Bad Movie - Jan 27 2023

 

Bad Movie

Jan 27 2023

The plot doesn’t so much thicken

as it plunges over the edge.

Tightropes mountain roads

through switchback turns

and dark damp tunnels.

Pauses on the crest

of a steep-sided slope

to survey the vast panorama below,

before descending

into an unmapped wilderness

of off-ramps and back-tracks

and blind intersections.

Where it ends

in 2 muddy ruts,

an impassable thicket

of densely forested woods.

And if the complicated plot

hadn’t already lost you,

the flat characters and dull setting would.

The thin theme

of simple good-and-evil.

The neat ending

you can see coming,

or a trick one

coming out of the blue.

And the weak dialogue,

too unnatural

and melodramatic

to suspend disbelief.

The book is better, they say.

But isn’t it always?

The movie in your head,

director

film editor

and cinematographer,

cook

and chief bottle-washer.

The author

of your own fictional offering,

falling asleep in bed

the book propped on your chest;

transformed, in your dreams

to something even better.

Then promptly forget

first thing next morning

the moment you open your eyes.

Bad movies (and books) depend too much on convoluted plot, which not only hurts my head to follow, but usually neglects far more interesting thing like character, setting, and dialogue. Not to mention that with a complicated plot come the inevitable inconsistencies, omissions, coincidences, and leaps of illogic. Which I can’t help but notice, and immediately take me out of the movie. The essential suspension of disbelief — the escapist immersion in another world — becomes impossible. After awhile of trying, I can no longer buy it. Fast forward to the end.

I prefer a simple plot and interesting characters. The plot is a convenient vehicle, not an end in itself. I want to feel something. What I don’t want is an exercise in keeping track. Good example, and the last movie I saw: The Power of the Dog. Hits all the right notes!