Help me come up with an ending

Okay, I thought you said they only met once every 5 years.

So at 14, they can't write letters or call each other once in awhile? They have no way to get in touch with each other for 10 years?

At age 24, she's engaged. Engaged isn't married. If she realizes then that she loves him, she could end her engagement. That's not really a very strong reason for why they can't be together.

Not trying to be difficult. Plot logic is a strong sticking point for me.

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Maybe they assumed it was forever as children do. As far as a child is concerned they are immortal and then smack when they hit adulthood and its like **** no one told me it was a spinning hamster wheel 24/7 with obligations and responsibility and accountability etc etc etc when you break the rules of the house you get sent to your room when you break a rule out in the real world you go to jail...The game shifts 360 when you turn 18.

So maybe they just thought they would have chance after chance and they would catch up some day...and then the day came when there were no more chances...She died...Game over.

Thats a wake up call or the beginning of some serious denial.

But if this is somewhat the case then what is the valuable lesson or at least a major component of it...Is NOW is all you have...He sees he must seize what he does have and find a way to MAKE IT WORK.

I think the equivalent of the type of monumental emotional turn around would have to be almost like he woke up from a dream and the woman who died in reality was really his wife. He would be so relieved and run home to her. He has to get that feeling and run home to his real wife and get on his knees and beg her forgiveness for not worshiping her as she deserved after all she was very attractive maybe helped through the rough times stuck by his side through thick and thin and she loved him for who he was not what he did. She put up with his vaccillating bullshit for decades!!!
 
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You plan on having different actors or the same actors doing a big age development? If its the same actor its interesting to see them "Do" 67 but otherwise I would go a little younger so there is something left to live and some time to apply the lesson learned...another chance, a new begining, otherwise it can be morbid.
 
Chapel, I agree. It's a big sticking point for me as well. Believe me, I was always asking that question throughout the script - at every point: "Why can't they be together right now?" So there are things I did to answer those questions (between the ages of 24-30 for example). She makes a mistake. Plain and simple. She's not ready for him the second she decides to leave her fiance. She needs time for herself. To figure out who she is. Figuring that they'll be together eventually. But that's part of what the movie is about. You gamble with time and then when you are ready, that person is no longer available. How many countless times has this happened to so many people that we hear about (and have experienced ourselves). That whole 24 period - I admit - is the toughest sell. After that, he's married. And I don't think people will question it.
 
Could you maybe have him enlist in the service at an early age? Not sure what era/decade that would be, though. Let's see.....if he's 67 at the 'present', then at age 18 it would be roughly around 1957. I don't think there's any war he could've been sent to at that time, but still -- he might feel it wouldn't be 'fair' to commit to a relationship in such uncertain times. That might work for part of that awkward period.

What am I saying? I'm sure you've got it covered in the details. Sorry, just getting ahead of myself.


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You realize you're talking about a seriously high budget here, right? Period piece. Specialty effects makeup. Those two things alone are going to be pricey.

Very interesting story, though!

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Haha. Well, let me say that it would be my dream to direct this but I'm not holding my breath. I'll look to sell it and let them figure out the economics. The movie, however, was originally called "Timeless", and the theme revolved more around the idea that this place they went to every summer was a bubble, unchanged by the outside world (not in a fantasy way but you know what I mean). And that all of their problems, situations, memories, life, work, friends, that they dealt with - disappeared once they came here.

From one of the characters:

KRISTIN
You know what I love about this place? It’s timeless. Everything outside changes. There’s all these complications, all these stupid pressures that you have to deal with. But here… it’s always the same.


And I wanted to integrate that into the production. Therefore instead of giving them sideburns and having them drive up in a volkswagon van during the "70's", I would keep everything (their look, their clothes, the cars) as ambiguous-looking as possible - to sort of represent the timeless quality of the place. Also, the "present" in the film, is actually some unspecified year in the future. So that technically, their last week together - in their forties - is the "present". This helps as the further back we go in time, the more we'd have to address the look of that time (if it were the 40s, it'd be pretty hard for me to be ambiguous about their look). So that somewhat took care of the "period" costs of the film.

No, I understand what you're saying about there being a good reason they're not together. I'm constantly looking at that 24 period and trying to make it more convincing.
 
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Interesting!

I had another idea.....

Why wait until 20 years after her death? Why not sooner? What if at long last he is finally free. He's come back to the camp for a memorial service for the dead painter guy. He's eagerly anticipating seeing her there. He plans to finally do the right thing and follow his heart. But she is tragically killed in an accident on her way to the camp for the memorial. He's missed his last chance. And then in the final twist, he finds out the painter guy's 'secret' as well.

How does that sound?

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The movie opens with him as an old man finding out that she died. I don't know why, but I really like that as an opening. Something about recalling your entire life from the perspective of an older man is interesting to me. And then of course, he remembers everything that's happened up to this point (which is most of the movie). Your idea has me considering other possibilities but my mind is so hardwired to him being old, I don't think I can see it differently. I played around for awhile and tried to make the twist that she wasn't really dead. But I couldn't make it work. It felt hokey. My point being that I wish there was a way for them to have one last shot when they were older - or at least appear like there was one last shot (as per your idea)
 
monochromasy

monochromasy

The old painter suffers from progressive monochromasy (ability to see color)
by the time the children meet him he is just going through the motions of what he once so dearly loved (painting) you can see that his paintings were alive with color when he was younger but as his condition worsened they are washed out with no passion. the secret is reveled when the boy discovers the old mans journal detailing his loss and how out of love he continued to paint even though he gets no real joy from his paintings.
The boy out of love for the girl has to let her go because he knows that if she came to him she would not be able to paint and he knows thats her real passion.
True love is timeless and sacrafice for that love is a noble end.
maybe have the old artist paint a picture of the two children each time they visit and have them get more washed out with each passing year.
along with the journal the boy finds the original painting done by the old artist alive with color and life..... this reminds him of those precious timeless moments.

Just some random thoughts
hope it helps or at least gave you a good laugh
 
Okay, the problem with that opening is you've expended every bit of impact and tension right from the start. We know she's dead, we know he lives. You lose the power of building up the emotional level for your audience and then hitting them with the ultimate blow -- her death, which is also the death of their greatest dream. We start the movie already knowing that their dream is doomed. So we're just trudging to the story to see how hopeless it really was. Basically all we really find out is the painter guy's 'secret', and that's hardly satisfying as an ending.

If it were me, I'd seriously reconsider.

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Yeah, I'd be very dubious about telling the whole story in flashback - althought it can work (e.g Titanic and Saving Private Ryan) they tend to work best when the 'narrator' is actually withholding some vital piece of info until the end, which then makes the audience reevaluate the whole story they've just seen.

Re all our whacky hand-loss ideas, I suggest that your child hero and heroine would have great fun making up gory theories for how he lost the hand, this would continue through teenage years (trying to gross each other out) and become a running joke when they're adults. By the end of the movie, the audience should discover what really happened, even if the hero and heroine never do. And the real reason should in some way echo the relationship between the hero and heroine and/or the themes of the movie.
 
clang said:
Yeah, I'd be very dubious about telling the whole story in flashback - althought it can work (e.g Titanic and Saving Private Ryan) they tend to work best when the 'narrator' is actually withholding some vital piece of info until the end, which then makes the audience reevaluate the whole story they've just seen.

Re all our whacky hand-loss ideas, I suggest that your child hero and heroine would have great fun making up gory theories for how he lost the hand, this would continue through teenage years (trying to gross each other out) and become a running joke when they're adults. By the end of the movie, the audience should discover what really happened, even if the hero and heroine never do. And the real reason should in some way echo the relationship between the hero and heroine and/or the themes of the movie.
Click to expand...

EXCELLENT!

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chapel, I kind of agree with that. However, there are some great surprises/revelations in the script which only work under the assumption that she is dead. But it's something I battle with a lot.
 
I havent read yet but been pondering never the less.

I have taken quite a bit of license so keep and throw away whatever suits your purpose.

What if;

She herself had a husband...But never told her lover!!! ( Big Fat Juicy Secret )

This husband has visited this special place to try to understand her better,...a place he has never been to but heard about, heard all about it... everything except that it was the place she would meet her lover-boy.

Let her lover-boy meet her "Secret" husband...Lover-boy and husband strike up a conversation where the lover-boy discovers "Her secret" let him see from the inside what her husband never knew, let her husband describe her in a way completely opposite to what she and her lover-boy had...( Flashback )

Let the Lover-Boy also have empathy for his own wife who is in the same position as this husband who loves his wife so much...blindly.

Let the lover-boy later discover through the husband that she is dead....See the torment of the husband weeping yet the pain of the lover-boy has to be contained suffering in silence all alone...who can he share his grief with? No one... ( Time for another flashback )

Let him come home after this meeting and all the reflecting...Let him meet his wife at home and let her let him know that she knew all along about his affair ( Her secret was that she knew his secret ) but felt if it was something he needed why should she rob him of it. She shows her true love. He says its over. They fall in love with each other all over again...End of story.

You win an Oscar.

You buy me a drink.
 
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Zaza Cast said.

At the peak of his popularity as a painter, having sold a piece for an outrageous sum that will take him to the next level of success, there is a fire in his loft/studio after the big celebration. During this fire, he has the choice of saving himself and THE painting, or his loving fiancée…he chooses his fiancée and loses his hand to the third-degree burns incurred as a result of his selfless act. Resentful and depressed, he proceeded to drive the love of his live away! (It’s a sad, sad story)

I would also add that, he did not save the girl, but his painting, he made a choice, the choice was his work, this in turn lead to guilt, he could have saved the love of his life but did not, then you could worm in the way that his guilt was so overwhelming that he decided never to paint again, so he cut of his hand.

As an extra twist, sometime in the play, the young girl is caught up in a fire and he has the same choice to make, what will it be this time, the girl or the work.
 
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