MovieChat Forums > The Night Manager (2016) Discussion > Great Acting, Great Cinematography done ...

Great Acting, Great Cinematography done in by Lousy Script...


The British don't really seem capable of producing compelling adult drama. There writing is stuck somewhere in the 1940's and everything they produce is so cartoonish and lame. Like some kind of after school special.

Pine is a single loser with no money and no real prospects who by the grace of god is somehow injected in to a world of wealth and power where his every desire can be satisfied and he's not even the slightest bit tempted to embrace it? That isn't believable. They are not writing a human being when they do that.

Ditto for Jed. She's going to just throw everything away because Roper sells guns in addition to tractors? Go back to America and suck cocks at truck stop restrooms to put food on the table for her kid? This makes no sense whatsoever. Consider Wall Street, written over twenty years ago. When Bud asks Darien (who is by then his actual girlfriend) to join him in turning on Gekko she flatly refuses and they break up. This is the normal, realistic reaction to such a proposal. Jed's eagerness to bite the hand that not only feeds her but has from everything we've seen been incredibly kind and loving to her as well makes absolutely no sense.

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firstwinsgop-1 - what a tiresome, perverted, mis-spelled rant!

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When Bud asks Darien (who is by then his actual girlfriend) to join him in turning on Gekko she flatly refuses and they break up. This is the normal, realistic reaction to such a proposal. Jed's eagerness to bite the hand that not only feeds her but has from everything we've seen been incredibly kind and loving to her as well makes absolutely no sense.


That is entirely due to Le Carre's writing of secondary women. He has written several excellent female characters, but they tend to be front and centre in the narrative. Ancillary love interests like Jed in his works are often posh, pretty, mildly dim beauties who will shack up with anyone who provides them stability until they meet the anti-hero with whom they instantly fall into bed and form a loyalty which often sees them giving up their lives.

See Lise in THE HONORABLE SCHOOLBOY for the most egregious example.



Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is writing a book - Cicero

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Stuck in the 1940s??

You mean the decade that gave us CASABLANCA, CITIZEN KANE, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, OUT OF THE PAST, THE BIG SLEEP, MILDRED PIERCE, THE MALTESE FALCON, THE THIRD MAN and KEY LARGO?

*That* decade??

And you think Amercan writing is *better* now??

You are, to employ a British term, daft, my friend.

I thought THE NIGHT MANAGER's script was mediocre also, but not because it was so old fashioned. Believe me, I *wish* it was old fashioned (see list above).

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I completely agree with the titel, but then your rant just tackles all the wrong things. Bad script making a very big part of this series a verry confusing/frustrating experience. (not frustrating as in 'i don't understand' but as in 'jesus even i could have fixed these writing mistakes better') Great acting by Dr hou.. eh.. Hugh laurie, Tom Hiddleston, etc. though and great cinematography!
I'd say about 2 hours made sense story-wise out of the 6 hours in total.

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Hahahaha exactly... the subject line is spot on...


Great acting, terrible writing.




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