"Failure to Launch "

Failure to Launch “lifts off” as a quirky, by-the-numbers romantic comedy. It’s built on an amusing conceit: The parents of an adult male child who refuses to leave the comforts of home hire a professional “motivator” whose sole job is to ‘launch” said slacker into a life on his own. It has attractive and likeable characters. There’s even chemistry between the two leads, Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker. Unfortunately, the story is ejected mid-flight and the movie ends with a forced landing.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Failure to Launch starts off following Tripp (Matthew McConaughey), a happy-go-lucky boat broker unwilling to keep a girlfriend once she gives him “the look,” meaning she’s ready to get into a serious relationship with him. His way of getting rid of girlfriends is to bring them home so they find out he still lives with his parents. They break up with him and his comfortable bachelorhood remains intact.

Tripp’s parents want him to move out but are afraid to confront him directly for fear he will feel rejected. They hire Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker) to motivate him to leave the nest so that they may enjoy their senior years in private. Paula’s technique is to lure unsuspecting men from living in their parents’ home by creating a relationship with them. Paula has found that these thirtysomething slackers see the advantages of being on their own once they’re in a “successful relationship” away from family.

Tripp falls for Paula’s wiles and all goes per her plan until she unwittingly gives Tripp “the look” (Paula is smitten with Tripp). The next thing she knows she’s brought home to meet the parents. Paula is surprised when Tripp’s parents take her aside and tell her she’s failed—Tripp is about to break up with her. Shocked and desperate to fulfill her contractual obligations, Paula breaks her own rules and sleeps with Tripp that night.

Tripp is back onboard after the night of awesome sex, but Paula is now seriously conflicted. Paula has crossed an ethical line between her personal and professional lives. Struggling to get back on track, Paula continues with her plan to get Tripp to move out.

Unfortunately for her, Tripp’s friends figure out what’s going on. They tell her about Tripp’s past—his fiancé died years earlier—and how he has not gotten over it. Paula decides to end her professional relationship with Tripp and come clean.

Tripp prepares a special dinner for Paula and his parents. Before Paula has a chance to tell him about her job and her feelings, Tripp announces that he wants to move in with Paula. In fact, he proposes that they build an extension on his parents’ house so they can both live there—that way his parents won’t have to pay Paula to sleep with him. Tripp storms out leaving his parents and Paula stunned.

Paula is devastated. She decides to quit her business.

Ironically, Tripp moves away from home.

Paula returns her fee to Tripp’s parents and begs forgiveness for the mess. Paula also decides to pack up and move back the West Coast to live with her parents.

On a visit to his parents, Tripp’s mother tells him she didn’t want him to leave because of perceived problems with Tripp’s dad.

Paula’s friend Kit gets together with Tripp’s two best friends and Tripp’s parents. They concoct a plan to reunite the stubborn lovebirds. On the way to the airport to drop Paula off, Kit tricks her into making a stop and Kit manages to lock Paula in a room with Tripp. The friends and parents watch via remote camera and Paula and Tripp reconcile. Happy ending.

So, what’s wrong with Failure to Launch?

The biggest flaw is the confusion between the Main Character and Impact Character throughlines. For the first half of the film Tripp is the Main Character and Paula is the Impact Character. About midway through the film (about the time Paula finds out that she’s being dumped by Tripp) Paula becomes the Main Character and Tripp (or maybe Kit) becomes the Impact Character….sort of. Suddenly the audience finds out that Paula has a bunch of personal baggage (such as no personal life) and is expected to switch Main Characters mid-story. It doesn’t work. Even though it is easy to identify with Paula, it’s not her personal story we’ve been exploring. The story falls apart at this point.

This makes the last act forced and phony. The fact that the Overall Story characters lock the new MC and IC in a room together is contrived. And there’s the, “Since we’re locked in here together we might as well talk,” excuse to motivate the resolution of their differences and realize they’re in love with each other---eeeeekkk. Crash and Burn.

What could fix Failure to Launch?

• Pick a Main Character and stick with him or her. Tripp’s personal journey is different from Paula’s. Tripp’s story would be about a wounded man who learns to love again. Paula’s story would be about a woman awakened to the void in her personal life that had been hidden by her professional life. Pick one and stay with it. As it stands, the ending makes no sense since you can’t tell if Tripp or Paula has changed or remained steadfast or what they had to change or remain steadfast about.

• Pick the partner in the romantic relationship as the Impact Character. It IS, after all, a romantic comedy. That means a major part of the story is about the Main Character and the Impact Character and their romantic (MC/IC) relationship.

• If the story goal is to get Tripp out of his parents’ house then the Overall Story should end when he moves out. In the current version, the movie does not end for another twenty-five minutes or so.

• The Overall Story characters’ efforts should be geared toward (or against) the Story Goal. If Tripp’s mom in an enabler, make her work through those fears with Paula, not Tripp. Make Tripp’s father’s nudity part of the efforts to get Tripp out of the house, not a result of his leaving.

Fixing the above might possibly be enough to make an ending such as the one in the movie work. Forcing the couple to resolve their misunderstandings is fine so long as everything has built up to that scene. When done properly, the momentum of the growing relationship and character growth propels the story to its natural conclusion.