Screenplay: The Kids Are All Right

A quick post because tomorrow I am braving the bad weather to dress up in medieval garb and go dance and attend a feast and try very hard not to take myself to seriously.  So... observations I made while reading The Kids Are All Right:

-I really enjoyed reading the script--the pacing was perfect, the conflict built gradually.  But--and I have this problem with a lot of dramas, so it might be just me--the end didn't leave me satisfied.  Yes, there was change--the family pulled together at a time when they could have just as easily broken apart--but I didn't feel like anything was resolved.  Since I haven't seen the movie (this is going to change, because I loved the script), I am almost curious if my PDF is missing the last fifteen pages or so.

--The scenes were short.  There were a number of scenes less than one page in length and I would say that the average scene was maybe two pages or less.  Not only did this help with the pacing, but there was absolutely no fluff.

--It's a drama, but it's funny.  The humor was natural and never forced.  There was never a line that was thrown in because  the scene needed a joke (I've complained about this kind of humor before).  It was all organic to the scenes and the characters.

-In the script when we meet the moms, you just pick up that they are a gay couple.  There is a moment where it's drawn attention to, but it is not until an outsider is introduced to the family.  This was interesting to me, because the beginning of a screenplay is about orienting the reader into the new world of the film.  If the writers had drawn attention to the fact that Nic and Jules are lesbians, then the reader would remain an outsider for the entire story, never fully being able to enter the new world.

The point of these posts is for me to have a forum to discuss what I can learn from each script I read.  I'll have to try another list of observations next week, because it seems like a format perfectly suited to my purpose.