Premise: Two best friends who live on the small island of Corsica choose different paths in life, one as an honest working man, the other as a gangster.
About: This was the second rated script on The Brit List. Neil Purvis and Rob Wade wrote Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Corsica is the fourth biggest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Napolean Bonaparte was born there.
Writer: Neil Purvis and Rob Wade
Corsica circa todaySo I’ve been reading through this Brit List the last few days and I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. A lot of these scripts have their share of strengths, but I'm yet to find one that's consistently good all the way through. There’s been some discussion in the comments section that the Brit List is mirroring the The Black List and becoming more a marketing tool than an honest assessment of the best scripts of the year. I would hate for that to be the case (with both lists) but I guess on some level it was inevitable. The same thing happened with Sundance. If you had a mess of a film applying for entry but it had Robert DeNiro and Ed Norton in it, are you really going to say no to a couple of academy award winning actors? The Brit List does sort of read like a “Here’s what all the top UK writers are working on now" rundown. The argument for the list would be that the number one script is by a relative unknown, right? I mean, how would George Kay have any power in getting his script to the top of the heap (or is George Kay super famous in the UK?)? It should also be noted that scripts by lesser-known writers aren't going to get into as many voters' hands. I'm going to try to get through this thing but it's hard mustering up any enthusiasm at this point. I need a script to get me excited again. For your enjoyment, I’ve listed the premises of the Brit List scripts I know about:
Anthony Belcher – The unluckiest man in the world is offered seven free days of perfect luck.
Corsica 72 - Two best friends who live on the small island of Corsica choose different paths in life, one an honest life, the other, a life of crime. (Godfather on an island?)
Now Is Good – A 17 year old girl dying of cancer creates a dark bucket list, then meets a boy she falls in love with. (A bit too “A Walk To Rememberish” maybe?)
Salmon Fishing In The Yemen - A henpecked civil servant is sent to introduce salmon to the Yemen. (High praise for Beaufoy but is this not the most unappealing title in the history of movies?)
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – Don’t know much about this one other than that it seems to take place in an old folk’s home. (How can this be better than Winter’s Discontent?)
I Wish I Wish – A stuck-up beautiful wife who’s had everything handed to her in life, joins the “Make A Wish” Foundation for dying children, and starts to fall for the father of one of the children. (teenagers dying wasn’t enough. Now we have to take out the children)
Conviction – An adaptation of the 2004 BBC TV crime series. Two police officer brothers cross the line while investigating the murder of a 12 year old girl.
Eurovision - A project for Working Title from "Bruno" and "Borat" writer Dan Mazer, focusing on the bizarre ritual of the Eurovision song contest, an annual festival of kitsch... This would not be a faux-documentary, but rather a more traditional movie.
Under the Skin - Hitchhikers in Scotland are abducted by aliens. (I’ll be reading this next)
Grabbers - A comedy-horror set in Ireland, in the vein of "Tremors" and "Gremlins," from a first time writer. (it actually surprises me that more movies like Gremlins haven’t been made)
Red Circle - A remake of Jean-Pierre Melville's classic crime film, "Le Cercle Rouge.”
A Trap For Cinderella - A woman survives a house fire but is burnt beyond recognition. (Hmm, this one sounds particularly uplifting)
What Was Lost - A shopping center is haunted by a 10 year old girl. (This might be one to save for Halloween Week).
Cosica 72 is one of the better scripts I’ve read from this year’s list but it’s not without its faults. It follows best friends Marco and Sauveur, who lived on the Mediterranean island of Corsica in the 1970s. They’re on the cusp of adulthood and about to go their separate ways. For Sauveur, that entails a simple life on the island. For Marco, it means joining his Uncle Luis in the mafia. Before they split up though, they both fall in love with the same girl, the stunning Lucia. Marco is the brave one, diving head first into the battle for her heart. But it’s Sauveur who wins the war, mainly because Lucia detests the violent ways of the mafia.
Cut to a few years later. Sauveur and Lucia are happily married. Sauveur is about to start his own business. He begins building on his location of choice, but receives a visit from Marco informing him that he’s required to check in with Luis before building on the island. The land isn’t Luis’, of course, so Sauveur doesn’t see how he has to check in with anyone. He ignores Marco’s warning and, as a result, Luis sends a couple of his henchman to scare Sauver’s younger brother. The henchman screw up and end up killing him by accident. Sauveur is enraged but can do nothing. To make matters worse, his manhood is questioned by Lucia, and when it's clear that he’ll be perceived as the Island wuss unless he does something, he decides to rock some vigilante justice and murders the two men who killed his brother.
This puts Don Luis in a tough position. If he dosen’t kill Sauveur, he’ll be looked at as weak. So he signs his death warrant, putting Marco in an incredibly awkward position, as he doesn’t want to kill his friend. Before the matter can be resolved, Sauveur flees to the nearby forest, where he begins living a life of exile, looking forward to occasional secret visits from his wife. When Luis starts killing members of his family though, Sauveur is forced to become the very entity he despises – a Don of his own. So he begins ordering his own killings from the forest. A tit-for-tat string of murders begins, which further complicates Sauver’s, Marco’s, and Lucia’s relationship, and pushes them to an inevitably bloody conclusion.
The writing here is great. There’s lots of conflict. There’s lots of intrigue. The stakes are high for all the characters. The characters themselves are rich and well-developed. As a script, it’s a very fine piece of writing. I just couldn’t get past a couple of things. This whole idea of Sauveur racing up into the forest and living there for half the script…it just seemed, for lack of a better word, silly. Not only that but it took our main character away from the action. Also , I couldn’t for the life of me understand Lucia’s reaction to Sauveur not standing up for himself. I thought her whole thing was the mafia was bad because of its violence. So why would she support a retaliatory killing? Especially since it sends her husband into the forest for the rest of his life. I had a really hard time getting over that rationale. Though I guess this is based on a true story so the real Lucia actually made that decision. Either way, it was a choice that confused me on her motivation, and ultimately made me not like her very much.
In the end you gotta take this review with a grain of salt. I’m not a huge fan of mafia movies. I liked but never loved the Godfather films. To me, Goodfellas is the cream of the crop in this genre, and it feels like every mafia movie I watch pales in comparison. So I have a feeling that even if this script was perfectly written, I’d still grumpily point out its faults. It's still the best I've read so far behind Anthony Belcher though.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] barely kept my interest
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: I think for me personally, I don’t like when my main character is away from the action. I always find it more interesting when he’s down there in the thick of it. If you can, keep your protagonist where all the action is at. I meant that’s where the meat of your movie is, right?
