More about the way I watch movies

[msagara]

maiac wrote:

This sounds exactly like the kind that I need these days. Too many scriptwriters think that they have to do unpleasant and unfair things to their characters to make the story "dramatic".

And I started to answer this in the comment thread and then realized that I had enough to say that it might (might!) go long.

I don't actually mind, in context, when unpleasant things happen to characters; I dislike intensely when it feels contrived, because dammit, if you're going to do something obviously contrived couldn't it at least be nice or good? (I forgive contrived happiness).

I think, for me, I have to genuinely like the characters. In the previously mentioned Letters to Juliet, I actually liked the fiancee. When he did something very unromantic, my thought was "ouch, you idiot" and not "what a jerk". I understood why he was attractive to her -- to anyone -- and also at the same time why he could never make her happy.

I liked the fact that he was entirely unselfconscious in all his reactions and interactions.

So even though it was a romantic comedy and you knew going in he wasn't going to be the guy she married, I still *liked* him.

Let me come up with an entirely different example. I started to watch the movie How to lose a guy in 10 days (I may have the movie name wrong.) I watched maybe the first 20 minutes of that movie and then turned to my friend and said: "I can't stand either of these two. This movie is really going to have to knock my socks off for me to care -- at all -- whether or not they have a happy ending." (He said: Okay, we're not finishing this one. He had to survive my intense fury at the end of Atonement, a movie about which I can rant in rage for days).

I need to like something about the characters. I realize that this is the thing that makes my tastes so entirely about *me* because obviously the above movie did well and many people enjoyed it. What *I* find compelling or likeable in a character doesn't always work for other people; what I find sympathetic can make andpuff grind her teeth and look for a clue bat to hit said character with.

But I want sympathetic characters. Or rather, characters with whom I can sympathize -- and a lot of the time, movies don't have that, for me. If it's a straight action picture, they can all be cardboard -- but not irritating cardboard (I will not rant about James Bond either. I won't. I'm strong).

So although Letters to Juliet was not, in many many objective ways, something to write home about -- I really liked it.

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[trektone.livejournal.com]

I'm usually as annoyed by contrived happiness as I am with contrived death.