First off, as usual, I hope you all are having a great start to the weekend. We’re playing Baylor, HOOK ‘EM!! \\m//, and it is also Halloween weekend which should be pretty fun. Second, I would like to say: SPOILER ALERT!! If you have never seen this movie, this blog entry may ruin it for you haha. I will be discussing Hollywood’s THREE ACT STRUCTURE and how it works within one of my favorite movies “The Proposal”. “The Proposal” is about a guy named Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) who, in order to keep his job, is forced by his boss Margaret (Sandra Bullock) to marry her so that she does not have to get deported back to Canada. This is a really funny comedy romance film with many amazing, A-list actors and actresses. Ryan Reynolds is one of my favorite actors, and in my opinion does an amazing job in “The Proposal”. I hope you all enjoy this week’s blog!!
Hollywood’s three act structure is broken down into three parts: the introduction (approx. 30 minutes), the complication (approx. 30-60 minutes), and the resolution (approx. 30 minutes). Acts one and two contain plot points which escalate stakes, imply complication, and end the act. Plot points are the equivalence to transitions and propel action into the next act. Act three, or the resolution, contains the climax which is the point of greatest intensity in the development and resolution of the film. In Hollywood’s three act structure the climax is shifted toward the end of the film. In the first act of “The Proposal”, the assistant editor of a publishing company (Andrew) shows up to his work. Once the editor in chief, or his boss (Margaret), arrives at work all of the employees scramble around to try to make it seem as if they were very busy. They are all scared of her because of the way she presents herself and treats others. Margaret soon gets called in to talk to people of higher authority in her building and tells her assistant Andrew to come and get her in ten minutes. She finds out that she is being deported for a year and tries everything she can to talk her way out of it, but fails to do so. When Andrew comes in to get her to leave he makes up an excuse to get her out of there. In Andrew’s last few words of his excuse he says, “I told her you were otherwise engaged, she insisted”. Margaret thinks about the word “engaged” and she makes a quick decision. In order to stay in America and not be deported she tells the men of higher authority that she and Andrew are getting married. In order to save both of their jobs, they must go to the immigration office to settle this issue. After talking to Mr. Gilbertson of the immigration office, Margaret and Andrew are told that if he finds out that they are committing fraud that Margaret will be deported and Andrew will face a fine and serve jail time. They have a schedule interview with Mr. Gilbertson to answer questions on one another and he will also be frequently checking up on them. Once leaving the immigration office, Andrew tells Margaret to get down on one knee and ask him nicely to marry her, in which he says okay. This is where the act peaks known as the plot point number one that implies that complication is about to begin, propels action into the next act, and asks a question that the next act will answer. The time of this plot point is about 21 minutes into the movie, and it escalates the stakes and ends the act.
The second act begins with Margaret and Andrew on a plane to go to Sitka, Alaska to go visit Andrew’s family and to tell them about their engagement. During the trip they must review and learn the answers to questions that only a couple would know about each other for the interview with Mr. Gilbertson. Once reaching Andrew’s parent’s house, Margaret and Andrew encounter several physical and emotional complications. For example, when they first get to the house at Andrew’s welcome home party, Andrew announces his and Margaret’s engagement. After doing so, everyone shouts out for them two to kiss. Once they kiss, they have a real moment and seem to enjoy kissing each other, which really throws them both off. Another example is one night when they are about to go to sleep they start having a very personal conversation that turned out to be a good one. They are awoken by Andrew’s family who come in with breakfast and also a proposition. They want Margaret and Andrew to get married there at their home in Alaska the next day. They are forced to say yes because Andrew’s “Gammy” comes in and says that she wants to see her only grandson get married before she’s dead. They say yes to this proposition and Andrew freaks out. Margaret is there for him and makes him feel better, and the two of them have another moment together. They both realize that they are actually falling for each other, so Margaret then has a “freak out” moment herself and has to leave the house to go think about things. This is the plot point number two that occurs 66 minutes into the movie. This sets up the complications and action that will occur in the last act, which is the resolution, and also asks a question of what is going to happen at the marriage ceremony that will be answered in the third and final act.
The third and final act is known as the resolution. One of the first complications in this act comes when Andrew’s mother, grandmother, and Margaret go to a shop to get Margaret fitted in her wedding dress. Once after talking about being a part of the family, Margaret gets very emotional and has a meltdown because she forgot what it was like to have a family. Another complication arises when Mr. Gilbertson calls Andrew’s dad and his dad invites Mr. Gilbertson over to the house where they made a deal. The deal was that if Andrew confessed then he would be free and Margaret would be deported. Andrew told them that he and Margaret were in love and that they were getting married. In the middle of the wedding ceremony Margaret announces that she has something to say. Margaret confesses the whole thing once she found out how wonderful of a person Andrew was, and called the wedding off. This proved that Margaret was really in love with Andrew, and didn’t want to hurt him or his family. Andrew goes to look for Margaret and finds a letter from her to him. He realizes that he is actually in love with her and tries to catch her at the airport before she leaves to go to New York. Her flight leaves before he could catch it, and he does not get to tell her that he loves her before she is gone. Andrew then flies to New York and catches Margaret while she is packing at the office before she is deported to Canada. Andrew confesses his love to her and asks her to marry him, so he could take her on a date. She told him that she thought it would just be easier if she left, and he said, “You’re right. That would be easier.” They both told each other that they were scared, knowing that they were in love, and then they kissed. This is the climax in the third act that occurs approximately 100 minutes into the movie, with around 8 minutes left of the rest of the film before the ending. The whole movie built up to this one point in the resolution that held the greatest intensity. The very ending showed clips of them with Mr. Gilbertson in their interview at the immigration office to end with them taking the step further to getting married.
I hope you all enjoyed my blog post for this weekend. If you have never seen this film I HIGHLY recommend that you do!! The duo of Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock makes for an outstanding film. This film to me was a great example of Hollywood’s three act structure. I have included a link to a video of the trailer for the movie “The Proposal”. It’s a must see, so see it soon!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFL8b1p1ELY
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