Has it definitely given you the acting bug? What do you want to do next acting wise?
Umm I haven't really thought about it really.
Umm I might be, I might be one and done. Umm.. but uhh It was a lot of fun. I would do this one again for sure.
Hmm one and done huh? it looks like Harry spoke to soon. Now I know you clicked on this video wondering what I meant by ‘The Movie we will never see”
Especially since at the time of this upload, the film will presumably be in its early stages of production.
Well, I’ve acquired the original script and when I say it’s a page-turner. I was glued in.
But before we get into all of that. I just to warn you... This does contain spoilers
Repeat, this does contain spoilers.
So I need everyone who does not want to have the exclusive information to exit stage left.
Alright. Now that they're gone. Let's dive in.
In the first act of the screenplay, we're introduced to the main characters.
One thing that has certainly changed is the naming of the characters.
In this version of the script they are Clifford and Evelyn. But in Olivia Wilds film the main characters are Jack and Alice.
But for the sake of avoiding confusion, I’ll call them Jack and Alice. Jack and Alice are described as being in their 30’s.
The Ken and Barbie before there was a Ken and Barbie.
So it makes perfect since as to why they were casted looks wise anyways. I mean these people are gorgeous.
They live in the perfect home, with a white picket fence,
green convertible in the drive way-
You know... The American Dream.
Which may sound cliché but it ties into the main twist of the story which I’ll get to a little later.
Now...We have an interesting introduction to them in their bedroom.
… ummm… how can I say it? …They’re busy.
The script is pretty vivid but this channel isn’t rated R so I’ll leave it at that.
In the first few pages we get two major conflicts.
The first one being children.
Jack and Alice are having a conversation about getting the day started.
It’s emphasized that today is a big day for him and for their future. Alice goes to the bathroom
and…I want y'all to hear me on this cuz I just can’t.
…she sprays her lady bits…with LYSOL.
LYSOL!!
It reminds me when some idiot, I cant for the life of me remember who, But he told people to inject themselves with disinfectant to kill a virus.
But anyways on her bottle it reads, Brand disinfectant for complete feminine hygiene. May help to prevent pregnancy.
Jack knocks on the door and she hurry’s to hide the bottle.
So obviously she’s doesn’t want to have a baby anytime soon but the only people who know at this point are Alice
and the person reading the script
in this case...me.
The second conflict we encounter at first seems small but it grows as we read on. It seems small because in the 1950’s,
which is when the story takes place, back then it was the norm to undermine your wife with a macho men rule the world attitude.
But of course being a woman in the 21st century, it's something that I noticed right away.
Jack sits down for breakfast and Alice is making eggs for him
and as she cooks she tells him about a strange dream she had.
One where she’s back in nursing school operating on her dad even though he's in good health.
Jack is barely paying attention to her, reading the newspaper.
And as she’s explaining to him what happened in her dream he interrupts her to complain about how runny the eggs are...
Like a housewife of that time, she brushes it off, apologizes and makes more eggs for him.
Even though mentally she was not feeling him or his attitude towards her. So I give her credit for that.
We then meet some close friends of theirs who happen to also be their next door neighbors,
Betsy and Joe..
They are throwing a barbecue in honor of Jack's new business venture. Investing in the construction of 150 new homes.
Betsy and Joe are very cookie cutter. She's the happy homemaker. He's the guy's guy.
In this scene Betsy and Alice have a conversation about kids.
Betsy, who has 2 of her own is encouraging Alice. She’s like if I had a husband that looked like yours...I'd be spitting them out.
Alice is just like I don’t know it just seems like a lot.
Now there's two things about this scene that sticks out.
One...they repeatedly put emphasis on Jack's looks.
I can imagine for the actually film there will be a lot of close-ups on Harry's face,
you know, side profiles.
showing his dimples,
his smile.
just really ringing it in that he’s the most attractive man you’d lay your eyes on. Which I mean who’s complaining about that?
The second thing that stands out is we see a huge contrast to Jack’s character than we were shown earlier.
He gives a speech praising his wife. How she's just so wonderful. He just goes on and on about her.
This flip flop of personality is prevalent throughout the script
including in the next scene which is where things really come to a head and
another side of Jack is exposed.
So Imma just say it. He a whole wife-beater.
Side-note really quick . Why are these called wife-beaters?
When I was younger I always thought people were saying WHITE-beater.
When I found out it was wife, I was like...
But anyways.
Back to the story.
They're at home and they get into an argument after he finds her Lysol.
She finally admits that she wants more out of life and that he's the one who wanted her to stay at home and be a stay-at-home mom.
He throws the lysol at her and grabs her up.
And at first you might think it's a one-off.
But he says "Sorry I didn't mean it" and she responds "You never do."
So this is nothing out of the ordinary for them.
In the following scenes, the big secret that Jack is hiding start to unravel.
Now the plot of the film is centered around this secret. Although details haven't been made public.
And at first glance you might think, he may be cheating on her.
You know, he's this perfect guy that everyone loves. But he treats his
wife like crap behind close doors.
So he obviously has a sidekick. Nope.
Couldn't be further from the truth.
I mean you almost wish he was cheating on her
when you see the twisted things that's really going on.
So...It all starts when Alice is walking home from the grocery store
and she spots that lovely green convertible sitting outside a motel.
And like...you know your man's car.
Especially when it's something fishy going on with him.
Like, yeah that's his car.
Jack rounds the corner, going into the motel
and she follows him to confront him.
Next thing you know, she's waking up in an "MRI-looking" machine
and her legs are weak. She can't walk.
Now she's confused like what's going on?
Jack comes running in half-naked and injects her with a syringe.
He's like "You found my exit portal. That's alright, I'll build a new one."
Exit portal? Is this dude an alien?
That was my first thought any cause like where you going?
Well, I'll tell you now...that's not his secret but
it was a pretty good guess if I say so myself.
When she regains consciousness, she's at the doctor's office.
And he tells her she's experiencing a "temporary psychotic disorder".
-triggered by stress.
And um, he prescribes her with what he calls "happy pills"
to help her calm her nerves. So back home
Jack is being an attentive husband
Making sure she gets to bed, making sure she eats and most importantly, making sure she takes her "happy pills".
He try's to convince her that she had a bad dream. But she's not feeling his vibe.
Understandably so cause, this is some odd stuff.
The next day, everything hits the fan.
Alice follows Jack to this house that says up for sale by Alt-Life Realty.
Remember that name...Alt-Life Realty.
On the way to the house as she's driving, she realizes Jack's briefcase is in the car
and it's ...open!
Pages and pages of cartoon ad cutouts.
"Successful marriages start in the kitchen."
"Train your wife."
"Show her it's a man's world."
Just the most misogynistic things you can think of.
Then to make matters worse. Jack drew graphic images on them.
My girl Alice in the car like...
and I'm like
"I don't know girl."
So she gets to the house and try to go through the window. Same thing happens as last time.
She blacks-out and when she comes to she's in the machine.
But this time she musters enough strength to get to this...door.
So behind this door there's a room that is described as looking like a man-cave for a computer nerd.
She opens the blinds and this is what she see's.
Skyscrapers, flying cars, the whole enchilada.
She's looking around, she see's a divorce certificate
for she and Jack.
She also see's a digital time magazine
with the headline "4 more years Madam President"
and it's a picture of a black woman.
So she really thought she was dreaming then and I thought that was pretty funny.
There's also a picture of Jack's employee of the month award.
and it's dated "May 2050".
So now she's really confused.
Im confused.
It's just a lot to take in.
Well, it gets worse.
She goes to the computer where she finds a file labeled "Alt-Life".
She clicks on it and its a video of Dr. Anderson.
The same doctor who gave her the "happy pills".
He's giving an infomercial about Alt-Life.
"Tired of a world ruled by women?"
"Yearning to go back to simpler times where a woman's place stretched no further than the kitchen?"
The video goes on and on about what steps to take to
join this online simulated reality. But
it's a lot deeper than something like The Sims that we have today.
Even going as far as giving examples of how to fake the death of an ex-wife
by swapping her memory, and using injections.
She see's another file labeled with her name.
She clicks on it. There's tons of pictures of her in this futuristic world
that she seemingly just discovered.
There's evidence of her accomplishments in her research in neuroscience.
Then she comes across articles of her disappearance.
"Neurosurgen dies after mysterious car accident. BODY STILL NOT FOUND!
So in the midst of all of this Jack comes back to the house after a long day in the real world.
So she hurry's to hook herself up back to the simulation machine.
Barley missing him.
The script says in real life, Jack pretty much looks the same but he's not as put together as
in his, you know, simulated life
which is normally how these characters are written
or they're completely opposite of their online persona. But anyways
when she re-enters the simulated world- the first thing she does, again is another cliche
she tells her friend Betsy that their lives aren't real.
She try to make her jog her brain and really think about the strange circumstances they live in
and of course without fail- Betsy doesn't believe her
and she's disturbed by Alice and all her tall tales.
So again in traditional fashion the main character, Alice, comes up with a plan to escape
and she's ratted out by her friend Betsy
who wouldn't listen to her.
Now I'm not gonna lie. This is where the script gets kind of dry cause
her escape plan involves putting the "happy pills"
in Jack's mashed potatoes.
But she confuses the plats and neither of them eat the potatoes
cause he's already hip to her plan.
Then there's this whole chase scene where all the men she's encountered in the town pin her down
so the can take her to the hospital, literally shock her to death
and bring her back to her good ol programming that she had before.
The programming goes on for about a day but her
memory is triggered when she finds the motel key to the first portal while she's doing the laundry.
But she stays in character and gets Betsy to let her borrow some of her gardening tools.
by telling her she wants to start her own garden.
Later that night while at the dinner table she stabs Jack in the hand
ties him to the bed, and make shim fess up to Alt-Life.
Ok, so it gets a little campy because
she burns him with a hot pot of coffee
and then literally shoves a broom stick up his behind.
Like sis... I mean I get it in theory but its just...I wasn't feeling it.
Hopefully they come up with a better falling action than that because
it was just a bit anti-climatic. It was also very
rushed. We had a great buildup to Jack's secret but
we didn't sit in that moment long enough. To drive the excitement and thrills of a well thought out plan from Alice.
Who, I've been rooting for since the first page but...that's just my opinion.
The screenplay ends with Alice and Jack fighting to the death.
Alice being the victor and taken back to Dr. Anderson
who tries to convince her that everything she saw
the simulation machine,
the portal, the high-tech buildings,
the whole 2050 thing
was something she made up to cope with her stressful marriage
and her husbands infidelity.
She of course doesn't buy it. And then
in a tussle between she and Dr. Anderson she bites a chunk of his cheek off and
they end up sending her to a psych ward.
Her good friend Betsy visits her and
and naturally Alice doesn't have anything to say to her. Like
girl, had you believed me, I would be living the good life right now.
But right as Betsy turns to leave she whispers to Alice that
she did what she told her. She's sorry. And that there's an exit portal across the courtyard.
Alice makes her way across the courtyard,
reaches the door, turns
the knob and we...
...fade to black.
That's the end of the script.
For me I think this movie has a lot of potential.
It reminds me a lot of Stepford Wives (2004). If you haven’t
seen it it’s a star studded cast where a husband and wife, played by Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick,
move to this gated community where the wives answer to their husbands beck and call and the town
is perfect. A little too perfect.
And as things unfold, a big secret is revealed. Similar
to this one.
That story also gets campy so again hopefully they don't take that route. I'm
definitely excited to see what both Harry and Florence bring to the screen. As well as all the other actors
but especially Harry since his role was originally cast to Shia LaBoeuf who
in my opinion is one of the greatest actors period. But
it'll be interesting to see Harry's take on it.
Also because the screenplay has been floating around Hollywood for some years now
its been through many drafts and I'm sure the new writer Katie
Silberman has tricks up her sleeve to give it that extra oomph.
But I'll definitely be doing a review when the film comes out.
To compare what they've done, to the original screenplay
I'm gonna link the script below so
hop over to that subscribe button and hit the bell.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the screenplay. If you
like it, if there's anything you'd like to see them do differently.
Leave a comment below or hit me on social media.
I'm all ears.
Until next time. Bye.