Also Important But...

I went to a Ben Affleck movie and there was a Matt Damon trailer before it began and...

Wait, you know, there's some serious shit going down in the world these days. You should be paying attention to those things instead of the frivolous little thing I'm about to tell you. Go read Bossy's comprehensive yet accessible primer on Egypt and what's going on there. Go read the Feministing round up of information on HR3, the bill that the GOP is concentrating on right now instead of on the economy or jobs or anything they talked about in their campaigns. Short version is that it's going to restrict (read: near eliminate) federal funding for abortion and it had language in it that was going to redefine the federal use of the word rape to include only instances in which the woman was beaten in conjunction with the rape, then they took that out because lo many women asked, "I'm sorry, what? So unless he punches the shit out of me the forcible introduction of his penis into my orifices doesn't count as rape?" And the GOP said, "Shhhhhhhh!" And then they took that specific language out but they're still trying to get all up in my cunt AND by even introducing it they've proved that it's not really about the fetuses, it's about devaluing women, which is what I've been saying all along. Whew!

Then when you're done with that stuff and feeling properly informed, not to mention despondent, come back here and read this fluff.

I was indeed seeing The Company Men this afternoon and there were many previews and one of them was for a Matt Damon/Emily Blunt movie and it got me to thinking. What is the most intense, truthful, important exchange between a romantically inclined couple on screen? You might think it would be the I love you part or the I can't live without you one or the one where he stands outside her window holding up a boom box and playing Peter Gabriel tunes. It isn't.

The most important exchange between an on screen couple is the following. They are at an impasse. There is time pressure in the form of a chase or a plan or a pregnancy in progress. Finally one half of the couple takes the other by the hand, looks intensely into his or her eyes and says, "I need you to trust me." There's a beat, sometimes more, hell sometimes they walk away and come back a week later but eventually, usually quite soon, especially in the event of the chase scenario, the other person takes a deep breath and....nods.

If you want to grab your audience, if you want your characters and their connection to be believable, you don't do it with love, you do it with trust.

Seems like that's something we might want to keep in mind out here in the regular, non-celluloid, world as well.