Linda Aronson's 21st Century Screenplay covers this topic in some depth. She calls it multiple protogonost narrative.

oops... that should be *protagonist*.

One of my all-time favourites, with a very strong and intense theme in all the subplots, Magnolia.

You know, it's not Oscar quality, but I think Crazy, Stupid Love, currently in theaters, does an excellent job handling multiple storylines. There's 5 MAJOR characters, all in the end connected with one another but we don't know all of the connections until deep in Act 3.

Steve Carell
Julianne Moore
Ryan Gosling
Emma Stone
Analeigh something or other (who's the babysitter with a crush on Carell)
The boy playing Carell's adolescent son.
(There's also a part played marvelously by Marisa Tomei, but it's just a notch less major than the others.)

As would be expected, with that many characters, there are a number of storylines going on:

- Steve Carell & Julianne Moore's marriage
- Julianne's short fling with Kevin Bacon that broke up the marriage
- Ryan Gosling coaches Steve Carell in picking up women
- Ryan Gosling/Emma Stone will they/won't they
- Emma's no-good vanilla boyfriend storyline
- Steve Carell's son's infatuation with the babysitter
- Steve Carell's son's efforts to get Carell & Moore back together
- Analeigh's (babysitter) infatuation with Steve Carell
- Marisa Tomei as part of the coaching Steve Carell/Carell marriage - won't say any more, as it would be spoilery

As I wrote out all of those storylines, it got me to thinking. Some of them would be the stuff of the entire story in your more standard romcoms, say, the Emma Stone/Ryan Gosling, first she turns him down, then she comes back for him when she's disappointed elsewhere.

The storylines are good, but a bit slender - with the exception of the Carell/Moore marriage, no world will end, just the babysitter's crush will go unrequited. But, with several stories going, they each add heft to the other - and because the characters are all related, they build a believable world and society.

I think more romcoms should try this multiple protagonist strategy. So many of them have such a slender story line which they fill out with various corny or slapstick scenes. I don't know quite how to explain it, but combining several stories with relatively low "stakes" seemed to add up to more than the sum of their parts. Not sure I'm analyzing it right, but anyway...fun, entertaining, (not great art) movie!

Duh...English major here. SIX MAJOR characters in Crazy, Stupid Love, not counting Marisa Tomei (and she's a smash.)

Not sure multi-linear is a great term to describe this.

Movies like Crash generally hang together on a thematic thread.

Ensembles usually have a plotline and character that steps into the forefront. Like AMERICAN GRAFFITI, it's really bent on Richard Dreyfus's story -- even though all the stories share equal weight and screentime.

If you look at something like LOST, it is multi-linear, but it doesn't really hold together on anything other than plot.

I also think LOST (HEROES, as well) are examples of having too many characters that end up hindering the story in the long run.

Particularly in TV, audience members bond with the characters. They want to see their favorite characters every week. HEROES rotated characters to the point that almost all the MAIN CHARACTERS ended up in every other week's episode. It became frustrating for the view.

I really think that's the biggest problem with constructing something like this -- it's very easy to create redundant or unnecessary characters.

When it's done well, it's terrific (I like CRASH. A lot). When it's done poorly, it's beyond frustrating, gritting your teeth to get through one storyline you hate to get to the one you love.

Love Actually. Richard Curtis did a great job creating characters that we cared about in ten interweaving story lines. You have to get to the point much quicker in a script like this. No time for developing, really. It's the epitome of the "get in late, leave early" rule when creating scenes.

A little late, but try reading American Pie. I know it's seen as a dumb comedy, but the script is incredibly well written. Also, it was a box-office smash, so it's a good one to look at.

I suppose Jim is the true protagonist, but there are more or less four main male characters, and all of them have a distinct romantic subplot. However, the subplots are all connected through the constant theme of the movie (which is losing their virginity), and it's executed really well.

Also, you could try looking at Election, which has three main characters who provide narration (although Matthew Broderick's character gets a bit more of the focus than Witherspoon or Klein).

Another movie with

One of the reasons I like to work with the five primary character archetypes -- Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, Trickster -- is because you can learn so much about each main character by switching Protagonists.

Classic example is The Silence of the Lambs:

P = Clarice
N = Buffalo Bill
A = Catherine Martin (kidnap victim)
M = Hannibal Lecter
T = Dr. Alex Chilton

Switch it so Lecter is the Protag:

P = Lecter
N = Chilton
A = Clarice
M = Buffalo Bill
T = Jack Crawford

Now Buffalo Bill as Protag:

P = BB
N = Clarice
A = Female version of Buffalo Bill (visualized in the weird dance scene he does in front of the video camera)
M = Moths (represent transformation)
T = Catherine Martin

Great tool for character development.