It's Only A Movie

The other night, while watching "Primal Fear" with Susan, I quickly began a running commentary pointing out technical errors and plot holes. Susan appropriately chided me, "It's only a movie". That got me thinking about the suspension of belief that underlies the movie watching experience.

The most realistic viewing should be a documentary, then maybe a dramatization of a true story, followed probably by the drama "based on a true story". Then we edge out to pure fiction and further out to sci-fi and fantasy.

But regardless of the degree of reality inherent in the genre, a good movie will grab us quickly and make us want to believe and care about the characters whose lives we are so intimately observing. Even an animated cartoon character can become real to us if the story is appealing enough. Repulsion is the other side of the appeal coin. Some actors, settings and genres we may find particularly appealing or especially repulsive. Some dialogue is so poorly written or delivered that it makes us laugh at the wrong time, thereby straining credulity.

Production values alone cannot make a movie believable, nor can lack of such values destroy belief in an otherwise good movie. The story and acting are much more important. And so is the director, who can botch a good script and accept mediocre performances, or enhance what is on the page and draw out the best acting.

Artistic license is allowed in movie making, but has its bounds. The grammar of film permits certain shortcuts we all take for granted, and the rules are soft enough to allow some experimenting. But if a film goes too far with license or experiments to the point of annoying distraction, it risks calling attention to the unreal artifice of the entire experience and puncturing the balloon of disbelief.

Characters on the screen who seem real cause us to react viscerally. We root for or against them. They stir our emotions We care about them. But they have to remain true to their character. They can and often should change in the course of the movie, but the change has to feel real, based on the character we have come to know in the course of the movie

Sometimes a movie has us in its grasp and then lets us go, by doing something so inconsistent with what has gone before that we cannot accept it. The failed trick ending or even just an ending that seems wrong can cause this let down. Sometimes movies are filmed with alternate endings, both of which are tried out in sneak previews. I suppose if a character has inherent ambivalence, then the ending could legitimately go either way. But if that is true, then maybe the film should end with the character facing the fork in the road while the screen fades to black.