MY SPECIAL ANGEL is a dramatic love story about timeless love. The script offers several solid themes about second chances and destiny. It also sends a message about never giving up on your dreams.
The protagonist’s goal regarding finding his long lost, childhood sweetheart is clear, as well as to overcome his eating disorder. The stakes are personal, as well as physical if he doesn’t begin to eat.
While the idea of timeless love emotionally resonates with the mainstream audience, there are features of the script that are worth discussing and require more development. Some of these areas include: structure, pace, tension, tone, character development and dialogue.
The structure is non-linear. It begins in the present day timeline and then transitions back into time,
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Denise is actually very charming and she’s a good match for JoJo. She’s lively and she challenges JoJo, which Roseann never did. Thus, there’s more chemistry with JoJo and Denise vs. Roseann.
One way to create more compelling characters is through dynamic dialogue. This is an area of the script that would really benefit from more development. Currently, the dialogue sounds on the nose, or stiff, or just not natural.
Some dialogue sounds contrived. For example: “I hope everything will be better when dad comes home from jail for being a bookie.” This sounds forced with the purpose of revealing information for the audience “for being a bookie,” but it’s not natural. People don’t speak this way. His mother already knows the father is a bookie. Another example comes on page 19 when Roseann says: “Due to my father’s classified government job.” It’s not a natural way of speaking.
Overall, the script is heavily chatty and there’s too much exposition. Some scenes are too long. A good example of a long scene with too much dialogue begins on page 74 with JoJo and Goldie. It ends around page 79. Keep scenes short and to the
The parts that I found boring were when there was a lot of description going on from the author. I do realize that it is necessary to set up the scenes and locations so that us as readers can have a better understanding of what is happening in the book, however I felt like at times he went too far into detail and had me nearly sleeping at times, literally.
The second positive criticism comes from Anne Alton. She stated that the characterization in the novel was incredible. The main characters’ names weren’t just names; they each had meanings behind them that went along with their character and their actions. She uses Finny as an example; Phineas, who was son of Aaron in the Bible, was a judge; Finny is constantly judging Gene throughout the novel. Though there are many praises for A Separate Peace, there are also many criticisms. One criticism from Alton is how in depth the author, Knowles, goes in parts of the story. It distracts the reader from the main plot and is usually giving the reader unnecessary information (Alton). Alton also mentions how the minor characters, excluding Leper and Brinker, are weak and underdeveloped. Alton states that they are merely “stock characters”; they are just there to fill the gaps in the novel and don’t contribute to or change the overall plot (Alton). Another criticism is how unreliable Gene’s narrative becomes as the story progresses. We only see Finny and the other characters how Gene does; since we don’t have an outside point of view, and Gene changes his mind about how he feels about Finny multiple times throughout the story, it is hard to differentiate which qualities and statements are true
certain points in the story but also left out specific details for the audience to keep on
For example, a part I did not like is when Kayla was talking to herself, “will they find my body, years from now, and wonder who I am? That thought is the worst, that I might become some nameless dead girl, a strangers pile of bones.” (Henry 144), in my opinion, Kayla over exaggerated, but I can see where she is coming from. Also, I did not like some parts considering that they were over exaggerated and some parts did not go along with what was going on. One of the things April Henry did was she changed point of views every chapter which would also confuse me a lot. One of the parts that I liked was when there would be pictures of the documents the policemen filled out, paper clippings, interviews, and evidence pieces along with many other things. Another part that I liked was when Gabie never gave up, she knew Kayla was alive and wasn’t letting anyone tell her different. “Kayla is still alive. I know it.” (Henry
Logan Killicks- Janie’s first husband. He is financially stable, yet unloving to Janie. She finds that she would be happier with Jody Starks.
Criticisms (Unfavourable): Near the end of the book the dialogue becomes more rhetorical than the rest of the book. This isn’t really a problem, but can become slightly confusing at times. The best option would be to read this part slowly and carefully in order to understand what the message is.
The storyline, as it is, focuses on Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx), who has recently been named ruler of Freedonia. Neighboring country Sylvania hires Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky I thought almost every slapstick, physical bit was overlong and drawn-out. Even my favorite bit, the three hats business with Chico, Harpo and a lemonade stand vendor, went on a few beats too long. I also think these would have been aided by some comical music to accompany them. The mirror bit near the end with Groucho and Harpo, which has certainly been copied to no end, is the epitome of this.
Dialogue can be very important to the growth of the story. Good writing can express what the characters are feeling without having to directly explain what is going on. I feel that S.E. Hinton’s writing does exactly that.
It’s amazing how much we learn about people from what they say. One way to achieve this is through carefully constructed dialogue. Work to create dialogue that allows the characters’ personalities and voices to emerge through unique word selection and the use of active rather than passive voice.
The prologue opens at the end of a lavish Manhattan party on the thousandth floor of a futuristic tower in the year 2118. As the guests leave, a young woman mysteriously falls to her death.
following the end of World War II. It is set in 1912, two weeks before
Another technique that was used quite well was the use of flashback . There is a scene at the start of the film showing the conversation on the phone with Manni and Lola . This scene shows Lola explaining to Manni how she only went to go buy some cigarettes and a man stole her moped , she tried to run after him but he was too far ahead. Not only ...
" Time. The time. Time Inc., 22 Sept. 2000. Web.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this rather old fashioned romance is how funny it actually is, while still maintaining a sense of subtlety throughout. This is not a story driven plot, but rather, a collection of charming and amusing moments that, when added up for the duration, becomes something quite substantial. The character development involved is flawless, as we grow to like, and in some senses love, the main players, thanks in large part to the terrific Academy Award winning screenplay by Dalton Trumbo here credited as Ian McLellan Hunter due to a blacklisting that forced him to write under a pseudonym. Even with the quality writing, none of this could have worked if overplayed by the director or if stars were cast who weren't as likeable, and on all fronts,
...movie that I fell in love with. But most of all I love how the story line is a great overlap into the cinematically engaging movie. There is a great use of camera, timing, shots and story line that are portrayed in this movie without being too overwhelming. This allows the audience to relax during the movie and just take in the scenes as a story from reality. To this day, and even still doing this paper I still come to find different aspects of the movie that I missed the previous times I have watched it.