'The F-Word' - Script Review

Post based upon: The F-Word written by Elan Mastai; based on the play “Toothpaste and Cigars” by T.J. Dawe and Michael Rinaldi; draft dated November 28, 2007.

Welcome back for the second entry in my script review series. Today I present to you the romantic comedy 'The F-Word' by Elan Mastai. Like almost every rom-com this is about a boy falling for a girl and all the consequences that arise from that. Casey Affleck ('Gone, Baby, Gone', ' The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford') will play the hopeless romantic, while his female counterpart is not casted yet. It will be directed by Alex Holdridge ('In Search of a Midnight Kiss'). 

What can I say? I am in love with this script! Madly, deeply in love. It is the kind of script everybody hopes to write - and then to read these lines lets me lose all my hope, as I fear I will never write anything this good.

As you might have deduced from my opening paragraph this not your typical Heigl-Aniston-rom-com-fare. This is a story about real love and about the inability to speak about this love. This script is genuinely funny and witty. Not one line is akward or misplaced. 

I really can not tell you more about the plot, as the story of 'The F-Word' does not differ too much from the >boy meets girl, boy can not have girl, boy gets girl< pattern. 

So why is this script so damn good? The characters come alive on the page. I don't know when I was that emotionally invested into a screenplay. While I was reading the script, something miraculous happend: Elan Mastai let me feel their love, their longing to be with the other one. It only took a few pages and I knew Chantry and Wallace had to be together forever!

Note to myself: I do not have to invent a new, crazy plot. The oldest story will work if my characters a vivid and real. The key to interesting characters is the dialogue. It has to be characteristic and specific in order to work.

So, have you read the script and fell in love too? Or did you hate it? I want to hear your discussions in the comments...

Have a nice day,

- Tristan

References: JoBlo.com;