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Tick Tock
Hollyfeld, here. I have the pleasure of reviewing a new script for all of you lucky people, and indeed lucky you will be when Tick Tock is made. Written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, Tick Tock is an excellent and suspenseful script that recalls the heyday of Alfred Hitchcock with its unique take on an old premise, backed up by involving characters and a clever storytelling device.
Tick Tock tells the story of FBI Agent Sinclaire (everyone calls her Claire), a hard-boiled, cynical woman whose Christmas Eve is ruined this year because a mad bomber has placed bombs all around the L.A. area, and left a cryptic message stating that they are placed "where no one who knows the true meaning of Christmas will be." She has only one lead - an amnesiac man who may (or may not) be the bomber. They have no way of telling for sure if he is the maniac, but Claire realizes that he's still the FBI's best chance of finding the bombs, and so drags him around town with her, trying to jog his memory. In his current amnesiac state, the man seems perfectly willing to assist the FBI in stopping the bombs, but what happens when he starts getting his memory back? Can he be trusted at all?
The manic (and geographically accurate) rush around L.A. in the course of a day is a strong enough device for most action films, but Tick Tock also has the cajones to tell its story in real time. That is, for every minute we'll be in the theater, the characters in the film will experience only one minute of time. This is not an entirely new device - Hitchcock attempted it fifty years ago in Rope, and more recently it has been featured in Nick of Time, starring Johnny Depp and the underseen Running Time, starring Bruce Campbell - but unlike most films that attempt to use it, Tick Tock does not use it as a fallback mechanism. At no point does the technique seem forced or gimmicky... rather, telling the story in real time forces the writers to work economically, and results in a script where nothing is wasted. Every scene, no matter how small, has an important role in the overall narrative, and no line of dialogue seems trivial. This contributes to a increased intensity that could very well propel Tick Tock to the top ranks of the best thrillers of its kind (the certainly the best since Speed).
If the characters are weak, however, no film can truly prosper. Luckily, Tick Tock has two of the better written action characters in recent memory at its helm: Agent Claire and Crosby, a name that becomes attached to the amnesiac. The way the two play off of each other is reminiscent of such classic pairings as Robert Rodat and Carol in Hitch's The 39 Steps, or even the great Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) in The Thin Man series. The latter comparison is seemingly invited by the screenwriters in the two quotes that precede the storyline in this draft:
"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."
- Henry Louis Mencken"The next person that says Merry Christmas to me, I'll kill them."
- Nora Charles, The Thin Man
The two quotes effectively encapsulate the characters of Crosby and Claire, with Claire as an incurable pessimist and Crosby as the optimist who finds (plausible) time to understand her while they search for the bombs. Hopefully Tick Tock's director will realize how crucial the chemistry between Claire and Crosby is to the success of the final film here, because the way the duo plays off of each other is dynamic and a pleasure to read. However, even though Claire considerably warms to Crosby as the story moves along, the writers give us no doubt in our minds that Claire would not hesitate to kill Crosby at the drop of a hat if he reverts to his alleged psycho-bomber self. Also strong are Crosby's reactions to being accused of a series of horrible crimes (whose bloody aftermaths he is forced to witness due to being dragged around by Claire) - devoid of his memories, Crosby spends most of the film unaware of any wrongdoings he may have committed, and seems to be a genuinely good person. His guilt and fear that the accusations might be true are powerful and remarkably engaging. We really hope he didn't do it by the end.
And while we're talking about the ending, it behooves me to mention that some might find it unsatisfying. The authors attempt to pull an old-fashioned "bet you didn't see that one coming" finale on us, and while it is very well-handled, thrilling, and will no doubt be a blast to watch, I have a feeling that some may wish that Tick Tock had "gone the full nine yards," as it were. The script seems to build up to a certain ending, and then takes a huge risk in deciding to go in a different direction almost at the last minute. The current conclusion would no doubt be the happier of the two, and again is well handled, but I myself would have liked to see the conclusion go a bit further down the road we anticipated, and I think that others might agree with me.
With the right director (*COUGHjandebontthisisyourchanceCOUGH*) and the right actors, Tick Tock could very well turn out to be a classic suspense thriller, and it's all because of a deftly written screenplay from Bagarozzi & Mondry. Memorable characters, unique premise and great action scenes... this is what writing thrillers is all about, people.
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
