This movie is damn funny. There are four writers credited: David Wain, Ken Marino, Paul Rudd, and Timothy Dowling. Apparently Dowling came up with the concept and it went through a few title changes and various rewrites and even had some substantial re-shoots before it was finally released. The Creative Screenwriting Podcast interview with Wain and Marino is pretty cool too, if you get a chance.
From a storyteller’s perspective it’s a pretty interesting movie: the A story is this: two guys become mentors for two kids in order to avoid jail. The B story is that Paul Rudd wants to marry his girlfriend. And the C story is that Paul Rudd’s mentee is into live-action role playing.
The odd thing is that the third act climax is a C story beat: when the LAIRE King gets dethroned. The A story just ends with a deus ex machina when Jane Lynch (who is amazing) says she called in a favor from the judge. And the B story resolves everything just before the credits when Paul Rudd improvises a song to Elizabeth Banks; which is pretty much where it should end.
The best part is, it works. It’s a great ending. If the writers would have stuck to the screenwriting manuals they probably would not have considered this switch, and the story might have ended with a lame court appearance and a Full House speech from Rudd, quickly deflated by Sean William Scott farting on the judge.
I’ll try to think of some more examples of subplot switcheroos.
Leave a Reply