Making a story’s conflict smooth, real and alive is always a chore for me.  A lot of people complain about false conflict in romances - contrived circumstances that amount to little more than simple misunderstandings blown out of proportion that could be resolved by page 19 if the hero and heroine would just say, "oh, so that’s what you meant" and get down to business. 

For me the best evidence of fake conflict came in a highly regarded movie, Closer, starring Clive Owen, Natalie Portman, Jude Law and Julia Roberts. This movie is a bit more angsty than my usual preference but it was hubby’s turn to pick, so I was stuck.  Yes, having the opportunity to watch Clive Owen for 2 hours made the movie viewing experience worthwhile.  Well, almost.  I thought the movie was well acted but over time I’ve come to hate it.  In retrospect, the problem for me was a lack of any meaningful conflict.  I know the movie won all kinds of award and critical acclaim.  Whatever.

SPOILERS AHEAD….

My point: this movie could have ended in 20 minutes if Roberts’ character wasn’t a complete idiot with some kind of dumb-girl martyr complex.  She’s available when she falls for Jude Law’s guy.  She’s attracted to him in a I’ve-seen-him-for-ten-minutes-and-he’s-my-soulmate kind of way.  She hasn’t met Owen, her future husband, yet.  Law has a girlfriend, yes.  Not wife.  No one has taken an  oath before god and man on a pledge of lifelong marriage and fidelity at this point.  So, ummm, what’s the problem.  If you want Law, take Law.   I’m not advocating dumping an existing girlfriend (in this case, a chronologically younger one) for a newer model (’tho older chronologically here), but there was a way to end the mess here before everyone started sleeping with everyone else and eventually hating and abusing each other.  Instead, Roberts waits until she’s with Owen, engaged to him I think, to start the love affair with Law. 

This story presupposes a woman could find Law more attractive than Owen and, frankly, I do not see how this is possible.  But, the writers also want us to care, on some level, about Roberts and  her love for Law.  I didn’t. Not at all.   I thought she made a mess by not going after the guy she wanted in the first place, made a bigger mess by finally going after the guy she wanted but only after she was married to someone else, and made an unbelievable mess by then dumping the supposed love of her life to go back to husband after a good lay.  Huh?  No, really, huh?  This isn’t conflict.  It’s also not compelling.  This is just stupid.  The end result for me was 2 hours of tough dialog and ogling Owen, all wrapped up in a senseless movie.  A well-received movie but one that didn’t do it for me thanks to the choice of conflict.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 16th, 2005 at 10:17 am and is filed under About Movies and Television, About Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.