REVIEW: lou

LOU - screenplay analysis. Now streaming on #Netflix. #SpoilerAlert

Very on the nose. Leans towards the dramatic as the story builds. This is a follow the clues and capture the bad guy to save the girl story with a twist that should pull at your heartstrings but ultimately falls flat. 

A moment they got right. Plant + Reveal
- Lou is the landlord for Hannah and her daughter Vee. Hannah and Lou don't care for each other. Lou is planning to kill herself and writes her suicide letter. She doesn't say who the letter is addressed to but because of the inclusion of the house in the letter, we now assume she's writing to Hannah. This is the reveal that Hannah is connected to Lou. We later learn that she's Hannah's husband's mother. 

Critique:
- I'm not a cinematographer, so I could be totally off here. The camera choice affects tone. Because this film is so visually clear playing a little too close to how TV shows visually feel, it lightened the tone for me. It lessened the stakes of every scene. The music tried to fill in the gaps, but failed to me. 
- Seems LOU was only a period piece to lessen the opportunity for communication ie cellphones. They used the proximity of the war as a possible reason, but we've had other wars since then so...

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author

Shannan E. Johnson is a former creative executive at The Syfy Channel turned CEO + Head Consultant of The Professional Pen, a script consultancy that develops screenwriters from idea to pitch to become more confident storytellers ready for a professional screenwriting career, and consults with scripted development teams at entertainment companies to streamline their notes process to get to pre-production more efficiently.