The less said, the more felt.
An ongoing issue with the romantic comedy spec scripts I read is that they talk too much.
By "they" I mean the characters (i.e. the writers), which is surprising. Given that we're living in the reign of Twitter, seeing as how we all have less time to take in information, why is that screenwriters still seem to think that romantic comedy = two people sitting or standing around talking, for page after page?
It's axiomatic that in comedy, fast is funny. And brevity being the soul of wit, the alert rom-com writer ought to be able to cut to the gag, pronto. In this regard, I've often cited the opening of Richard Curtis's Four Weddings and a Funeral as a model, a paradigm of great romantic comedy dialogue.
The movie begins with a wordless montage of various characters getting ready to go to a wedding. We find protagonist Charles (Hugh Grant) still in bed, sleepily picking up his alarm clock and reacting, eyes widened, with the movie's first dialogue:
Oh, fuck. Fuck!
Charles runs into housemate Scarlett's room and thrusts her clock at her sleepy face. Scarlett reacts: Fuck!
Cut to Charles getting dressed in a hurry. He bends to tie his shoes and his suspenders pop off the back of his trousers. Charles: Fuck.
Cut to Charles and Scarlett in the front of his Volvo. The engine won't start. Charles: Fuck!!!
Now that's great dialogue. I'm not being facetious here -- it's truly impressive how much the sequence accomplishes, in terms of story set-up, character and tone, using one four-letter word. But Curtis is also a master of the long speech, which he demonstrates in the closing scene (which also includes one godawful clunker of a line, Andie MacDowell-as-Carrie's "Is it raining? I hadn't noticed" as she and Charles stand drenched to the skin in a downpour), but at any rate - boy has met, lost, and is getting girl, romantically in the rain, and his pitch is true to Charles' twistedly conflicted anti-marriage persona:
Do you think... after we've dried off, after we've spent lots of time together, you might agree... NOT to marry me? And do you think... not being married to me... might maybe be something you could consider doing for the rest of your life? Do you?
Girl uses two irony-laden syllables in reply:
I do.
One of the most moving uses of a commonplace word that I've ever heard, in the closing lines of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, is made up of two syllables repeated by two devastated lovers (He: Okay? She: Okay) which pack so much emotional resonance - they've been through relationship hell together, but they're still willing to believe they've got a chance to make it work - that the scene tears me up every time.
You may remember how effective the wordless first act of Wall-E was (yes, it's a romantic comedy, as well as being a sci-fi animation), and speaking of sci-fi, one of the best cinematic responses ever given to the phrase "I love you" was provided by Han Solo, who replied, true to character: "I know." (Harrison Ford, reportedly bettering Leigh Brackett's script for The Empire Strikes Back.)
The best romantic comedies don't over-explain or over-sell themselves. I've noticed that many people who enjoyed Crazy, Stupid, Love got big laughs out of early scenes like this - Cal and his wife Emily trying to decide what to order at a restaurant...
Cal: How about we see what we want on three? One, two...
Emily: I want a divorce.
Cal (simultaneously): Creme Brulee.
...but cited Cal's big, long, over-sentimental speech at his son's graduation at the picture's end as one of its missteps. Not to belabor the point (i.e. why go on and on?), but movies are a visual medium, and when the talk is brief, there's room for a scene's emotional subtext to be felt. If your characters say more with less words, you're giving the audience a chance to feel what lies between the lines. And isn't that the smarter, funnier, more moving way to go?
'Nuff said.
I'm not a big fan of the "less is more" as pertains to rom-com dialog. "How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days", which is one of my favorite rom-coms of all-time, has a one line barb exchange between Matthew "Surfer Dude" McConaughey and Kate Hudson in bar that totally falls flat -- in my opinion. When the dialog exchange between those two is VERY stong in all other scenes that they're in together.
I am however very much in the boat of another key point you make in your "Writing the Romantic Comedy" book, which is the supliment your talk with action. THAT'S the corollary fix to the "talkie" rom-coms.
LOVE Richard Curtis. Would love to read a post from you about what it's like to work with a pro like that. What's he doing these days anyway? Seams like we haven't heard a lot from him, and that's a shame.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Posted by: E.C. Henry | November 06, 2011 at 08:49 PM
Feel you, man.
Posted by: Scott | November 09, 2011 at 06:31 AM
EC, You know I'm on the same page with you about adding action and visuals - in this post I was reacting specifically to the scripts overloaded with dialogue that still seem the norm in spec-land.
Gracias, Scott.
Posted by: mernitman | November 09, 2011 at 08:26 AM
My favorite part of Crazy Stupid Love is the big set piece in the backyard, and then they lost me with the speech. It was corny. Not a great movie, but it had some really nice, zany moments.
Eternal Sunshine, on the other hand, was perfect!
Posted by: Christina | November 09, 2011 at 08:31 AM
Christine: Yeah, they could've wrapped things up more quickly and succinctly after the back yard climax. Meanwhile,ETERNAL... is one of the best rom-coms of the past decade, and one of my favorite movies, period!
Posted by: mernitman | November 10, 2011 at 02:07 PM
Brevity is usually more memorable, but I guess one reason you're seeing more talky scripts is because of a nostalgia for His-Girl-Friday-type banter as opposed to the stereotypical modern romcom where a running scene equals 'a moment'. It may not be true (Wall-E is a great counterexample), but somewhere along the line talkier somehow became equated with sophisticated, and while that's what some writers are aiming for, they're missing the Dorothy Parker wit.
Recently Ive been finding a lot of great romcom moments from TV, like this one from Arrested Development:
M: It's like we finish each other's...
L: Sandwiches?
M: Sentences
Posted by: Mark | November 14, 2011 at 07:29 AM
Mark: Nice one (I need to investigate "Arrested"again, specially as a feature is in the works). Agree that writers are going for Parker-level clever... but how many Dorothy Parkers are there, eh?
Posted by: mernitman | November 15, 2011 at 06:32 AM