Lessons from the Incredibly Obvious File, #2
I'm back! Thanks for all your good wishes. The tour was wonderful. Books were sold. Even when people knew there was poetry in them.
And now, a post. This installment of "Lessons from the Incredibly Obvious File" might be subtitled "The P(l)ot-holed Premise".
The premise of the comedy Last Holiday is: shy, department store employee Queen Latifah learns she's got three weeks to live. The surgery that could save her life is extraordinarily expensive and her HMO refuses to cover it. So Latifah cashes in her substantial savings and heads to the opulent Grandhotel Pupp to spend her last days living a life of luxury and adventure.
Did you spot it, gentle reader?
Latifah's going to die because she can't afford to pay for the surgery that will save her life. The surgery costs $340,000. A hopeless situation for someone working in retail, perhaps. Except she cashes in her savings that must, given the holiday she's taking, amount to six figures. (I believe the cost of her room alone was several thousand a night.) The movie even has Latifah winning $100,000 in a casino on her holiday.
Yet at no time does she consider scrounging the money together for that darn life-saving surgery?
Sometimes a premise is far-fetched and you just have to suspend your disbelief 'cause, well, it can't be done any other way. But if you can answer the question? Answer it! If you have the option to make the brain tumour inoperable as opposed to operable but the operation would be expensive? For crying out loud, go for the inoperable tumour!
Don't leave us going over pot holes when there's a smooth, scenic detour.
(If you're wondering, it was playing on the plane.)
I'm back! Thanks for all your good wishes. The tour was wonderful. Books were sold. Even when people knew there was poetry in them.
And now, a post. This installment of "Lessons from the Incredibly Obvious File" might be subtitled "The P(l)ot-holed Premise".
The premise of the comedy Last Holiday is: shy, department store employee Queen Latifah learns she's got three weeks to live. The surgery that could save her life is extraordinarily expensive and her HMO refuses to cover it. So Latifah cashes in her substantial savings and heads to the opulent Grandhotel Pupp to spend her last days living a life of luxury and adventure.
Did you spot it, gentle reader?
Latifah's going to die because she can't afford to pay for the surgery that will save her life. The surgery costs $340,000. A hopeless situation for someone working in retail, perhaps. Except she cashes in her savings that must, given the holiday she's taking, amount to six figures. (I believe the cost of her room alone was several thousand a night.) The movie even has Latifah winning $100,000 in a casino on her holiday.
Yet at no time does she consider scrounging the money together for that darn life-saving surgery?
Sometimes a premise is far-fetched and you just have to suspend your disbelief 'cause, well, it can't be done any other way. But if you can answer the question? Answer it! If you have the option to make the brain tumour inoperable as opposed to operable but the operation would be expensive? For crying out loud, go for the inoperable tumour!
Don't leave us going over pot holes when there's a smooth, scenic detour.
(If you're wondering, it was playing on the plane.)
posted by Jennica at 5:37 p.m.
4 Comments:
whomever wrote it used Dummies For Dummies as a guide post
Oh Jennica, how I've missed your wisdom. And I somehow KNEW you wouldn't really have watched this movie if it weren't playing on a plane.
Hi Jennica,
I just read a script in which the "Evil Drug Overlord" killed the district attorney about to prosecute him. Naturally, there was a witness, and the script was her story. But the whole time I was reading the script, I kept thinking of how dumb the badguy was. He had no shortage of henchmen or money. Why the heck did he go kill this guy himself? Just in case there did end up being a witness (they were killing the D.A. in a mini-mall parking lot for heaven's sake!) ...
Now, if there had been a compelling reason that the evil drug overlord had to kill the D.A. himself, maybe it would have been more palatable (maybe!).
Somehow....I felt this tied in to your post...can't remember why! Oh, right. The solution to the Evil Drug Overlord's problem is so obvious! Never get your hands dirty. There are always witnesses.
Ciao.
Kathryn, a perfect parallel example! If a D.A. has to be killed in a mini-mall parking lot, send a minion. That's what they're for.
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