Finally able to post about this script.

I never saw the movie, but was remotely familiar with the characters. So I read the script and then watched it (I love Netflix) with my wife who said she hated the movie and was only watching it because I wanted to.

The way the three characters shifted the role of protag back and forth was quite interesting, yet it seemed natural. While Melvyn is clear the main protag, each character has their own distinct story that could actually be a story on it’s own.

With Melvyn, I believe his OCD is both a disorder he has learned to live with and an excuse to treat people anyway he wants; sort of the once you’re in your eighties you tell anyone anything because they’ll just assume you’re suffering from dementia.

Melvyn’s brutal vocal honesty is also a function of his writing – his first draft isn’t always the best voice to speak to people with. It allows him as little contact as possible with the outside world because no one wants to speak with him after their initial encounter. But when he actually wants to have a true conversation with another person, his lack of practice causes him to disrupt every attempt he makes. The OCD only exacerbates the problem – “Do you have hard shells?”

Carol on the other had seems to understand that there is more than a merely cranky person under Melvyn’s exterior. She is able to respond to people’s needs without them actually saying they need something, a trait that makes her a good waitress, and therefore a necessary part of Melvyn’s very existence; without food, he’ll die.

Simon’s character supports Melvyn because in many ways he is a shadow of Melvyn. He is much more alone than he knows and even shares a similar background in his relationship to his father. There is a sense that despite Melvyn’s attempt to one up Simon’s story about his father, Melvyn doesn’t actually tell the whole story about his relationship with his father and that it could potentially rival Simon’s story of being beaten unconscious (it was at point my wife said “Wow. Unfortunately, that actually happens. I don’t remember that line.) Of course the common relationship with Verdell initially brings them together.

Overall, I really enjoyed the script and the movie and my wife enjoyed the movie, too, deciding that she must have tried watching it when the kids were young and she couldn’t focus on the film.

The importance of each character having their own distinct story as well as voice is very clear.

Very interesting analysis.