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Payne and Taylor's "Chuck and Larry"

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 18, 2007 at 03:27 PM

Everyone knows that Sideways screenwriters Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor worked on a rewrite of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry before it was "Sandlerized." Well, I finally got my hands on a copy of Payne and Taylor's version -- a 136-page revision [dated 8.24.05] of a script originally written by Barry Fanaro based on a treatment by Lew Gallo, and what I read wasn't at all surprising. Theirs is a much better piece. [Warning: Chuck and Larry spoilers ahead.]


Jim Taylor, Alexander Payne

As anyone who's seen Sideways and Election might expect, the Payne-Taylor is way more invested in realism -- recognizable human behavior, logical bits and plot turns, real-seeming textures. It's obviously a "comedy" but the tone is less slap- sticky, more naturalistic. Several scenes in the film are in the Payne-Taylor also, but there's no question that I would have liked their version, had it been shot, a lot more.

For one thing it's much less of a Sandler-esque ego trip (i.e., his Chuck character hasn't nailed his girlfriend's sister and he doesn't enjoy group-sex with a private harem). The girlfriend who chews out Sandler's Chuck in that early scene [see review below] is merely angry at his aloof and uninvolved manner -- his lack of emotional sincerity. And Payne-and- Taylor's Chuck doesn't seduce a female hospital doctor but a sexy TV reporter who's been covering one of the fires he's helped put out. (Sandler obviously felt that making Chuck into a kind of flamboyant Brooklyn cocksman was funny, but in so doing he damaged the credibility...weird.)

A lot of the scenes that made it into the final film are leaner and tighter in the Payne-Taylor version. Where the Sandler-produced, Dennis Dugan-directed movie often feels goofy and fuck-all (like that idiotic scene when the middle-aged house- cleaning woman wakes up between Sandler and David James in their bed), the Payne-Taylor feels disciplined.

There are "refrains" (like Larry saying "going in alive" and Chuck adding "and coming out the same way") that I don't remember from the film. Okay, maybe they're in there and I need to take more Gingko.

I know for sure that the Payne-Taylor is more particular in this and that quirky or interesting way. In the screen version there's a scene in which Jesica Biel's Alex invites Sandler/Chuck, whom she believes to be gay, to feel her breasts, and just before he does she says they're 100% real. In the Payne-Taylor script she says to Chuck that they're fake -- saline-solution implants -- and that they were given to her by a "jerk" plastic surgeon.


A little later in the film there's a Chuck and Alex foot-massaging scene, but for some reason Sander and Dugan didn't use a fascinating bit in which Alex asks Chuck why he's a fireman, and how this affects the way he behaves and sees things. Chuck goes into a riff about how he always notices fire-safety violations and susceptibilities in restaurants and other commercial establishments, and then he ticks off seven danger signals that he's noticed in Alex's apartment. It convinces you that Chuck is a very alert, very serious fireman. (I called a Universal publicist to make sure my memory wasn't remiss, and she agreed that this dialogue isn't in the film.)

There's a scene in which Larry' seven-year-old daughter asks Sandler, who's been put on a different shift than her dad, if she can sleep with him in Chuck and Larry's conjugal bed. He hesitates and says okay. The little girl says she loves him, and he says "me too." Is this scene in the movie? I don't think so. Not in the bed, at least.

In the movie there's a big courtroom finale in which Steve Buscemi's character dares Chuck and Larry to kiss in order to prove they have a passionate relation- ship. They don't. But in the Payne-Taylor script, they do. Unconvincingly. The fact that they don't have a passionate sexual relationship has been made obvious. But the next morning, when Larry admits they're not gay, Payne-Taylor has him give a short speech that I don't remember from the film. Roughly, perhaps, but not word-for-word.

"We're not gay," he begins. "But that doesn't mean we're not married. We have friendship and loyalty and genuine affection. Hell, we even love each other. The only thing we don't have is sex. Well, if you want to invalidate every sexless marriage in this state, I hate to tell you but you ain't gonna have very many married people left."

The sum-up slam-dunk speech given by the fire-station chef (played by Dan Aykroyd in the film) is tougher and more eloquent in the Payne-Taylor. And a Mayor character (the script is set in Philadelphia) gets involved with settling the insurance-benefits situation, partly out of fear of political blowback.

And in the Payne-Taylor, Larry's 11 year-old son Eric, whom the film tells us is almost certainly gay because he's always singing and tap-dancing to Broadway show tunes, is revealed to be happily straight with a new girlfriend called Toni.

It's not just me. I've thought and thought about this, and I know a Payne-Taylor version would have gone over better than the one opening on Friday. I know it. Certainly with the critics and the genuinely serious comedy fans (i.e., the ones who own DVDs of Some Like It Hot and Tootsie and Flirting With Disaster) and high-thread-counters everywhere.

Comments

These two reviews (of the Payne-Taylor script, and the actual film) constitute a nice little double whammy Jeff. These articles are what you claim the Payne script to be: focused, devoid of distracting ego, and dead on. I hope to see more of this sort of thing. I've been one of the first to bitch in the past but a job well done here.

When did Jeremy Piven change his name?

saying things straight: great job mr. welles.


The Payne-Taylor version is the one I'd actually pay to see, even though I don't care much for Sandler and have never paid to see any of his movies.

Too bad. I think he has the potential to evolve and do more interesting work, but I guess he's too lazy.

Oh, and Jessica Biel is hot. Just needed to state the obvious....

does anyone know when or what the next Taylor/Payne project is? Their work is sorely missed...

great write up jeff. i would have seen the version you just described as opposed to the drivel i'll be avoiding this weekend.

Payne & Taylor did thie one and one that comes out next year called "Baby Mama" starring tina fey and amy poehler.

I love Sideways, i hope they return for their own movie.

I agree, nice double whammy take on this off-track mess of a film.

"We're not gay," he begins. "But that doesn't mean we're not married. We have friendship and loyalty and genuine affection. Hell, we even love each other. The only thing we don't have is sex. Well, if you want to invalidate every sexless marriage in this state, I hate to tell you but you ain't gonna have very many married people left."

A lot of this speech was still in the movie, Jeff, maybe changed slightly but mostly there.

I personally don't think it's right to go back to an unused script and say how that one is much better than the finished movie. It's not the film critic's job to review unproduced early draft scripts. If you had a problem with some of the "Sandlerisms" in the movie, that's fine... you just don't like Adam Sandler, but I thought the movie was a solid sum of the parts. I could tell that the storytelling and writing was raised a notch from Sandler's norm but not so much of a departure that it would annoy his fans (you know...the people who've helped most of his movies make more than $120 million in domestic box office? I expect there aren't many critics in that crowd)

Ed, I hear what you're saying, but isn't it also a film critic's job to ponder what the film he's reviewing might have been. Like I said, I've read the script and haven't seen the film yet. What I've heard about the film so far is discouraging, based on the strength of the Payne/Taylor script. It does sound like it's been dumbed down, which is too bad, because the script functioned as a sly social commentary. The gay stuff was a metaphor for something larger. Now it just sounds like it's played for laughs, but not too much laughs, because that would be socially irresponsible. I'm definitely going to see it, but after reading Massawyrm's review on AICN, I feel compelled to lower my expectations. Guess I'll just have to settle for another half-hearted Sandlerized comedy, not that there's anything wrong with that.

the real story is simply why take two of the best (and most successful) writers in film today and chuck out their work for dross.

it's hollywood, jake.

what's with the thread-count obsession??? wells, you crack me up.

I would think that gays would be far more offended by the ten minute clip of Woody Harrelson in THE WALKER on YouTube than by anything in this movie.

What you don't understand Burma is that for some of us who fall under the rubric "the gays" -- well, we find Harrelson sort of a guilty pleasure. Watched the trailer for the film (couldn't find a 10-minute clip -- maybe it was removed) and I find no problem with his performance. He's more convincing playing "gay" than Philip Seymour Hoffman was in CAPOTE

I didn't mean to clump all gays into one group, I hate when people do that (reminds me of Olyphants line in THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB about how his mother is always referring to The Gays as an organization; "The Gays are having a parade), but seriously, who talks like that? I encourage you to seek out the ten minute clip, he sounds like Hannibal Lecter's fey brother. It looks like it could be a decent performance though, once the artifice becomes obvious as a personality choice.

I thought Hoffman did just find in CAPOTE by the way. He wasn't playing gay, he was playing Truman. I thought he and Greenwood had a nice lived-in domestic chemistry. I'm not totally flying blind here. My brother is gay, for the record. Maybe you've met him at one of your Gay Meetings?

//I personally don't think it's right to go back to an unused script and say how that one is much better than the finished movie. It's not the film critic's job to review unproduced early draft scripts.//

On the contrary, serious film critics do this all the time. Take the work of Orson Welles an an example. Books have been written on the various "drafts" of his films. Regarding "The Magnificent Ambersons," elaborate reconstructions have been put together to illustrate how much better his original vision was compared to the final, studio-butchered production.

Wells (Jeffrey) has done a good thing.

MiraJeff, no, because the original Payne/Taylor script isn't readily available to the moviegoing public and the job of the film critic is to service his readers (which I guess in Jeffrey's case, that's us, so that's fine) and not tease them with something that will never be.

Well Wells isn't just a film critic, he's also a film blogger. Is anyone who was making this argument serious, or did you just kind of get stuck in it? It's like a slightly more insane variation on the rule "Never compare to source material". Well if an Ashthon Kutcher version of A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS comes out, directed by Shawn Levy, you can fucking bet it's going to get compared. Same with a Sandlerization of a Payne/Taylor work. What's the issue?

"... Steve Buscemi's character dares Chuck and Larry to kiss in order to prove they have a passionate relationship. They don't. But in the Payne-Taylor script, they do. Unconvincingly."

Well, it sounds as if Will Farrell and Sacha Baron Cohen showed a lot more guts that Sandler.

Why does Sandler insist on wearing that ugly brutally short just got outta basic training haircut all the time? It makes his head look like an egg with a nose. He looked a hell of a lot better with that long Highway 61 Blonde on Blonde Dylan haircut.

"MiraJeff, no, because the original Payne/Taylor script isn't readily available to the moviegoing public and the job of the film critic is to service his readers (which I guess in Jeffrey's case, that's us, so that's fine) and not tease them with something that will never be."

So we're in agreement then? In terms of the parentheticals, I mean, there's a distinction between sites and publications tailored to the interests of cineastes (God I hate that word) and the more mainstream fare like "The Hot Button."

Granted, I WISH this type of insightful review was more predominant in mainstream film criticism. How many times have hateful diatribes been hurled at the credited writer in a scathing review when that individual's original conceit was probably shat all over by the film's director or lead actors?

The last time I can recall a time when Jeff made strong script/film comparisons was for another unfortunate Sandler opus, Fifty First Dates. However, the end result of those articles was the exoneration of the original writer from the mess that the film became.

Great work lately, Jeff.

Seriously. I leave for two weeks then come back and I've missed all the good shit. I see in a previous thread NYCBB is still being his usual boring self however...

Yeah, I just want to echo the sentiment above: I appreciate columns like this one. Thanks, Jeff.

And for those who don't appreciate this commentary, you're doing a disservice to writers and filmgoers. How is pinpointing when it was in the creative process that the film went wrong any less valid than analyzing what is wrong on the screen? I think that's a pretty useful thing to tell filmmakers.

Maybe our taste is not going to win the box office war, but do you expect those of us viewers who appreciate Payne and Taylor's work to just shut up and let them be marginalized in the name of appeasing the perceived lowest common denominator? Fuck that.

I'll also say I appreciate this kind of analysis from Wells.

It's interesting that this thread (about how a script by two respected Oscar winners becomes a Sandler flick) has only 1/2 the action of the thread about the movie itself.

We posters here may considers ourselves the Intellectual Elite of HE.
No, not really.

"I see in a previous thread NYCBB is still being his usual boring self however..."

Harrumph and umbrage, good sir!

BrumaShave's nightmare scenario for HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS seems almost crazy enough to be real.

Please, please tell me you were just riffing.
(Shivers)

welcome back cj. you better get yer tix fast for SKIDOO july 29.

http://www.modsandrockers.com/schedule.200707291930a.html


There's no doubt in my mind that the Payne-Taylor script would have made for a much, much better movie. But the "going in alive" stuff did actually make the final cut -- they say it three or four times over the course of the film.

Thanks Christian. Are you presenting Skidoo at Aero too?

yes, i'll be discussing it at the aero too. we'll have a couple cast members too. we had a sell out great crowd at the egyptian.

Terrific. Looking forward to it. Glad I didn't miss my chance.

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BEST PICTUREAustralia (20th Century Fox), The Argentine (Focus Features), Guerilla (Focus Features), Milk (Focus Features), Seven Pounds (Sony), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount/Warner Bros.), The Soloist (DreamWorks),  Body of Lies (Warner Bros.), Revolutionary Road (Paramount Vantage/DreamWorks), The Changeling (Universal Pictures),  Frost/Nixon (Universal), Doubt (Miramax), Blindness (Universal Pictures), Defiance (Paramount Vantage), The Duchess (Paramount Vantage), Valkyrie (MGM-UA), The Reader (Weinstein Co.)

BEST DIRECTOR: Fernando Meirelles (Blindness), David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon), Brian Singer (Valkyrie), Baz Luhrmann (Australia), Steven Soderbergh (The Argentine and Guerilla), Gus Van Sant (Milk), Gabriele Muccino (Seven Pounds), Joe Wright (The Soloist), Ridley Scott (Body of Lies), Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road), Clint Eastwood (Changeling), John Patrick Shanley (Doubt), Edward Zwick (Defiance), Saul Dibb (The Duchess), Stephen Daldry (The Reader)

BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road), Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Ralph Fiennes (The Duchess), Hugh Jackman (Australia), Tom Cruise (Valkyrie), Harrison Ford (Crossing Over), Sean Penn (Milk), James Franco (Pineapple Express), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Synecdoche, New York), Heath Ledger (Dark Knight), Will Smith (Seven Pounds), Jamie Foxx (The Soloist)

BEST ACTRESS: Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Keira Knightley (The Duchess), Nicole Kidman (Australia)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Leiv Schreiber (Defiance), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), John Malkovich (Changeling and Burn After Reading), Bill Nighy (Valkyrie), Robert Downey Jr. (The Soloist), Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic thunder), James Franco (The Pineapple Express), Alan Alda (Nothing But the Truth)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Meryl Streep (Doubt), Amy Adams (Doubt), Vera Farmiga (Nothing But the Truth)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who (20th Century Fox)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Peter Straughan (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)

SPECIAL EFFECTSIron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

 






Discland
edited by Jonathan Doyle
Cloverfield [BLU-RAY] (Paramount Home Entertainment, 6.3.2008) Disguised under deliberately goofy, yet deliciously edible-sounding, aliases such as Cheese and Slusho, Matt Reeves' Cloverfield was produced and rushed into theaters under an equally appetizing shroud of secrecy. From last year's incredibly elusive Super Bowl ad to the film's viral marketing campaign, Cloverfield had everybody scratching their heads and drooling in anticipation. Aside from the as-yet untitled title and the Blair Witch-ian visual style, the film's biggest appeal was the enigmatic creature who was last (un)seen hurling the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty onto the crowded streets of New York City. All we knew about the mysterious beast was that it was big and angry. Now that the highy-anticipated project has come and gone, one question has fortunately been answered: Cloverfield was a major success. (continued)


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Inside Elsewhere...

The Barenaked Critic

Michelle discovers a couple of comedy films thanks to the power of Netflix.

The Silver Spotlight

Adam joins the Elsewhere crew from the Windy City and hits the ground running this week.

Upcoming


July 2

Hancock

July 3

The Whackness

July 4

Diminished Capacity

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson

Holding Trevor

Kabluey

We are Together

July 9

Full Battle Rattle

July 11

A Man Named Pearl

August

Eight Miles High

Garden Party

Harold

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Meet Dave

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

The Stone Angel

July 18

A Very British Gangster

Before I Forget

The Dark Knight

The Doorman

Felon

Lou Reed's Berlin

Mad Detective

Mamma Mia!

Space Chimps

Take

Transsiberian

July 22

Two Tickets to Paradise

July 23

Boy A