SCREENPLAY REVIEW - THE DEEP BLUE GOODBYE
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Premise: A beach bum-slash-specialized private detective takes on the case of a woman conned by her ex-boyfriend. As the case evolves, he stumbles upon a serial rapist/murderer who’s after a rare Vietnamese jewel.
About: This project has been around for awhile, most recently with Leonardo DiCaprio and Oliver Stone attached. The project (which had heat in 2010) has stalled since, but occasionally gains steam because it’s one of the most successful book franchises not to be adapted into a film yet (the author, John D. MacDonald, is said to be very protective of his work). MacDonald’s novels follow a private detective (slash salvage consultant) named Travis McGee. The series, which is something like 20 books long, has sold 30-some million books worldwide. Dana Stevens, who adapted this novel, wrote films “City of Angels,” “For Love of the Game,” and, most recently, “Safe Haven.”
Writer: Dana Stevens (based on the novel – and series – by John D. MacDonald)
Details: 115 pages – May 13, 2005 draft
Anybody looking for a franchise?
In the eternal search for these studios to find the next franchise, nothing is off-limits. And that means all those old book series that haven’t been turned into movies yet are being developed by SOMEBODY in hopes that they’ll reap some golden nougat somewhere down the line.
Which is where the Travis McGee series comes in. I've run into quite a few fans of the books. Here’s my big question to them though - are people really that interested in a mystery franchise? Franchises these days tend to be action-dominated, with the occasional comedy, like The Hangover, mixing things up. When you look at something like Jack Reacher, which was seen as another potential franchise, and everyone realized it was more of a detective movie than action movie (despite the trailer’s desperate attempts to convince you otherwise), they didn’t support it.
“Blue” feels like more of the same. What we have here is a solid screenplay, just like Jack Reacher. But there’s nothing special or different enough to separate it from the pack – to give the film/series a rabid fan base. Unless some director comes in and just totally does something crazy with it that we weren’t expecting (i.e. Spike Jonez with Where The Wild Things Are). I’m also a bit suspicious of Leo’s involvement. My understanding is that he’s a fan of the books, but Leo doesn’t do sequels. So to think of him getting in on the ground floor of a franchise doesn’t make sense. But stranger things have happened, I guess.
Anyway, Deep Blue Goodbye follows the aforementioned Travis McGee, a beach-bum-y type in Florida who used to have his shit together but now stumbles around town, looking for trouble. Travis makes his living by salvaging the kind of items too hot or too specialized for the police to handle. He basically bumps bellies with the bad guys until he finds what he’s looking for, then takes half of whatever the item’s worth for the trouble. And what do you know? Business is good!
One day Travis is approached by his old friend, Barclay, who’s got one of these “particular” problems. His niece, who recently shacked up with an ex-con, loaned him a bunch of money. He since disappeared and she spotted him on a brand new boat, a boat she assumes was purchased with that money. She wants that money back.
Travis takes the job, eventually finding out that the niece is one in a long line of women this ex-con (Junior) has conned. His investigation leads back to his last ex, Lois, a trophy wife who found out her husband was cheating on her and ran off to Florida. Junior had her measured up the second he saw her Jaguar and played her like a fiddle.
Through Lois, we learn that Junior is actually a murderer, and he’s stolen not just money, but Vietnamese jewels that are potentially worth a million dollars. So Travis must make inroads with Junior’s next targets, two women, and use them to get onto Junior’s boat and get the jewels. The problem is, a hurricane is on its way to shore, and it’ll be touching down right when Travis needs to do the job.
The Deep Blue Goodbye has a very “beach read” feel to it. At times that’s good (it’s so easy and relaxing to read!). Other times, bad (the plot gets goofy and thin towards the end, and it's not very believable). I’m not expecting high class drama here. But here we have this uber bad guy, Junior, right? And Travis finds Junior's next target, a woman, and convinces her to let him join her on Junior's boat. We’re then supposed to believe that this serial killer, who’s waiting for this chick, is going to let a RANDOM SUSPICIOUS GUY on his boat to hang out??? Come on. That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
See, I can overlook lazy writing WHEN it doesn’t lead to anything important. But this is the climax of the movie! Getting on the boat is the key to Travis’s whole plan! So to have a villain act completely out of character to provide a convenience for our main character right when he most needs it is as lazy as lazy writing gets!
And that’s a shame, cause I quite liked the rest of the script. Deep Blue Goodbye is slightly darker than you’d expect. It begins with a great scene where a man’s holding a rope over his boat, we assume because he’s fishing. But then he pulls it up, and at the end is a bound and wrapped woman. The holder (who we’ll find out later is Junior) screams at her to tell him where “it is.” When she doesn’t answer, he dumps her back in. They say to start your script with a scene that grabs the reader. This definitely grabbed me!
And Travis was a strong protag. He had that required “plays by his own rules” quality that protags in these types of movies need. But the funny thing was, our writer, Dana Stevens, was terrified of this. Every 20 pages a “save the cat” scene was inserted to make sure we liked the guy. At first he stops his car to save a turtle in the middle of the highway. Then he’s rushing into a random guy’s room to stop some teen date rape. It was a little obvious and not, altogether, necessary. Travis had enough charm on his own to weather the more unseemly parts of his personality.
I think my biggest issue with the script was that it got worse as it went on. Not worse as in “bad.” But it started out so strong, it could never quite live up to the bar it had set for itself (the downside of a great opening). This happens in screenwriting a lot. We’re so focused on getting those openings perfect that we don’t bring our A-game to the rest of the script. We convince ourselves that it’s all good (“Oh yeah, even though we spent 90% less time than we did on the first act, the rest of the script is just as good!”) when we’re clearly living in denial.
But yeah, I mean, there were some intense moments early on, like Travis taking on a naked-from-the-waist-down Lois as she’s blindly shooting at him, amidst a house caked with empty pain-killer bottles. Their struggle results in her being completely naked, and he’s flinging her around the apartment to stop her from doing something nuts. It was intense.
And then, as quickly as that heat came, it cooled. There were no more high-tension big scenes like that. Not to mention the fact that I’m still trying to figure out how those Vietnamese jewels fit into the story. They connect about as naturally as you’d think they would after reading the logline.
And yet, despite all this, the script does have this unquantifiable charm to it. Travis is enough of a likable badass that you want him to teach the bad guy a lesson. And while it does cool as it goes, it’s a nice air-conditioned cool, as opposed to a meat freezer cool. This is a good script whose only fault is that it had the potential to be great. And that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. A salty taste you only get from deep blue ocean water.
[ ] what the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[x] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Use a character’s environment to tell us about that character. When Travis first gets to Lois’s home, he goes around the back and checks the trash. Sees that it’s STUFFED WITH EMPTY LIQUOR BOTTLES. He then peers through the back window. The furniture is STACKED WITH DIRTY DISHES. The floor is FILLED WITH EMPTY PRESCRIPTION BOTTLES. We know a ton about Lois already even though we haven't met her yet!
