{"id":4508,"date":"2011-04-01T21:48:45","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T20:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=4508"},"modified":"2011-04-01T21:48:45","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T20:48:45","slug":"devil-in-a-blue-dress-day-twenty-three-40movies40days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/devil-in-a-blue-dress-day-twenty-three-40movies40days\/","title":{"rendered":"Devil In A Blue Dress &#8211; Day Twenty Three &#8211; #40movies40days"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/d54252bc28d.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-4510 lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;margin: 5px;\" title=\"d54252bc28d\" data-src=\"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/d54252bc28d-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"d54252bc28d\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-4510\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" title=\"d54252bc28d\" src=\"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/d54252bc28d-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"d54252bc28d\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/noscript><\/a>Yet another wheezing and coughing allergy day. \u00a0I needed to get to work on my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.screenwritingforlawyers.com\/\">Thriller Workshop<\/a> in New York, so I decided to catch up with <em>Devil In A Blue Dress<\/em>. This tepid adaptation of Walter Mosley&#8217;s novel is a disappointment. \u00a0I can only hope the book was better.<\/p>\n<p>Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) loses his job and is offered a quick $100 to find a politician&#8217;s girlfriend. \u00a0She&#8217;s a white girl who likes hot jazz and has been seen frequenting an illegal &#8220;colored&#8221; nightclub. \u00a0Denzel quickly gets caught up in murder and blackmail.<\/p>\n<p>In the best thrillers, (<a href=\"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/nine-character-types\/power-of-truth\/\">Power of Truth<\/a> stories) the crime or mystery is a way of going deeper into the main character. \u00a0While the investigator is chasing someone or something he is usually running from himself. No such thing happens in<em> Devil In A Blue Dress<\/em>. \u00a0It&#8217;s a straight forward by-the-numbers episodic investigation. \u00a0No larger deeper truth is revealed. \u00a0We learn nothing new about the protagonist and he learns nothing about himself as a result of solving the mystery.<\/p>\n<p>Worse, the devil in a blue dress isn&#8217;t devilish at all. \u00a0She&#8217;s just misguided, believing love will trump her mixed race background and she can marry her white prince charming. \u00a0She&#8217;s a femme fatale on the run without any dangerous claws.<\/p>\n<p>Roger Ebert summed up my feelings perfectly in his review:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I liked the movie without quite being caught up in it: I liked the period, tone and look more than the story, which I never really cared much about. The explanation, when it comes, tidies all the loose ends, but you&#8217;re aware it&#8217;s arbitrary &#8211; an elegant solution to a chess problem, rather than a necessary outcome of guilt and passion. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/rogerebert.suntimes.com\/apps\/pbcs.dll\/article?AID=\/19950929\/REVIEWS\/509290302\">http:\/\/rogerebert.suntimes.com\/apps\/pbcs.dll\/article?AID=\/19950929\/REVIEWS\/509290302<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t surprise me there was no second movie adaptation of the Easy Rawlins franchise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Easy Rawlings (Denzel Washington) loses his job and is offered a quick $100 to find a politician&#8217;s girlfriend.  He quickly gets caught up in murder and blackmail.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,45],"tags":[25,26,1112,96,97,1113,27,28,30,1114,31,32,33,710,711,34,1115,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42],"class_list":["post-4508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-power-of-truth","category-video-clips-television-movies-series","tag-character","tag-characters","tag-denzel-washington","tag-detective","tag-detectives","tag-devil-in-a-blue-dress","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-film-noir","tag-films","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-movies","tag-mysteries","tag-mystery","tag-nine-character-types","tag-noir","tag-screenplay","tag-screenplays","tag-screenwriting","tag-script","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-tv","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",125,94,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",75,56,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",500,375,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x400.jpg",300,400,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-600x450.jpg",600,450,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Easy Rawlings (Denzel Washington) loses his job and is offered a quick $100 to find a politician's girlfriend. He quickly gets caught up in murder and blackmail.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}