The screenwriting books say the first 15 minutes should be the hero’s regular life, begging for a change.
Yep, Demi Moore has a pretty damn boring life alright.
Her husband’s life is a little more exciting. He’s a death row lawyer whose client murdered his mother and father who were brother and sister. The defendant has downs syndrome, which the lawyer never uses in his defense.
The kid insists he only followed God’s command. With one fell swoop, the screenwriter takes a swipe at incest as taboo, organized religion, psychology, the legal system, and family values. And that’s just in one scene.
Then Jurgen Pochnow rents their garage apartment, and Demi starts having visions of the Apocalypse and the Seven Signs. All women behave strangely during their pregnancy, but this dame has real issues. She’s definitely a modern woman, though, because it takes the end of the world as a consequence for her to sacrifice her own life for that of her child. But, wait — no, she wouldn’t…
The true villain is literally a throw back to Calvary and the Crucifixion, a renegade priest with pattern balding. (Which used to be a free ticket for free room and board in a monastery and a leg up on sainthood. Now it’s a life sentence in solitary and automatic celibacy.)
Still, we have a whole lot more empathy for the balding priest than we do for Christ incarnate, a vile and shady character who manipulates people just for kicks. Has been doing so for thousands of years, forcing us to be more decent human beings. Enough of that!
The moral of the story is that if you want to live forever all you have to do is beat up the Messiah.
Hey, that’s not so hard.
I do that all the time anyway…
