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nemorathwaldI'm watching "Chaos Theory" and I haven't been this frustrated since I watched "Chasing Amy".
A woman in labor crashed her car driving to the hospital. A stranger drove her the rest of the way. The hospital assumed he was the husband, and made him sign paperwork. The pregnant woman ran out on her child. The hospital called his wife, assuming she was the mother, and demanding she return. The wife instantly accepted the idea he had lived a double life and had a baby with another woman.
Let's make this perfectly clear. He was a model family man, reliable to a fault, not giving her the slightest reason to withhold the benefit of the doubt. After years of this reliability, the person who was supposed to be closest to him believed a ludicrous implausibility, threw things at him, kicked him out of the house, and wouldn't let him explain.
Stupid plot devices are par for the course for a dumb movie. If it had happened in real life, I would be livid, but since it is fiction, it is merely annoying. What drives me to pace back and forth is that the audience is expected to sympathize and share his desire to save the relationship, to sustain our interest in the plot. I've seen enough movies like this to know there is an audience for them. They would like to see them reunited. It is supposed to be normal and desirable for the person closest to you to throw things at you. You are supposed to clutch desperately at what little you have. A person who is capable of throwing things at you-- ever-- is the kind of person who can be in a relationship? That is simply unthinkable. He should try to have the slimmest iota of standards, erase all value that she holds to him, file for divorce the next morning, spend the next several months trying to dry his tears, and NOT TAKE HER PHONE CALLS UNTIL SHE GIVES UP. End of movie.
I mean for Pete's sake, she threw a pot at him. Once you're at that point, is there anything left to save? Done. Walk. Over.
I continued watching only to see if the film would ever address the real underlying conflict, which is the utter hollowness and worthlessness of the connection between them.
It does not. (He does get mad, though. You wouldn't believe what it took to finally get him mad.) Eventually they all just ignored and glossed over all the conflict, instead of making anything better.
I get worked up like this when watching pretty much any movie about relationships. I wish Dan Savage wrote screenplays. I want a movie titled DTMFA.
A woman in labor crashed her car driving to the hospital. A stranger drove her the rest of the way. The hospital assumed he was the husband, and made him sign paperwork. The pregnant woman ran out on her child. The hospital called his wife, assuming she was the mother, and demanding she return. The wife instantly accepted the idea he had lived a double life and had a baby with another woman.
Let's make this perfectly clear. He was a model family man, reliable to a fault, not giving her the slightest reason to withhold the benefit of the doubt. After years of this reliability, the person who was supposed to be closest to him believed a ludicrous implausibility, threw things at him, kicked him out of the house, and wouldn't let him explain.
Stupid plot devices are par for the course for a dumb movie. If it had happened in real life, I would be livid, but since it is fiction, it is merely annoying. What drives me to pace back and forth is that the audience is expected to sympathize and share his desire to save the relationship, to sustain our interest in the plot. I've seen enough movies like this to know there is an audience for them. They would like to see them reunited. It is supposed to be normal and desirable for the person closest to you to throw things at you. You are supposed to clutch desperately at what little you have. A person who is capable of throwing things at you-- ever-- is the kind of person who can be in a relationship? That is simply unthinkable. He should try to have the slimmest iota of standards, erase all value that she holds to him, file for divorce the next morning, spend the next several months trying to dry his tears, and NOT TAKE HER PHONE CALLS UNTIL SHE GIVES UP. End of movie.
I mean for Pete's sake, she threw a pot at him. Once you're at that point, is there anything left to save? Done. Walk. Over.
I continued watching only to see if the film would ever address the real underlying conflict, which is the utter hollowness and worthlessness of the connection between them.
It does not. (He does get mad, though. You wouldn't believe what it took to finally get him mad.) Eventually they all just ignored and glossed over all the conflict, instead of making anything better.
I get worked up like this when watching pretty much any movie about relationships. I wish Dan Savage wrote screenplays. I want a movie titled DTMFA.
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Date: 2011-01-19 08:09 am (UTC)and another vote for Dan Savage writing a movie.
Chaos Theory
Date: 2011-01-19 08:30 am (UTC)I imagine that if the man had thought, he could have simply stood by and called for an ambulance - if the ambulance did not come, he could have called the missus and told her there's a woman giving birth - and then phoned the hospital, giving all the details of the incident in advance and telling the bureaucrat thrusting the papers into his face to back the hell off while he tries to explain, giving him space enough to stop the idiots from milling about like headless chickens and take some instruction.
Leaders and managers receive training in taking charge of a chaotic situation; otherwise, how would we manage in the event of a fire without someone to take control and instigate fire evac procedures (and no, the people will not spontaneously leave - they literally do have to be told by an authority figure to leave the vicinity of a fire, and where to go)?
The plot of the movie sounds far too contrived.
Re: Chaos Theory
Date: 2011-01-20 04:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-19 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-19 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-19 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-19 03:16 pm (UTC)"Unicorns! Are you SHITTING ME!!!!?!?!" is going to be said at inappropriate times in the office today, for sure.
And for the record, Matt, I share some of that cringing response to those moments in movies that make you say "WTF? Have they never even heard of common sense?"
no subject
Date: 2011-01-19 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-19 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-19 03:44 pm (UTC)I can totally see you shitting individual corns.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-19 03:46 pm (UTC)We're fighting...again!
Date: 2011-01-19 04:59 pm (UTC)Re: We're fighting...again!
Date: 2011-01-19 05:10 pm (UTC)Re: We're fighting...again!
Date: 2011-01-20 01:05 am (UTC)I'd say in general that jealousy is not a good area to look for fiction plots. Other relationship problems can be more interesting.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-21 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-21 10:03 pm (UTC)