CONFLICT: CLASS ACTION, THE INDIAN RUNNER, WHAT ABOUT BOB?
It's often been said over the years that conflict is the essence of drama. I'm sure if I thought real hard I could come up with good dramatic stories that didn't involve conflict, but it'd be hard. The conflict doesn't necessarily have to be obvious, but it should be there. In regular stories, conflict can take many shapes and forms, but in the movies, it's usually between two people - although that two person conflict may in of itself represent something more. Three examples of one-on-one conflict were Michael Apted's CLASS ACTION, Sean Penn's THE INDIAN RUNNER, and Frank Oz's WHAT ABOUT BOB?
"Class action" is the term used for the type of lawsuit when a group of people go after a large company, usually for some kind of negligence, and that's the case in this film. But Apted and writers Christopher Ames, Samantha Shad, and Carolyn Shelby make that conflict parallel to a father/daughter conflict. Unfortunately, despite the issues raised, the story is so obvious that the conflict doesn't really register.
The father/daughter team here are Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Hackman is Jedediah Ward, a Melvin Belli-type attorney who is known for his radical causes and his championing of the underdog. Mastrantonio is Maggie Ward, who's a corporate lawyer, and who hates her father for cheating on her mother Estelle (Joanna Merlin). The conflict comes when Ward inherits a class action suit against Argo Motors (one of their old cars is defective, and may explode), who happen to be represented by Maggie's firm. She wants the case, and Jed doesn't want her to take it. Do I have to mention that Maggie's boyfriend Michael (Colin Friels) is her superior? And that both Argo and her firm (and her boyfriend) are hiding information from her? And that father and daughter will become reconciled, and that justice is served?
To be fair, Apted does go into character depth a little more than these movies sometimes do, and he and the writers resist the urge to employ cheap thriller tactics (the two sides in the movie each employ tricks, but that's another story). And before they're shown to be the louses they really are, there's even an attempt to give humanity to Michael and Fred Quinn (Donald Moffat), the boss of the law firm. But there's one scene that typifies what's wrong with this movie, even though it's an excellent scene by itself. When Estelle dies, Jed and Maggie have dinner together, and go through her old stuff. What starts out as a teary but happy walk down memory lane becomes a fight when their conflict takes over. As a scene, it's developed naturally, and well acted. As part of the movie, however, you can actually see the screws turning here, and the obligatory conflict, which deflates the impact somewhat.
Latest Articles