If I’m being honest, The Good Neighbor isn’t a great movie. Not one you might immediately think of as an example to study.
But not-great movies have lessons to teach, too. Recognizing when, how, and why something doesn’t work helps fill in a more complete understanding. It complements what you’ve learned about how and why something does work.
And even not-great movies can get some things right, too, which is the case with today’s example. While there are other issues with the story, I thought it was interesting – and maybe even a little surprising – how well it handled the aspect we’ll talk about today.
What’s The Good Neighbor about?
[Spoilers coming…]
So I was watching The Good Neighbor on Hulu this week. It’s a movie about David, an American journalist who has just taken a new job in Latvia. He meets his next door neighbor, Robert, another single guy. The next night they go out for drinks. Driving home, David hits a pedestrian. Robert convinces David that since the girl is dead at the scene, they should salvage their own lives and leave instead of calling the police.
That’s basically Act 1, not including the Break into Act 2 scene, which I’ll get to in a second.
Show me the structure
But first, a little challenge: if you look at the list of Act 1 events, which one do you think is the Inciting Incident?
On its face it might seem like hitting the pedestrian would be it. And in another movie it could be.
But you can’t really know the best Inciting Incident for a given story until you know what the Act 2 Adventure is, at least in broad strokes.
Because the Inciting Incident is the start of that specific story. And that story – in particular the Act 2 Adventure, aka dealing with the main conflict – is the movie.
So asking you to identify the Inciting Incident without telling you what Act 2 is about is a sneaky trick question. (This is also why it’s tough to analyze the structure of a movie until you’ve seen the whole thing.)
The Major Plot Points create a spine that defines the story
The Good Neighbor isn’t really about dealing with the consequences of the hit and run. That’s part of it, but not the whole movie.
It’s about David, the American journalist, dealing with the presence of neighbor Robert in his life. Turns out, Robert is kind of stalkery. He inserts himself into David’s life and wreaks havoc for his own personal motives, all of which is revealed over the course of the story. The movie is basically Single White Female with a gender swap.
So the main conflict isn’t David vs. the police, or an insurance investigator, or anyone else who could be trying to uncover the truth and get justice for the hit and run. That’s not the story. It’s David vs. Robert.
Since that’s the main conflict, we need the major plot points to create a throughline that expresses it. That creates the spine of the story.
The Good Neighbor’s story spine
The Inciting Incident in this particular story is meeting the neighbor. That’s the disrupting force in David’s life, he just doesn’t know it yet. (Which is pretty common in the thriller genre. Here, we quickly see David’s life being affected although he doesn’t, and tension is built as we’re watching from this superior position).
So this is where David’s trouble starts. It’s where this story begins.
After the hit-and-run, David considers turning himself in, even fleeing the country. But Robert says, “Don’t let this ruin us.” When David goes along, they’re locked in together for the rest of this ride, and we’re off on the Act 2 Adventure.
The main conflict shows David trying to hold his life together, as Robert is simultaneously tearing it apart. Robert is the antagonist, and he is sabotaging David’s life and vying for control of it at every turn.
If the main conflict was about David trying to get away with the hit and run, and – for the sake of example – the antagonist was a police detective who was trying to solve the case, then the Inciting Incident wouldn’t be Robert coming into David’s life. It would probably be the incident with the pedestrian, and there would be other elements to set up in Act 1, and likely much less of Robert.
The incident with the pedestrian would kick off the story, and we’d then see the main conflict develop over the course of Act 2. In this case, it would be David vs. police detective, not David vs. Robert.
The Inciting Incident – Break into Act 2 connection
A lot of times the Inciting Incident – Break into Act 2 connection looks like a “problem-solution” relationship, but that’s not the only way for it to manifest.
That’s why I think it’s so useful to study tons of movies (especially those that you find really work for you, but sometimes even the not-great ones too), so you have many reference points for how a story could be put together.
Even when it’s not a problem-solution relationship, the connection between the Inciting Incident and the Break into Act 2 should still be evident.
We need a clear connection between those two major plot points, otherwise your story has an incomplete spine. When that’s the case then your story may feel disjointed, not quite make sense, and be unsatisfying for the audience.
One more challenge for you: in the next few movies you watch, pay attention to the Inciting Incident – Break into Act 2 connection. Ask:
- Do you see a connection there?
- If so, what’s the relationship? Does it work?
- And if not, is the movie weaker for it?
- How would you fix the relationship for a stronger connection?