Sunday, July 09, 2017

Script review - "Romancing the Stone" by Diane Thomas

A famous script in part because of Thomas' story - working as a waitress, pitching it to Michael Douglas, selling it, buying a Porsche with her bonus money and dying in a car crash. But on it's own terms it's a grand read. I've heard other writers worked on this but this script I read is credited solely to her and feels like the work of one person. It's a simple, solid adventure tale with a great central idea - romance novelist goes to Columbia to help her kidnapped sister. She's pursued by a nasty Columbian general as well as Ralph, a comical kidnapper (his cousin Ira is the other one) and helped by dashing Jack Colton.

The action scenes are solid rather than spectacular - swinging on a vine across a ravine, running into a ran of the romance novelist - but they're effective and the film has a wonderful light touch.

No comments: