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Why Twists in Movies Are Bad
Wednesday, June 23, 2021 15:39
Following the recommendation of YouTuber I do not follow who was recommended to me by the YouTube algorithm, I watched "Shutter Island" for the first time. The YouTuber thought SI was one director Martin Scorsese's better underrated films in production and narrative style. I disagree on the basis of what makes similar such films bad. One thing about the production is the music, in particular the original score, was laid on thick and unnecessary at times.
Without getting into spoilers, I shall make another point through light comparison to similar stories. Night Shyamalan's "Sixth Sense", American TV shows like "Monk", British detective stories such as Miss Marble, Hercules Poirot, and Midsumor Murders all depend upon a fundamental dishonest practice of not presenting the audience everything that the lead character we are to follow via the third person pov is thinking and knows. This trope is called the unreliable narrator. A false example of this is Donna Tartt's The Secret History; Richard Papen is not dishonest is their recounting events and Tartt is not dishonest or concealing truths from the audience. We know what Papen is thinking, wrongly at times, all throughout and explanation comes from other characters correcting him. Unlike Monk and Poirot, where the detective who we the audience suppose to know as much as they, have their grandstanding moment in presenting the guilty murder through a serious of false theories teasing the audience before the final reveal. Contrast that with, say, Inspector Morse, who sometimes gets it wrong, we the audience discover the solution at the moment the detective realizes himself.
Weak writing is when the story depends upon not being full forthcoming to the audience about the central character. When the audience has epistemic doubt about the character's internal veracity or external understanding, then how is the audience to trust the story presented? When doubt about the story or what the audience is to trust of the lead character creeps into the story, then the narrative has been derailed.
It-was-all-a-dream trope is a sucker punch to the audience gut which devalues the quality of the story and production. It leaves an unsatisfying residue in the audience proverbial mouth.
I remember when watching "Inception" the first time when seeing the lead character's token, I knew and predicted exactly how the movie was going to end to the last frame. "The Sixth Sense" cannot be watched more than a couple of times, at most. I would bet my last dollar more people rewatched "The Matrix" more times than they re-watched Shyamalan's masterpiece. (Of course, there might be that snarky respondent claiming otherwise praising SS to the hilt. To them, I ask how can the lead character not know they never went to the bathroom and we the audience asked to accept it cf. when Neo learns of the reality, the story expands and continues.) The beauty of The Matrix is even after the brain in the vat reveal, the story is able to continue (two movies and counting) beyond because we the audience are able and allowed to trust what the lead character knows. By comparison, "Shutter Island" depends upon deliberately deceiving the audience cf. The Matrix just fools the audience. By this I mean, SI towards the end of the movie presented an explanation that fitted the facts including what came "before" their arrival which shifted the story down one track but in the end we are presented with the 'true' account which was more of a pastiche bandaid fix for the plotholes.
Ok, I can imagine the rebuttal, 'not plotholes, a plot twist.' There are good plot twists, and one of the best is a Doctor Who episode titled " Time Heist", and there are poor plot twists. No plot twist should depend upon existential or epistemic doubt of the lead character the audience is presented to follow. Sure, have a plot twist around a character's (mistaken) unrevealed identity, vacillation in their moral compass, or a Sophie's choice dilemma.
Interlocutor — Oh, I've got one for you, Sheldon. What about "A Beautiful Mind"?
Ok, leaving aside this is a biopic so depended upon adherence to the facts, the revelation of the false characters is not a plot twist; in fact, their introduction was when a plot was added to the story, an intriguing plot to be sure. Sad truth is most "people live lives of quiet desperation" -- live dull, unadventurous lives. I do not want to assign a plot to anyone's biography, I do not subscribe to that Ancient Greek ethos. Nash's psychosis added a flavour of plot in an otherwise ordinary life.