Deus ex machina in Vantage Point

I was thrilled by the concept of Vantage Point-- a Rashomon-style thriller set in Spain (and shot in Mexico) that involves several points of view of the assassination of a President. And with a cast like that (Sigourney Weaver, Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Forest Whitaker, Eduardo Noriega, Edgar Ramirez) it was inevitable to keep my hopes up.

For the first two thirds, my expectations were met. Sure, I think the editing and directing of the segment transitions was annoying and clunky, but the script itself was taut. A great way to spend a Friday night.

But then the story careens out of control. It seems to want to tackle three separate points of view in the last half-hour but never really commits to that, so what we get is a discombobulated and elongated climax that needs to tie up several threads that have little or nothing to do with the main plot. In general this is not a bad thing, but because of how little time is spent with each character in order to give out as much information as possible, there is little in terms of character development. So there comes a moment when as an audience, we just don't care about most of these people.

(Also, a lot of information is given out, but it is repeated often throughout the several points of view, so a few times it got tiresome).

All of this, in general terms is not terrible. I have to say, I was still stuck to my seat because thankfully the script went back to following Dennis Quaid. And man, I love Dennis Quaid.

It's all fine and dandy. Tension. A great (yet headache-inducing) car chase. A trippy double-cross. I guess I was getting hooked again.

SPOILERS BELOW!

And then two things happened.

First, we were asked to care about Javier, a character who is a badass. This character is not a villain, but he's forced into action because his brother's been kidnapped. He single-handedly takes down entire Presidential guards (couldn't he have done this to the bad guys...? But I digress). He's been told to meet at the underpass to pick up his brother. We hardly know this guy, have assumed he's a villain for quite some time and now we have to feel for him despite his cold demeanor. That's a tall order. Regardless, in several of the points of view Javier is told to meet at the underpass to pick up his brother, but what he doesn't know is that his brother is already dead. In order to make us think he's a villain in the first half of the film, mentioning the rendezvous point seems like a good idea. But at the end, would the villains show up? Of course not, not in real life. But in this film they do.

Which brings me to point number two.

The villains show up where a real-life terrorist with brains would never go, and then, after having murdered countless people, swerve to avoid hitting a little girl (who, by the way, was present during the shooting of the President). The villains swerve. Which means they crash. Which means they're pretty much dead or incapacitated. Which means Dennis Quaid only has to shoot one of them to save the day.

I have not seen such a blatant use of deus ex machina in a film in years. I was disappointed because, after such a great build-up, and after such a tightly-constructed script, the exit clause turned out to be divine.

END OF SPOILERS!

It's frustrating when, despite my minor claims, I find a Hollywood film to be entertaining and well-written, only to have the ending disappoint me so.

A teacher once told me, "write a mediocre script with a fantastic finale, and people will always remembered it as a great film. Make a great movie with a crappy ending, and it will be forgotten."

Damn. I wanted this little movie to be better than any of those bigger Hollywood films. Too bad.

Also, what the hell? They have Sigourney Weaver and she just vanishes from the film? She's Sigourney Weaver, man. She's awesome.

Done! or, How I finished a draft and a half.

I finished my first draft today. Sort of.

I put aside the new draft of an action script that's been giving me trouble and began a dramedy that was chomping at the bit. I had a few notes for it, but it didn't really gel until I realized the two main characters should not be in their late 20s. Life begins at 40, at least for these two fellas.

Inspiration hit me hard one day, and I pumped out a rough outline, character sketches and the first 25 pages. It helped that I borrowed from myself by using an idea I originally envisioned for another film I never got around to working on at all. At the end of the day, I slept on what I had accomplished.

Editing took over most of my time for the next two weeks. But I managed to squeeze out a page or two every day until I reached the mid-point, which is in many cases where (and when) tight screenplays can go berserk.

Predictably, I went berserk.

Over the next day or so I introduced random characters. I let gags drive the plot. I allowed quirk and montages set to Bachman Turner Overdrive overtake the characters. The script was about to careen off a cliff, and I was doing all the pushing.

I let it rest. My mind needed to focus on something else for a bit. In this case, it was Chuck Palahniuk's novel Rant.

Reading a book by a best-selling novelist that goes berserk halfway through can do wonders for the bruised ego of a writer lost in insanity. Granted, Rant's berserk twists have a purpose, but it's encouraging to witness lunacy elsewhere when trying to battle it from within.

I began major rewrites. About half of what I wrote was nixed. Characters' sex (or sexual orientations) were altered. Sentimentality was stripped in favor of humor-meets-heart. And I finished the damn thing.

Then I went back and changed even more things, tied up loose ends, adjusted the pacing. I read top-to-bottom to make sure everything made sense. Now it's up to my writer's group to provide outsider's feedback.

All things considered, the first draft took about a week to write. If I was to get paid to do this for a living, I could finish several drafts in a year. It's all a matter of making time.

Now, back to that action script. I just need some time...

We have a winner!

I didn't particularly have a preference between HD and Blu-ray. Hell, to this day I still can't explain the difference between the two aside from some sweeping generalizations. And since I didn't want to buy neither until the format war was over I never took sides. It helps that my parents picked Betamax first, and for a short time we started buying Laserdiscs. It hurts when your format loses.

But I confess I always thought HD would kick Blu-ray's ass for one reason alone: the name. It seemed pretty obvious to me that your average consumer would choose HD because it's easier to remember, it's an acronym for a very clear advantage (High Definition) over standard DVDs and "Blu-ray" sounds like one of those bizarre faux-technical trademarks, complete with cute spelling mistake.

After Warner and Netflix announced their allegiance to Sony's technology, and with WalMart and BestBuy picking a side, the rumor mill has it Toshiba is pulling the plug on HD (I remember reading an article in the NYT about how the porn industry decided the VHS vs. Betamax debacle; I wonder if it played a role this time around).

Despite my non-commitment to the war, I do like that Blu-ray has won because from what I know it seems to be a better option. But also because I want, eventually, to get a PS3.

How I Met Your Mother vs. Definitely,Maybe

Today being Valentine's Day, the romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe opens in theaters. Given what I have read of the film, I'm surprised I have not found many comparisons to CBS's sitcom How I Met Your Mother (a show I find to be unevenly paced and sometimes not funny enough, but is decidedly clever and better than almost any other sitcom in the last few years). The conceit sounds suspiciously similar.

Granted, I have not seen the film, so making a judgement call based on the conceit is like comparing Cloverfield to The Blair With Project. The premise, content, result and even the tone are absolutely distinct in this case, so I wouldn't be surprised if the same was to be said about the HIMYM and DM.

Nothing against Rachel Weisz or Isla Fisher, but my vote goes to Elizabeth Banks.

Cable be gone

I cancelled cable recently. When asked for a reason, I told them there was nothing worth watching on TV anyway; whatever shows I was interested in I can catch either on the network's website, or rent from Netflix.

So I told the cable company the WGA strike was partly to blame, which is true. But I think the verb is not "blame". It's "thank".

Jumper

I went to the premiere of Jumper at the Ziegfeld last night. People, as expected, went nuts the very moment Samuel Jackson walked into the theater. Two fellows sitting next to me leapt over seats and fences to get to shake his hand; they later claimed that regardless of the film this was one of the greatest moments of their lives. Similar applause, albeit not quite as enthusiastic, was given to Hayden Christensen. If Jamie Bell, Diane Lane or any of the other leads of the film were in attendance I did not see them.

The film is getting mediocre reviews, at best. I find that baffling. Certainly it's not Citizen Kane; it's about people who can willingly teleport, so a modicum of credibility is out the window from the get-go. I found it to be lots of fun; it's basically a superhero film without the marketing and weight that those films carry. It follows the same plot conventions (and even winks about them at some point). Perfection? Hardly. But as far as mid-winter entertainment goes it's a standout great time. Hell, I had a great time.

Strike no more

It'll be a couple more days, but the strike is officially over.

Group writing

I'm meeting with my old writing group again starting next week. I can't explain how needed and positive this is. I can't believe it took us this long to carry it out. We got together weekly on and off for a couple of years until our meetings somehow petered out a few months ago, partly because we began traveling, taking odd jobs and life in general got in the way. Somehow we didn't pick up the pace.

I'm going first. If things go well in the next five days or so, I'll have a completed draft for them to read. I can't wait.

The Shapes of Things to Come

Lots of progress on the documentary in the last few days. It's taken shape, but it's hardly a 30 minute film. In fact, if I can trim it to under an hour it'll be a miracle. Anything shorter will be a vastly different project.

John Sayles

Man, to have a career like that of John Sayles. He's made enough money writing monster movies that he can afford to finance low-budget indies that seem more personal to him. I mean, he's the mind behind Piranha, Alligator and the upcoming Jurassic Park IV, and then he makes films like Lone Star, Eight Men Out and Return of the Secaucus Seven.

By the way, Alligator is awesome.

Supermodel Bodyguard

That title sounds like a song.

Yes, I've seen Domino. But doesn't the life and death of Anna Loginova seem like it would make for a thrilling yet tragic screenplay? Despite the irony of her death, there seems to be something wonderful about the story, especially because it takes place in Russia. There is sad beauty to it, and from what little I know about her, she seems to embody that concept.

Were it in the US it would seem like a weird symbiosis of capitalism and sexism. And it would likely be fictionalized in ways that would detract from what she represents. I'm all for fictionalizing as long as it strengthens a film, but despite enjoying it, I feel Domino was somewhat trivialized (which is too bad-- it's friggin' Richard Kelly and Tony Scott. )

I would not be surprised if some bigshot in Hollywood were already trying to secure rights for it. I just hope they respect the emblematic pathos that the milieu of the foreign land and its economic and social climates provides.