Film Analysis Of 'The Donlevy'

When a troubled young boy learns he’s adopted, he seeks murderous revenge by going after the biological family that abandoned him.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS:

JOHN DONLEVY and his wife, LIN, are devastated that they have been unable to conceive a child. They finally turn to adoption and adopt young MITCHELL. Mitchell seems to be a perfectly normal boy. He’s musically talented. However, Mitchell has a fear of abandonment. Mitchell wins an essay contest about how much his family means to him. Mitchell considers them genuine. He doesn’t think they would ever lie to him.

John and Lin decide to tell Mitchell the truth about being adopted. Mitchell is stunned. Angry, Mitchell digs his own nails into his back. Blood runs down his skin. The Donlevy’s house

Although the plot contains much strength, the script would benefit from building upon those strengths.

The opening nicely sets the tone and hooks the audience. The only concern is the lack of dialogue for about the first five pages. The opening also sets up the idea of soundproofing, but it’s not clear why and there doesn’t seem to be a strong payoff. Thus, it feels non-essential. It would have been effective if the climax offered a clever payoff regarding the idea of soundproof.

The idea of the fear of abandonment is nicely set up for Mitchell. He’s also established as self-abusing. However, there’s a scene that requires more clarification regarding Mitchell’s nails. Clarify the description that the nails are longer on Mitchell’s reddened hands. It’ just feels like an awkward description given that earlier in the same scene he looks at his trimmed nails.

The inciting event is when Mitchell learns he was adopted and feels betrayed by his adoptive parents. This sets off a murderous

The other major concern about the script is that it doesn’t offer the audience any major twist about Mitchell. From the beginning, the audience knows that Mitchell is a killer. There’s no major reveal at the end. Granted, not all successful films need a twist, but because the script is so familiar, it would be beneficial. The mother mentioned a twin and one wonders if there should be a twist about the other baby.

With that said, there is an ending reveal or twist with the idea of Tracy being pregnant. However, it feels like a cliché ending. It’s been done before. It doesn’t provide a strong emotional response.

Finally, the professional presentation can be elevated. There are many pages in which the action descriptions are not formatted correctly. For example: page 54, 55, 56, 64, 87, 88, 89 etc. It’s makes the script more difficult to read.

The length of a script for this story type is considered long, but it also may be due to the stacking format technique used, and it may be in reality shorter than the page numbers. However, it would benefit the script to cut the length/page