“Perfectly Happy, Even Without Happy Endings” [cont’d]
Yesterday I posted this about film producer Lindsay Doran who has been working with the theories of Dr. Martin Seligman, a “catalyst of the positive-psychology movement” and his five essential elements of well-being: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. Let me follow up with another aspect of the article:
In a July presentation before the Second World Congress of the International Positive Psychology Association in Philadelphia Ms. Doran recalled her first “aha!” moment, when she recognized that the perma elements of well-being that Dr. Seligman, a University of Pennsylvania professor, had identified were the basis of the movies that made her, and others, happy. She showed how these five factors were embedded in films as far-flung as “Ferris Bueller” (characters who displayed positive emotions throughout), “The Godfather” (characters fully engaged in what they’re doing throughout) and “The Karate Kid” (a character completely focused on accomplishment).
“It’s no surprise to say that American movies specialize in stories of accomplishment,” she told her audience, adding later, “When Jennifer Grey finally dares to make the scary leap at the end of ‘Dirty Dancing,’ when the Karate Kid performs the impossible kick that wipes out his opponent, or when King George VI gets through his wartime speech without stammering — those accomplishments are among the great pleasures of cinema.”
Ms. Doran’s second “aha!” moment came when she consulted a veteran market researcher who oversees hundreds of previews annually. “I listed the five elements of well-being, and he said, ‘I can already tell you one thing: Audiences don’t care about accomplishments.’ ” She was thunderstruck. Wasn’t the Hollywood ending about accomplishment?
No, he said, adding: “Audiences don’t care about an accomplishment unless it’s shared with someone else. What makes an audience happy is not the moment of victory but the moment afterwards when the winners shares that victory with someone they love.” So she mentally rewound the concluding scenes of these “accomplishment” films. Ms. Grey leaps into the arms of Patrick Swayze at the end of “Dirty Dancing,” and after that she reconciles with her father. Jaden Smith performs that impossible kick at the end of “The Karate Kid,” but afterward makes peace with his opponent and shares the moment with his mother and trainer. Colin Firth conquers his stammer at the end of “The King’s Speech,” and then shares his victory with his wife, daughters and the crowds cheering outside the palace. The film closes with a title card that reads that the king and his speech therapist remained friends for the rest of their lives.
This really resonates with me and those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile will probably know why because if there’s one thing I’ve been ‘preaching,’ it’s that movie events without emotional meaning are nothing but noise. Plot has to be grounded in the psychological experience of the characters. And that is precisely what the inference is in the example cited above: It’s not the accomplishment of the Protagonist that is important to a moviegoer, it is what the accomplishment means to them in terms of the characters’ lives and personal relationships.
One thing this insight does is re-frame for me what is referred to in screenwriting as the denouement, typically that short scene after the Final Struggle where the movie allows the viewer to see the transformed Protagonist within the context of their old or new ‘home.’ Why do stories have that moment if for no other reason than to experience “when the winner shares the victory with someone they love”?
I’m tempted to change the term in the way I use it in my own writing and how I teach it: Not denouement, but Resolution. If the Final Struggle is the apex of the Plotline — the event line of the story — then the Resolution is the apex of the Themeline — the emotional plot of the story.
One fantastic example is the ending of Toy Story 3. The denouement is usually a very short scene, often no more than 1 page. But in TS3, the filmmakers play out the ending for a full 5:46. And the entire thing is about relationships and resolution:
* Andy passing along the tradition of the toys to Bonnie
* Andy and Bonnie sharing play time
* Andy saying goodbye to his toys
* Bonnie saying hello to her new toys
* The toys saying goodbye to Andy
* The toys embracing their new home
It is one of the most emotionally rich scenes of any kind I’ve seen in years:
The Final Struggle is over: The toys have survived near-death with the incinerator and escaped the prison that is Sunnyside. So for all intents and purposes, the Plotline is complete.
Now the Resolution: The dispensation of the Themeline or emotional plot of the story. Screenwriter Michael Arndt and the filmmakers at Pixar knew they had a wealth of psychological terrain to explore, all of it universal [growing up, letting go, attachment, play]… and they handled it masterfully.
These five elements of well-being — positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment — if we as writers can use them to enhance the emotional and psychological depth of our characters and stories, that certainly seems like a very good thing.
Thoughts?
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