JT's 'stutter'

I know right it's so original I don't know how he came up with it.

I felt bad for Dylan when he had the stutter going on.

I totally relate to the simplified reference, my pet peeve is a medical thing I never see done with any sense of research at all. Talk to a lot of writers and they'll say research is one of the most important parts and other writers shouldn't skimp on it but the reality is a lot of the time its a simple equation of: number of people likely to see movie + number of those people likely to notice we didn't research X at all = extent to which we have to check what we say about X. It can be very vexing when the research opportunity is actually easy to find, easy to access and then easy to get supporting research from to the extent even a typing monkey could logically figure it out [like stuttering, its not like there aren't support networks that could have consulted], but a lot of the time with something specialist and only included for a few seconds whats the point if only a hundred thousand out of a 100M people globally are gonna notice they just made it up. I'd hazard a guess someone involved in the script vaguely knows someone casually who claimed once he had a stutter and in that writers opinion he doesn't seem to have much of a problem, so they'll just show that in the movie and it'll be fine.

Writers are all about brevity, you get writing points for not wasting time, referencing character development in quick succinct details or in the background of scenes about other narrative facts, making it all flow naturally with lots of lovely dimensions expositioned in casual, natural ways. In a writing sense, they'd be patting themselves on the back for letting the audience know this guy used to be super sensitive and vulnerable but also strong enough to work through his problems when he was young and come out the other side unrecognisable, successful, charming but apparently not a genuine type A personality, and oh look here's us calling back that stutter thing for a comedic moment. They'd honestly be thinking this is so qualitative but also efficient, the minus points for not really researching wouldn't occur to most. In the case of this film it might even have been the director or Timberlake himself since apparently the director and leads workshopped, added to and edited the story for about a month before filming. Or worse, the cliche happened, they had more references to it, made it consistent in the story but a dreaded exec got it taken out :p

I'm in agreement with the OP. I think it was a poorly executed example of a stutterer, which shows either lack of research or lack or concern. I'm glad there are people out there like Octamed, but they are far and few between. They are the minority, not the majority. I see it as a poor excuse for a plot device.

To each their own...opinion

Hi Donatien,

First of all, congratulations on maintaining a very interesting thread, with lots of very thought-provoking ideas being shared.

I relate 100% to everything you've said, and I think I'm quite in the same category as you when it comes to stuttering. I'm in my mid-40's today and I think that, with age comes a bit of confidence and the social occasions where I managed not to stutter at all, occurred more frequently. Still, there are the odd occasions where the trigger you've mentioned, comes into play, and I can hardly express myself without sounding like a total retard. It's the worst embarrassment I have to endure from time to time, and I always want to head into the hills when that happens.

So, in the movie, the moment Dylan's sister Annie mentioned his childhood stutter, and knowing screenplays quite well (like you, I studied Drama & Film before), I knew it was setting us audience members up for a stutter-scene to come.

And boy, was I disappointed with what the film delivered. I could hear Timberlake is not a natural stutterer, but that's alright, it was still a decent effort for him as an actor. It just seemed a trifle irrelevant and a bit of a throwaway plot device. Sure, the idea was to portray Dylan as a real guy with real-life problems like the rest of us, and it's also good to see that stuttering is treated with some respect on screen. I appreciate Hollywood portraying that it happens to anyone - also the nice, smart, good-looking ones. I just think the producers could have put it to better and more effective use, than they did.

So, my opinion on this mirror yours: it's a decent movie overall, exceeding my expectations. But, while it's a very minor quibble, the movie would have been better off without the stutter-element. His father's Alzheimers and his hilariously poor grasp of basic maths, were enough to sell the character as a regular guy with regular baggage/problems.

Please click on "reply" at the post you're responding to. Thanks.