This is topic Why try to make me feel sympathetic towards an unsympathetic protagonist? in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.
I've just watched two movies, both comedies, in which the respective protagonists were astoundingly unlikable, awful, vile people.
And there's nothing wrong with that! Some of the great comedic masterpieces have featured unsympathetic protagonists...John Cleese's Basil Fawlty perhaps being the most iconic example. Horrible human beings can, done right, be very funny.
Yet these two films tried to do something that took me right out of the movie. They tried to make the protagonist sympathetic, by pulling the old "Oh my gosh! He was just a lost little lamb on the inside" trick in one case and "Oh, he was a good guy deep down inside all along, even if none of his thoughts words or actions ever seemed that way, didn't you realize it?" in the other case.
Both scenes clashed with the entire rest of their respective films. Both worked a sort of reverse alchemy...the comedic gold of the rest of the films suddenly became leaden. Both characters now seemed like pathetic losers and failures who were painful to watch. I don't think this was the intent.
I don't know. I suspect the film makers felt the need to force the audience to like the main characters. But it takes far more than one scene to make something like that pan out. And the nature of the humor all throughout needs to be altered. One couldn't laugh at Basil Fawlty if we suddenly were required to feel sorry for him.
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
What were the two movies?
--Enigmatic
Posted by Saephon (Member # 9623) on :
I think the formula of "vile, sociopath protagonist that really has a sweet center deep down" needs to be tossed in the trash more. I find myself enjoying TV shows, books, and movies with main characters who really are just...unsympathetic. They don't even HAVE to be jerks; some of the more interesting people are the ones who just live life for themselves, or have a skewed/apathetic viewpoint on life. I think there's this assumption that in order for a story to be likeable or I should say, enjoyable, the protagonist has to be as well. But I don't feel the two need to be linked all the time like that. I mean, I love Death Note and adore Scrubs, but I really am not a fan of Light Yagami or J.D.'s choices as people. There's nothing really wrong with the cliche I guess; it's just lame when it feels forced, or if it detracts from the humor or plot.
What films were you watching by the way?
Posted by Rakeesh (Member # 2001) on :
Right now the person I'm unsympathetic to is the thread starter, for not telling us what the movies were:p
My guess is one of them is that movie about the jerky dentist who can speak to dead people. Though I'm not sure it's out yet.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I'm reminded of what htey did in Wedding Singers. Those two guys were jerks, but they turned the girl's fiance from a super too nice guy into a jerk to make one of the guys more sympathetic, then he went from a womanizing goon to a love sick wuss, and it was just an annoying movie.
40 Year Old Virgin was better.
Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
You mean Wedding Crashers. The Wedding Singer is freaking hilarious.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
quote:Originally posted by AvidReader: You mean Wedding Crashers. The Wedding Singer is freaking hilarious.
Oh yeah. I love Wedding Singer. Wedding Crashers is the one that annoys me.
Posted by rollainm (Member # 8318) on :
So. Puffy. Are you just gonna to leave us hangin' here?
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
Is there a trope name for "WRITER: An then the character does this, and the audience realizes that this was motivating him all along, so the audience's sympathies change completely! AUDIENCE: The hell you say"?
Posted by stihl1 (Member # 1562) on :
I felt the same way when watching the Star Wars prequals. Nothing the actors did gave me any reason to be sympathetic toward their characters, especially Anakin.