Movie Reviews for Writers: Throw Momma from the Train

Let’s just kick this off by saying that a comedy based on Strangers on a Train was inspired. And then to cast Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal in the lead roles was pure genius. It doesn’t even matter that they don’t try to hide the inspiration material. 

But as awesome as all that is, to then make them both writers who are foils of each other though both with the same problem ultimately (and not the people they need killed, but the writing problem) is what really makes this movie shine. 

Larry is a college professor whose ex-wife stole his book and published it under her name. Owen is a student in Larry’s creative writing class who is under the thumb of his domineering mother. Neither can write anything worth reading at the moment. Larry is too stymied by jealousy, resentment, and the lofty pursuit of Art with a capital “A.” Owen has a vivid imagination and loads of passion but no grasp of the fundamentals of telling a story. One can put lots of badly strung together words on paper. The other can’t get past the first sentence. 

But both attribute (much like the rest of us) their issues to something outside their control rather than something intrinsic to their natures. For Owen it’s his mom. For Larry it’s his ex-wife. Both are too blind to see they are their own worst enemy. 

So, based on Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Owen gets the idea to swap murders so that neither has a motive. Win-win, right? 

But enough about that. Watch the movie for the plot and laugh until your face is lined with laugh lines. I want to look at what these two buffoons have to teach us about writing. 

As mentioned earlier, Larry can’t get past his first sentence. 

“The night was…” 

(thunder)

“The night was…”

“The night…”

(grunts)

For Larry, it’s not art unless each word is perfectly chosen. The night was humid. No. The night was moist. No. The night was sultry. (Thanks, Mrs. Owen’s mom.)

Until he can get that single word right, he can’t move on. He is paralyzed and can’t move on. For a writing teacher, he apparently never learned the age-old trick of just putting down a word, any word, even a badly chosen, ill-fitting one, and just moving on and coming back to fix it later in the editing stage. 

He even tells Owen later in the movie: 

“That’s writing. It’s finding the perfect word, the perfect beginning, the perfect start. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Now is the winter of our discontent. See what I’m saying? Perfect beginnings. Perfect words.”

He’s so wrapped up in perfection, he can’t (and won’t) actually accomplish anything — particularly anything he couldn’t just fix later. 

Rule #1 is always this: Get the damn story out. Tell it now. Turn it into art later if you must. 

Read the full article:

https://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2022/02/movie-reviews-for-writers-throw-momma.html