Movies from the Heart—Up Close and Personal

I’ve been looking at romantic films for over a year now, and I’d like to conclude this series by looking at a romantic film that didn’t work as well as it should and explore why. But I have to say, right up front, that I’m prejudiced. As a writer, I often find that when a film doesn’t work, the culprit is the script.

I think, in general, it’s hard to make a bad film out of a good script. That being said, a director has the power to change the script during filming and that could impact the quality of the film. But a good story is a good story and unless a director is a total idiot, it’s hard to ruin a good story.

So when a film isn’t that great—and the director and cast are decent—does that mean the script is at fault? Well, probably. Of course, as I say, the director could have changed the script so dramatically that the original script pretty much doesn’t exist anymore and that would make for a lousy film.

A case in point is Up Close and Personal [1996] by John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion and Alanna Nash. What is this film about? Well, it started out as a film about Jessica Savitch. Savitch was a TV reporter who was well respected but ended up driving off a bridge to her death. The autopsy showed that she had drugs in her system. And this is the story that Dunne and Didion wrote. But it was thought to be too dark, so they were asked to do a rewrite… and then another rewrite… and then another. By the time the film got made, it bore little resemblance to the actual life story of Jessica Savitch. Here’s the trailer for the film.

It's a straightforward love story, isn’t it? But as the writers will tell you, it didn’t start out that way. It started out as the Jessica Savitch story… but it ended up a love story between a reporter and her producer.

The film did OK at the box office—but not great. And the OK was due to the star power of Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer much more than it was due to the script.

The script. I happened to be driving somewhere in L.A. in 1996 when I heard John Gregory Dunne being interviewed on NPR about writing the film. The interviewer astutely noted that it kind of morphed from being about Jessica Savitch to being just a love story. And Dunne talked about the fact that they did 17—17!—rewrites on the script and how that slowly changed the story. The interviewer said something like, “Wow, 17 drafts. That’s a lot. Which one was the best in your opinion?” And Dunne didn’t hesitate—“The first one. No question.”

This story has stuck with me because I think we’d have better films if the writer was listened to more often. But hey, I’m a writer, right? So I’m prejudiced.

Thanks for taking the romantic ride with me as we’ve looked at films from the heart. Next week we’ll begin a new series on dramatic films and talk about what it takes to make a good one. See you then!

Copyright © Diane Lake

23Mar25

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com