In Contention

Category: Page to Screen

  • PAGE TO SCREEN: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” by Eric Roth

    Page to Screen at In Contention“Time is the most precious of God’s gifts. It is untouchable, unseeable, unknowable…it is as light as a feather…as heavy as a stone…Time, my darling, what precious little there is, is all we have…”

    I’ve known from Eric Roth for a few years now. I’ve spent some time investigating his process, picking apart his tendencies and have committed such findings, in addition to personal impressions of the man, to print. So one thing I’ve always taken to heart when sitting down to read one of his scripts is that, “bastardized art form” or not, he is insistent on challenging himself with his screenwriting, stretching the potential for thematic resilience and above all, treating the work like an exercise in elegant prose.

    Such is the case with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a 159-page adaptation of a 30-page F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. It’s a rare thing to flip through the pages of a script written by someone focused on the words almost more so than the images he or she expects them to become. And as part of an art form that can be insufferable as a result, I have to say that “Benjamin Button” is something of a masterpiece.

    The script begins with an aging Daisy (to be played by Cate Blanchett), recounting, via the reading of a diary by her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond), the life and times of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt). The love of her life, the one that got away, the one that came back and the one that will stay in her heart forever, Benjamin was born, as you certainly know, “under unusual circumstances.”

    Roth decides to do away with the hilarity of Fitzgerald’s take on Benjamin’s birth. We aren’t treated to a full-grown 85-year-old man in a baby crib greeting his father with a hearty hello. Instead, he treats Benjamin’s early years as something of a potential disease that makes a newborn aged beyond his or her years, so to speak. Frail skin, deformities…”His body is failing him before it has begun,” a doctor conveys with flabbergasted wonder.

    Benjamin’s mother does not survive childbirth, while his father instinctively passes him off on a lonely Baltimore doorstep before disappearing from his life…for a time. It is there, not hours old, that Benjamin is taken in by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) at an old-timers’ home, for lack of better vernacular on my part.

    It was actually a stroke of brilliance by Roth to place Benjamin in such a setting for his formative years (and he’ll come back frequently throughout the tale). The writer’s commentary on wisdom and its many vessels is perfectly conveyed in this environment, simultaneously providing a fair share of comedic relief here and there, most of the time via unexpected flatulence (but it works).

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  • PAGE TO SCREEN: “Valkyrie” by Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander

    Page to Screen at In Contention“God promised Abraham that he would not destroy Sodom if he could find just ten righteous men. I have a feeling that for Germany it may come down to one.”

    So what has Christopher McQuarrie, the man responsible for creating Keyser Soze, been up to since “The Usual Suspects” (and the oft-forgotten “The Way of the Gun”)? The answer is “Valkyrie,” an original screenplay of the true story about the men who set out to assassinate Hitler and end his regime.

    History tells us (so please, no spoiler whining) that they lose, but McQuarrie and co-writer Nathan Alexader’s script uses this to build tension and dread rather than render a yarn completely neutered. Spending time on plot seems redundant as the film is entirely plot and, naturally, there are dozens of previous films and PBS specials telling this very story.

    The script is thankfully a fairly tight one (thankfully so after the indulgence of “Superman Returns.”  It’s almost entirely dedicated to the German’s rebellious mission to kill Hitler. Only a handful of pages are focus on life outside of the plot and mission, and naturally those are given to the hero of the piece, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, to be played by Tom Cruise.

    Stauffenberg, a German war hero (with the scars to prove it) joins the plot to kill Hitler well after it’s begun, but it’s his influence and skills that bring it to it’s true potential. The scenes that aren’t dedicated to the mission follow Stauffenberg at home with his four children, and more importantly, his wife Nina (“Black Book” breakout Carice van Houten will take up the role).

    My favorite scene, an elegantly played out wordless “conversation” between Stauffenberg and Nina, almost fails simply because it’s a shooting star in the script. It’s so good, so connectable and tells so much about these two characters and their marriage that it frustrated me to not see more of this.

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  • PAGE TO SCREEN: “W” by Stanley Weiser

    Page to Screen at In Contention“Thirty days!  I’d like to shove a plate of Freedom Fries down that slick piece of shit’s throat.  Givin’ me lectures?  The next chance I get I’ll be glad to veto something French.  Damned glad.”

    Those were the words that seemed to send a shot through the industry when Stanley Weismer’s script “W” made its way into a number of hands last April.  The speculation set in, the timidity, and in more ways than one, it did so with good reason.

    I have heard “W” praised by smart journalists and gifted filmmakers alike, but when I flipped through its pages last spring, I was met with an effort taxing in its elementary construction.  Packed to the brim with dialogue meant to secure George W. Bush’s position as a simpleton who managed his way into the most powerful position in the free world, “W” reads more like a parody than the modest character study it aims to be.

    The script is bookended with a device that draws a distinct clarity about the film’s ultimate point: Bush is a simple man meant for pretzels, beer and a love of baseball, not a man who should have the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.  And that’s a valid enough thesis, because the narrative — to its credit — doesn’t try to lambast Dub-ya throughout.

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  • PAGE TO SCREEN: “The Brothers Bloom” by Rian Johnson

    Page to Screen at In Contention“As far as con man stories go, I think I’ve heard them all. Of grifters, ropers, faro fixers, tales drawn long and tall. But if one bears a bookmark in the confidence man’s tome, it would be that of Penelope, and of the brothers Bloom.”

    So begins Ricky Jay’s narration of Rian Johnson’s “The Brothers Bloom,” his follow-up to 2005’s “Brick.”

    I loved “Brick.”   it was arguably my favorite movie of 2005, but I couldn’t help but be nervous when I sat down to read this script. It seems that there are typically two things that happen to promising indie writer/directors.

    Sometimes, they just disappear (Phil Morrison of “Junebug” fame).  Sometimes, they get stuck basically making the same movie in the same genre over and over again (looking at you, Wes Anderson!). Sadly, it seems that we rarely get a newbie with a real vision, someone who really has the balls to change things up and do something different than what he’s already given us so early in his career.

    Against all odds, this is the case with Rian Johnson,and “Brothers Bloom” — and God bless him for it.

    (Note: To talk about any of the twists and turns at this early stage would really be punishable by any means you, dear readers, would suggest, so rest assured I will not be saying one single word about them.)

    “Brothers Bloom” is, as the opening narration says, the story of two con men. The elder, confident Stephen (to be played by Mark Ruffalo) and the younger, insecure Bloom (Adrien Brody). Bloom hates the con man life, despite the duo being particularly gifted at it. And, like we seen many times early on, he wants out.

    But Stephen is able to convince Bloom to participate in just one more con: Penelope (Rachel Weisz), a rich young lady desperate for adventure. “The perfect con is one where everyone involved gets the thing they wanted,” says Stephen tells his brother, who reluctantly agrees.

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