There’s a trailer I’m seeing everywhere these days, for the new Jennifer Lawrence movie No Hard Feelings. I guess the advertising worked on me, because this week I felt compelled to bring you a discussion about the screenplay.
As you know, we can learn a lot by reading screenplays. What to do and how to do it, as well as what not to do in some cases. Just the experience of reading screenplays helps you understand how your own stories need to work, the effect they need to have on the audience in order to create an emotional response, or even hold our attention.
Unfortunately, just reading doesn’t quite do the trick. To really learn from each script, I encourage you to read analytically.
Think about how a screenplay does what it does
I know, I know… reading analytically feels like work. That’s because it is. 😅
But it’s some of the most fun work you can do, in my opinion. And if you want to learn and understand how screenplays work, it’s work that must be done.
If you’d like a bit of guidance as you do that work, I’m here to help. You can download the No Hard Feelings screenplay, read it, and then read some of my takeaways below.
(Fair warning: the screenplay contains adult humor.)
**Spoilers after this point.**
Structured for comedy
Set aside for a moment whether it’s your style of humor or not, and look at the quantity of comedic moments and set pieces in the script. There are many (as there should be in this type of movie).
The genre entertainment (all those funny moments) is important, for sure. Your script has to deliver on the type of entertainment that it promises.
But the solid structure is just as necessary. It allows us to appreciate the genre moments.
The script’s structure creates the stage on which all of that genre entertainment can be showcased. The big turning points of Act 1 set up the situation (woman must seduce awkward young man without him learning his parents put her up to it).
Act 2 exploits and escalates that situation. The comedy comes from the characters and the situation. Meaning, it’s not just tacked on after the fact.
The story then builds to an emotional low point and plot turn which send us into Act 3, which resolves the story in a surprising but satisfying way.
Without that structure, a script that’s just a series of jokes — even good jokes — will get tedious.
Structured for emotional impact
Another pitfall that can happen when a script tries to rely solely on a series of jokes for its effect is that the characters and relationships can get shortchanged.
Even in a big, broad comedy, a script shouldn’t be afraid to have real emotional moments (that aren’t there just for laughs). The script needs an emotional throughline to really be effective (and to get noticed).
In No Hard Feelings, amidst all the raunchy comedy, the central relationship develops clearly and consistently. What we see is a string of moments between Margot and Percy that evolves and advances their emotional connection.
After spending the first half of Act 2 struggling to understand each other, at the Midpoint they share a real moment of connection when Margot tells Percy about her parents, and Percy talks about being adopted.
In the second half of Act 2 they’re kinder to each other and more thoughtful. But Percy believes their relationship is one thing, while Margot knows it’s a ruse – even though her growing affection for Percy is real.
Through their relationship, the two central characters experience their individual transformations. In Act 3, Percy’s reaction to Margot’s behavior helps her to understand how she’s been living… and to change.
Whether you’re writing something similar or not, No Hard Feelings is a good example to study to see how to map out a character relationship. The relationship between Margot and Percy progresses in precise little steps that builds and deepens from purely comedic to genuinely heartfelt.
If you enjoyed today’s email, here are a few more screenplay and movie discussions you might find useful:
And if you’d like to discuss your own story idea, book a session with me in June!