VEASEY: You'll find the good Lord very flexible on the subject of property. We could do a lot with this saw...

Inman is vexed, walks away. Veasey follows, experimenting with the saw's music when flexed. Inman stalks on.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED:  I think the key was #2.  If I am expecting a roller coaster and get flat plains, what am I rooting for?

Cold Mountain (2003)(Feb. 2002 draft)
by Anthony Minghella
Based on the novel by Charles Frazier

TODAY'S NUGGET: Spanglish (2004) - How to Stick the Landing of that Bittersweet Moment

[Quick Summary:  When a Mexican woman becomes a maid for a L.A. chef's family,  her inability to communicate brings surfaces the problems in both families.]

One of the things that Brooks' writing does well is stick the emotional landing.

I think the key is his story structure.  First we see the characters' wounds. Then when they make bad decisions, we understand, even if we don't agree with them.

For example, the scene below has a lot of setup:

-We have seen Flor (protagonist) connecting with her employers John and Deborah, who love each other by each have issues. 
-Deborah-Flor share being supportive mothers.  John-Flor share being aware of other people's needs.
-The night Deborah drops a bomb, John flees and runs into Flor. 
- He is in a crisis, wounded, and does not want to be alone.  He needs a friend and cooks her a meal.
- Emotions that have been rising finally break through in this moment of closeness.

INT. RESTAURANT KITCHEN - NIGHT

John and Flor sit at a small table int he kitchen...finishing the greatest late-night meal in the history of Western man. Flor motions that she is finished.

JOHN: That's it...That's it for you. (a shadow passes) I keep thinking I should tell you what happened to me tonight. But, I don't want to spoil this. I don't want to spoil this.

FLOR: I will remember every taste...forever.

JOHN (shy/his heart): I'm very glad you liked it.

FLOR: It's something watching you.

He looks up at her...she has not been seen like this for a very long time, if ever.. lit up by a man.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED:  That final line really stuck the landing for me.  

Everything has been building to this moment when she's finally being seen, but a cloud hangs over them.

Spanglish (2004)(undated)
by James L. Brooks

TODAY'S NUGGET: The Pianist (2002) - A Passive/Active Survivor + Suspense

[Quick Summary: Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish, Jewish, classical pianist, hides in Warsaw ghetto during WWII.]

I WAS SURPRISED:

1) That this script dropped me in the middle of WWII and kept me so engaged that I forgot I was in this present world.

2) That the protagonist is so passive yet active.* 

Yet I couldn't stop watching. Why? It was the suspense of a man who could not control what befell him (environment), yet made decisions. What would he do next?

In the scene below, note how the man is trapped (passive) yet is still active (his reactions):

INT/EXT. 2ND APARTMENT - SZPILMAN & HIS POV - DAY

...SZPILMAN runs to the door, tries it but it's padlocked and can't open the door.

In panic, he runs back to the window.

His eyes grow wide with terror.

SZPILMAN & HIS POVE AGAIN - THE STREET

A GERMAN TANK bringing its gun to bear on the building next to his.

The gun jerks back and there's a great roaring noise.

The whole building shakes. SZPILMAN reels black, falls, gets to his feet and crawls back to the window

He sees the tank turret swiveling slowly, bringing the gun to bear directly on a lower floor of his building. The roaring noise again.

A terrific explosion. His windows are shattered. Glass everywhere. He is thrown back across the room. Smoke beings to billow and fill the room.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I was impressed how this script made me empathize with the impact of helplessness and gratitude for small acts of kindness. 

It stirred me to want to act better, which is the highest compliment to the writer.

The Pianist (2002)(undated)
by Ronald Harwood
Based on the memoir by Wladyslaw Szpilman

*Roger Ebert give a better context to the impassiveness:

Some reviews of "The Pianist" have found it too detached, lacking urgency. Perhaps that impassive quality reflects what Polanski wants to say. Almost all of the Jews involved in the Holocaust were killed, so all of the survivor stories misrepresent the actual event by supplying an atypical ending. Often their buried message is that by courage and daring, these heroes saved themselves. Well, yes, some did, but most did not and--here is the crucial point--most could not. In this respect Tim Blake Nelson's "The Grey Zone" (2001) is tougher and more honest, by showing Jews trapped within a Nazi system that removed the possibility of moral choice.

By showing Szpilman as a survivor but not a fighter or a hero--as a man who does all he can to save himself, but would have died without enormous good luck and the kindness of a few non-Jews--Polanski is reflecting, I believe, his own deepest feelings: that he survived, but need not have, and that his mother died and left a wound that had never healed. (my underline)

TODAY'S NUGGET: Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) - Element of Danger in Comedy

[Quick Summary: Crazy d.j./airman Cronauer is assigned to the Armed Forces Radio Saigon and becomes wildly popular but is thwarted by his superiors.]

This script reads like a monkey swinging from a chandelier, trying to avoid crocodiles, which is NOT the the same as merely swinging from a chandelier.

There's an element of danger and risk in the first.

Or as Cronauer, the main character, says to his straight-as-an-arrow sidekick:

You know, sometimes it's nice to do things specifically so you'd get in trouble. It's called "fun." I'll just make up some stuff that's always true. (starts out, turns) Really. Do something risky once in a while. It's good for the complexion.

What makes it even better is that the antics aren't just for show, but skewer for a deeper purpose. For example:

INT. CONTROL ROOM - LATER

...CRONAUER (into mike): President Eisenhower's itinerary this month includes moving his hands in a circular motion and rotating his sport shirts...See you after lunch.

Cronauer shuts the mike. Garlick and Dreiwitz enter with a reel of recording tape.

GARLICK: Nixon press conference.

Cronauer is about to leave the room, but is intercepted by Hauk.

HAUK: Where do you imagine you're going?

CRONAUER: Lunch.

HAUK: You don't have time for lunch, Airman. You'll stay here and drink instant beverage or something. We promised our audience Nixon highlights by 4 PM. 

CRONAUER: Hey, come on...

HAUK: That's an order.

Hauk exits; Cronauer sighs, defeated. Meanwhile, Garlick has threaded the tape into a player.  Nixon's voice comes on.

NIXON (V.O.): ...question I've been asked many times...Critics of American foreign, draft resisters are soft. They're shallow and they have no purpose.

Cronauer smiles.

CRONAUER: He wants tape highlights? I'll give him tape highlights. Boys, let's edit.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I was hooked because Cronauer's risk had a purpose, it was not stupid or thoughtless.

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)(5/14/86 draft)
by Mitch Markowitz

TODAY'S NUGGET: Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) - The Moment of Despair (Team Breaks Up)

[Quick Summary: The story of how Loretta Webb married young to Doo Lynn, had 6 kids, and created her country singing career.]

I liked this script very much because: 1) It reads faster than a greased pig, and 2) It builds and builds to the moment of despair.

First, it lays out how Doo worked so hard to get Loretta noticed.  

Second, we see that she's well on her way to success, but he no longer has purpose. 

She eventually catches him kissing another woman.  When she hits him with her purse, he injures a finger. 

The entire script has built to this heart wrenching scene when the team breaks up:

INT. HOUSE - NIGHT

...LORETTA: Ain't you gonna talk, Doo? I know what happened today, it wasn't about me wearin' no makeup. Why don't you talk to me?

DOOLITTLE (slowly): I think what I'm gonna do...is get me a job somewhere. Truck drivin', a mechanicin', somethin' I'm good at....

LORETTA: You're good at managin' me. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you.

DOOLITTLE: Gettin' here's one thing. Bein' here's another. My job's done. So I'll just find me another'n.

LORETTA: If this is gonna break us up then I'll quit too, Doo. I mean it.

DOOLITTLE: Successful people can't quit, baby. (sees her holding her head) Got another one of your headaches?

She nods.

DOOLITTLE: Just like your daddy. Coal dust give him his headaches. I guess I'm what gives 'em to you... (takes something from his pocket) Figure it was about time.

It's a wedding ring. She looks at it, starts to cry. They hold each other.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: The kid in me wants the team to stay together, but the adult in me knows Doolittle is right: "Gettin' here's one thing. Bein' here's another."

This is a good emotional space, as it keeps me rooting for them.

Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)(undated)
by Thomas Rickman
Based on the book by Loretta Lynn with George Vecsey