Again, Dreamworks delivers a clear message in what seems a story form rather than a tale. Admittedly, I haven’t put this through the Dramatica engine, but here it goes…
The MC, Frank, gets into conflict because of his manipulations, so I’m putting him in the Psychology domain. He’s constantly assuming new identities and deceiving people. He also seems psychologically broken because of his broken home: his father has been running from authorities and there’s a divorce with his mother seeing other men.
The objective story revolves around him assuming new identities as he evades Carl, the federal agent expert in fraud.
As Frank points out to Carl in the third Act, the two of them always meet up at Christmas. I am guessing for a few reasons that Carl is in Activity. Actually, I’m guessing the impact character is a hand-off between Carl and Frank’s father. At some point, when Frank thinks back to his father, he remembers that party early in Act One with the Christmas tree… just his father and mother dancing. A few times, Frank calls Carl on Christmas. What provokes Frank to call him? I think it’s because he’s looking for a father figure. This element of Christmas nicely fits with their relationship being in Situation because this domain contains signposts of time.
I am guessing for several reasons that the concerns in all four domains are located in the upper left. This puts the relationship through line in “Past”. Frank constantly thinks back to the father he left in his past. He links it with Christmas, and thus calls Carl. Frank’s concern would be “Developing a Plan”, which he does throughout the movie. In the first half of Act Two, he studies and assumes the role of an airplane pilot. In the second half, he assumes the role of surgeon. He then studies and takes the bar exam to become a lawyer in Act Three. Even in Act One, he plays the role of substitute teacher, going through the motions of a parent-teacher conference and conducting a class. He’s also constantly figuring out how to evade authorities, how to make his fraudulent checks appear convincing, etc.
What initially set me on to figuring out this story form was the thematic argument of Truth versus Falsehood. Frank routinely deceives and lies, so often that his relationship with his father having deceived bleeds into his own through line and into the Objective Story. In the Third Act, as Carl corners him in the French printing press, Frank breaks into a paranoia, suspecting Carl of lying to him. One of the other two Variations in that Type ( Evidence and Suspicion) could easily be the OS Catalyst, as Carl closes in on Frank, tracking evidence of the kid’s fraud. Suspicion builds over where Frank currently resides.
Placing the Objective Story in Fixed Attitude and Carl’s through line in Psychology establishes Carl as a Stop character. He makes a final escape attempt near the end of the movie, but then changes his mind and returns to his new father figure, Carl. This makes him a Change Stop character. It’s easy to see what he must stop during the story. In the Third Act, he decides to stop lying. This lets him end the story with a judgment of Good. Incidentally, the story ends in Success because Carl has finally caught Frank.
This places the IC through line of both Carl and Frank’s father in Activities, which makes sense. Frank’s father suffers problems because of his evasions from authorities. Carl places himself in trouble a number of times with his superiors when he mistakenly lets Frank escape.
I don’t see any time lock, but the option lock may relate to the number of locations he can escape before Carl catches him. He journeys through the United States, winding up in France during Act Three.
I have been suspicious of scripts which begin with a flash forward to a conflict later in the story, then transition to: “six months earlier”. However, this time it’s effective. It’s a scene where Carl meets Frank in France. When you review the movie a second time, this is a Relationship Throughline scene. It shows Carl calling for a doctor, clearly showing concern for Frank’s health… something a caring father would do. I would also guess this scene’s signpost is “Present”. It explains those later scenes sprinkled through the movie between the two of them taking place on the trip back to the US some years after the bulk of the story.
I will step even further out on a limb by guessing Frank is a holistic problem solver. One example of his IC father being linear is when they’re at a fancy restaurant. Frank offers his father an expensive car, but his father can’t accept it, explaining in so many words that the authorities would begin wondering why this man in financial trouble is suddenly driving such a car.
Is this holistic problem solving? When Frank enters a hospital, he meets a candy striper who’s just been yelled at for a job-related mistake. Frank wants to manipulate her, so he asks her easy questions, correctly anticipating she’d competently answer. He then butters her up with how good she is at her job.