Misleading synopses


This might sound like nitpicking, but ... it annoys me that nearly every synopsis of this movie contains a misleading plot description. If you have not yet seen the film, here is a warning -- SPOILER ALERT!! Are you alerted now? Good. Every short description of this movie says it is about a boy and "his sister" when, as those of us who have seen the movie know, it turns out that she is not his sister. I understand the need to preserve the surprise in the film, but there are ways to do that without outright lying in these descriptions. For example: "a family of two."

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I don't think it's misleading to refer to her as a sister because the behaviour between them is more sister-brother than mother-child. This is part of what contributes to the shock of discovering she's his mother.

Movement ends, intent continues;
Intent ends, spirit continues

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I disagree. If I behave toward you as a "kindly uncle," that does not make me, in fact, your uncle. When I learned that Louise was his mother, my first reaction was surprise, and my second reaction was anger at the lies told in those synopses.

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That's ok because I disagree with you. You are not distinguishing fact from relationship. If someone behaves as an uncle or sister then that is the relationship regardless of the genetic fact of the connection.

Movement ends, intent continues;
Intent ends, spirit continues

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But you are confusing the intentions of the filmmakers with the job of a synopsis writer. It's entirely understandable that the director and screenwriter would treat the Simon-Louise relationship as brother-sister. I understand that. But when your job is to write a synopsis of a film for the general reader, you don't have that artistic license -- you are supposed to stick to the facts, period. As I said in my original post, there are ways to do that without giving away plot twists. This is simply lazy writing, and I'm surprised you don't get that.

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Your analogy doesn't fit. If you are passing yourself off to the world as the real uncle of someone who is in fact not your uncle and the entire film is about your relationship which the whole world sees up to a certain point as uncle-nephew, then it is completely appropriate to depict the relationship as such until proven otherwise. If we knew from the film's beginning that you were merely a "kindly uncle" and not a real uncle, that would be different and I'm sure reviewers would acknowledge it as such.
That said, reviewers make real mistakes all the time. I've seen Ebert for example often mistakenly represent the relationships, saying someone is a boyfriend who is actually a husband or vice versa, or that someone is a sister-in-law who bears another relationship instead. You do have to recognize, as sloppy as it is on their part, that reviewers are for reasons that do baffle me often perhaps drifting off during some scenes they watch amid their overload of film-watching and getting some stuff wrong. But your chosen pique here is not such a case.
To the contrary, I was impressed that the reviewers held their tongues as well as they did in not spoiling the film (they too often do not). It is absolutely essential that a filmgoer enter the film taking their relationship precisely in the way they themselves present it to the world - and that is as siblings, not as an abstract "family of two" or anything else.
Personally, I learned long ago not to read reviews until after seeing a film, which does make for recognizing the prevalence of mistakes reviewers make - but at least those mistakes didn't spoil the film for me, that is, spoil my ability to enter the film and follow its revelations, its intentional misleads, etc., just as the director intended - and if the director was competent (along with screenplays and actors) in carrying out his intentions, then it will succeed in giving me the full emotional as well as sometimes intellectual experience that a reviewer should never pre-empt - unless it's a review intended for review by those who have already seen the film - which is how I view imdb board discussions.

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LOL. Wonder who you are voting for in the Presidential election. Good luck finding someone who doesn't lie.

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What an ignorant comment. "Try doing what they do"? -- What, write a simple one-paragraph description of a show without lying? I've already done that. Go back to your kindergarten.

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I don't think it's important how a reviewer describes the film or Simon's relationship to Louise because the film never makes it makes this absolutely clear, but 'sister or mother' works, and it might even be better to leave it to the viewer.

Louise's character is so unstable that she might have told Simon that she was his mother, and then changed her story, and told him that she was his sister at various stages in their relationship.

One could make the case that that their relationship is intentionally left ambiguous because it makes their social and economic situation even more precarious and insecure. Obviously Louise knows, but Simon might not, and he is certainly a character who doesn't have any self esteem or a clear sense of identity. And, Louise is obviously unstable enough to never commit to telling him the truth.

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This might sound like nitpicking, but ... it annoys me that nearly every synopsis of this movie contains a misleading plot description.


I know! How dare they not mention the big plot twist in the description! I still can't get over how The Matrix's synopsis doesn't mention that Neo is leaving in a virtual world, or how Fight Club's synopsis doesn't mention that Tyler Durden isn't real.

You see where I'm going with this, right?

Don't try to cash in love, that check will always bounce.

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You completely missed my point. If you're writing a movie synopsis, you should be able to describe the film without giving away plot twists AND without telling an outright lie. You do see where I went with that, right?

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Yeah I get what you mean, it's technically a lie, but it's on purpose. For the entire first hour the two characters pretend to be brother and sister, it is only half way through that it's revealed they're in fact mother and son and it comes as a total shock/surprise only because it's not spoiled in the description, as you would prefer.

What you are not getting is that if you had gone into this film knowing their true relationship it would have painted your entire perception of the characters very differently.

Again, it's like if the synopsis of Star Wars mentions that Luke must rescue his sister from their evil father, it's important to keep your reveals a secret even if you must mislead or lie in your synopsis. I didn't have a problem with it at all and would have done the same thing if I were in charge of writing the synopsis.

Don't try to cash in love, that check will always bounce.

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I give up, because you STILL don't get my meaning. Where, exactly, did I ever write that I "would prefer" that the nature of their true relationship be given away in the synopsis? That's right -- I didn't. If you would go back and read my previous comments, which I doubt that you will do because I suspect you just enjoy arguing, you will see that I wrote an example of a synopsis that would have worked fine without being a spoiler and without lying. Now please just go away, because I'm tired of trying to explain things to you.

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I give up, because you STILL don't get my meaning. Where, exactly, did I ever write that I "would prefer" that the nature of their true relationship be given away in the synopsis? That's right -- I didn't. If you would go back and read my previous comments, which I doubt that you will do because I suspect you just enjoy arguing, you will see that I wrote an example of a synopsis that would have worked fine without being a spoiler and without lying. Now please just go away, because I'm tired of trying to explain things to you.


You called the synopsis misleading and said they shouldn't have lied. So how exactly are they supposed to explain the relationship between Louise and Simon? Saying anything other that they are mother and son would still be misleading by your own admission.

I would like you to write a version of the synopsis that doesn't give away their true relationship and doesn't come off as a lie/misleading that also doesn't make the films title seem confusing.

Don't try to cash in love, that check will always bounce.

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Holy crap, how do these guys not get it? Like you said in the ORIGINAL POST "a family of two" is a simply way to describe them without lying or giving away the twist, though there's probably even better terms to use.

So yeah, I totally get what you're saying but personally, I don't care that the synopsis is misleading because ultimately it made the film more enjoyable. Also the film title in english is Sister and the original french title still makes you think she's an older sibling too. I don't think the film makers would mind that synopsis at all.

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If I read "family of two," I don't think of two siblings, I think of a single parent and child. To me that would blow the surprise. Given that its English title is "Sister," I see no problem with them referring to her as a sister - it's what we're supposed to believe at the outset of the movie anyway.

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Who gives a s h !! T?

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