MovieChat Forums > The Leisure Class (2015) Discussion > Timeline Makes NO Sense

Timeline Makes NO Sense

posted 8 years ago by ronineditor
4 replies | jump to latest

I posted something similar on the Project Greenlight forum but the timeline of this film made ZERO sense. Didn't any executive or anyone go, "Hmmm... wait a minute, at what time in the night do these events happens?"

Dusk - 9PM? -- Party. It starts in broad daylight, then goes on into the night so we can assume it's at least until 9pm. (This should have been a brunch, to make time for the rest of the things.)

11PMish -- Bedtime, the younger sister (for whatever reason we haven't seen yet) wants to chat with the brother. Instead, the brother wants to drink.

12AMish -- The family arrives at some random party (which isn't exciting enough) where 12 people are sitting on a couch drinking, then people start falling into the pool as the "chaos"? The level of "chaos" is soooo forced and it's barely anything. This should be like the film, "Neighbors," with speed ramps, neon, etc. Nah, just boring people sitting around.

1AMish -- Then, after the party, the brother takes a car and gets into a fender-bender... where a guy is parked on the side of the street at that hour? Why in the hell would someone be parked on the side of the street? (I'm assuming this isn't how it was supposed to be but it's what they showed... I'm sure he was supposed to have been driving.) A fender-bender is what's going to "bring the family down"? That's what the dad is freaked-out about?

3AMish -- Everyone gets home but, the day before the wedding, now the dad wants to interrogate Charlie!? Any real life person would want to go to bed or they would have already done this BEFORE the pre-wedding party... but if not, show someone handing him some documents!!! Then, it ups the stakes, like, we know the dad has something on him.

4AMish -- Charlie's random confession to family who's still awake. Huh?

4:30-5:30AM -- The basement interrogation and just mouth vomit of unprompted random exposition.

8AM -- People are waking up, not tired, having a pillow fight, watching the wedding being set up. Then the wedding goes off a couple hours later!?

I mean... come the hell on. This is supposed to be ONE NIGHT!? Then they should have started way earlier to have it make any kind of sense and I can't fathom how a director or a producer or a network executive couldn't put this simple timeline together and go, "Yeah... this is just stupid."

Plus, every character was not likable or relatable. Right out of the gate, Charlie and the soon-to-be wife are constantly kissing. I mean, is that how we show they like each other? I can imagine Jason; "Um, just kiss... a lot... I believe that is what humans do to show this thing called love." Then the brother comes in and it's just a lotta smoke, not much fire. Like, oh, something's going down!! Oh, not really. NOBODY IS DEVELOPED!!!!!! Oh, the sister is a politician? SHOW IT. The sister is a lawyer? SHOW IT!! It's just talking heads the whole time.

The problem is the ridiculous over-reaction to the smallest plot point and we're all supposed to be along for 'the ride' when it's not a ride at all.

- Brother shows up (how in the hell did he get an invitation if "Charlie" wasn't using his real name!!!!?)
- They go to a small get-together
- A car is crashed
- The dad points a gun at them in the basement
- The end.

Buckle up.

And, btw... a real director doesn't need to over-score every... single... scene. My God. Like, it's not funny but if make the lame needle-drop score REALLY LOUD IT'LL BE FUNNY!!!!! Nope.

[–] chas437 8 years ago

 That was hilarious. Its like the screenplay was written by a 13 year old kid who's watched a lot of 80s movies and now wants to be a director.

[–] ronineditor 8 years ago

Hahaha, right? Like, even the 80's "out all night" films always had two golfen rules which this lacked;

1) Time of their lives and/or one last night out before settling down
2) Timeline made sense and was plausible

[–] edhubie-807-69066 8 years ago

Honestly it wasn't that bad. It isn't great either but it was watchable which is more then I can say for alot of other movies that got alot more money and time to be made that are so bad I have to shut it off cause I can't take another minute of it. I won't name any names (Ridiculous 6) whoops. I can see the vision Jason Mann was going for here but it did have a lot of inconsistent tone that maybe put me off at times. Like things getting dark to be cut suddenly by something funny. Sometimes it's better to keep it dark in the whole scene in a dark comedy and then lighten it back up in a scene shortly after the dark moment. Allows you to absorb it more slowly and take it in. Accept that this is a serious direction the movie wants you to feel before moving on instead of being serious then funny then serious all in the same scene it gets to be too much. I felt like it was a short that was rushed to be a movie and if you saw the documentary you realize it was just that. Had they had a little more time for more rewrites I think they could have fine tuned it more gave it more direction made the main character more relatable. I felt it needed more back story with Fiona it would've gave her story more substance. Or stronger scenes between her and her dad to show the tension or resentment she felt towards him. Actually I felt the whole family needed a little more attention. Fionas mom was so dull and basically just there to fill in space or a part for most of the movie and it wasn't till the end that she got interesting and by that time the movie was at the start of its conclusion. I really could see the greatness or the vision I think Mann was trying here I just felt the constraints and short time he had really kept it from evolving. Not the short time to make the movie. I seen great movies get made in that time. More time in the writing part. Draft having others read it then rewrite etc. I also don't think the difference between film or digital really mattered for this type of movie the scenes were shot well but not enough to be a difference of better or worse if in digital or film.

[–] JaeBianca 8 years ago

To me, it felt more like a play, than an 80s movie.

BTB, Leonard explained that William had written their Uncle about the wedding, and presumably obtained "Charles'" return address from the envelope. So, it is entirely possible for him to not know any details about his situation.