I'd like to cite some sides of dialogue. Here's how the movie begins, Jean in V.O.:
Jean (V.O.): Eddie and Jean met and fell in love. Eddie and Jean got married and bought a house. Eddie and Jean were gonna have a kid but…
I'd like to cite some sides of dialogue. Here's how the movie begins, Jean in V.O.:
Jean (V.O.): Eddie and Jean met and fell in love. Eddie and Jean got married and bought a house. Eddie and Jean were gonna have a kid but didn't. So, every morning, Eddie kisses Jean, Eddie leaves the house, and Jean's alone.
That is a succinct way of establishing Jean's character at the beginning of the story.
This next side is one I noted earlier in the week. It comes after Jean has talked her way out of a tense situation with a cop. After the cop departs, she turns to Cal and says:
Jean: I didn’t know I could lie like that.
This marks a turning point in Jean's transformation, speaking to a surprising ability to do what she needs to do to survive. And this moment establishes a baseline for her journey which is, indeed, one of survival.
There is nifty callback at the very end of the script.
She inhales, then opens her eyes. Looks back at Paul.
JEAN (CONT'D)
Okay Paul. We’re gonna... we’re
gonna play a game, okay? You have
to close your eyes, and you can’t
open them until I say so, got it?
Paul nods again.
JEAN (CONT'D)
And once I tell you to open them,
you can’t look back, okay?
----
INT. MIKE’S CAR - SAME
Jean gets in. She puts the KEY in the ignition, fumbling a bit as she does.
She pauses there a moment. Goes to TURN AROUND --
PAUL
You’re not supposed to look back.
----
She turns her eyes forward and STARTS THE CAR.
She DRIVES.
^^^^
"You're not supposed to look back." As I say, a callback and, of course, a layer of unintentional subtext from Paul: "Jean, look forward in life, not what you've had to do to survive."
There's a lot of memorable dialogue in the script. Here are some thoughts from co-writer Julia Hart via a 2013 Go Into The Story interview I conducted with her:
"Character development for me is all through dialogue. I think about the idea of who this person is, what their job is, where they live, what they look like. But, the development for me really comes through figuring out what they say and how they say it... I write a ton and then I’ll cut a bunch of it out. I’ll write like seven lines where there needs to be one and just cut around that one right line and keep going. I find their voices by having them say too much, by writing down every thought that would be in their head and then cutting off the fat."
Here is the link to that interview with Julia Hart:
https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/interview-julia-hart-2012-black-list-2c34c2c9a4d3