Movies from the Heart—Entrapment

When I first saw Entrapment[1999], by Ron Bass, Michael Hertzberg and William Broyles, in the theatre, I remember loving it. Not everyone did. If fact, the critics liked it a bit more than the audiences. Still, it was a big hit—making almost four times what it had cost the studios. A success for sure. And it married genres—I’d call it a romantic action film.

I don’t talk about it much, because we’re here to talk about writing more than anything, but it has to be said that casting plays a hugely important part in the success of a film, and that was never truer than in Entrapment.

Sean Connery was older—69—and Catherine Zeta-Jones was 30… and yet, the sexual tension was palpable. [I like to imagine a film where the woman is 69 and the man 30… and I doubt anyone would buy an attempt at sexual tension… but let’s not go there!]

In Entrapment the different levels of their relationship—teacher/pupil, and thief/investigator in particular, were in constant movement in the film. Who was really the ‘good guy’ and who was really drawn to who?

One of the great things a good script can do is create this tension between characters and keep the audience wondering who is being honest and who is playing the other… and whether or not those roles change in the course of the film.

Take a look at the trailer for the film.

Good writing can make you believe at one minute that a character is the honest one and a few minutes later that, wait a minute—maybe that character’s not so good after all! The writing of those characters keeps us guessing all the time about who’s good, who’s not so good, and in the case of this film, who’s playing who.

William Goldman, a screenplay god whom I’ve mentioned before, famously said that screenwriting is all about three things—structure, structure, and structure. But, of course, it’s all about character as well. If you don’t have great characters your perfect structure won’t keep anyone’s attention.

Creating memorable characters takes work. And one of the things you can do is to do what actors do—write bios for your character.

Actors get a role in a film and the action of the film takes place when their character is, say, 35. An actor will sit down and write a biography of their character from the time they were born. They might write about what their childhood home was like, what their family was like, their hobbies—what they wore for a Halloween costume when they were 7! Just anything that will help them fully understand their character.

As a writer, you need to do this—to know that character inside and out. So give it a shot—write a bio for the main character of your film. You may never use the info from the bio in your script, but it will inform your understanding of your character and he/she has a better chance of jumping off the page and being absolutely riveting.

Next week, let’s go to France for Chocolat.

Copyright © Diane Lake

19May24

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com