This is where I get hung up too. Kevin wishing that his family would disappear and then wishing he had his family back feels like the heart of the film to me. And the RS is where the heart of the story is always being said to reside. And that attitude of Kevin’s doesn’t seem just to affect him, but his family as well. Particularly his mom. So I don’t want to hang Kevin’s MC throughline on that attitude. Also, I’ve started to wonder if that attitude is less of a throughline problem and more of a personal baggage item that indicates an outcome of Good when it gets resolved.
I agree that his story isn’t just the activity of dealing with the Wet Bandits, but about how he causes trouble. Initially I wanted to try to hang Kevins problem on his attitude and BEING a jerk, while his mom’s impact of leaving him in the attic causes him to have to do all of those things he has to do. But of course, his mom doesn’t have anything to do with him shoving Buzz and making the huge mess while everyone is eating pizza. So I think Kevin is for sure in Activity.
Because of his change in attitude about his family, I would have said that he was a changed character. But that change takes place well before the problems are resolved, so again, that doesn’t seem to be the problem. However, I’ve seen mentioned somewhere recently (don’t remember where, but pretty sure it was either somewhere on this board or on NarrativeFirst) that one way you can tell if a character has changed is by taking the character at the end of the movie and rewinding. If the character at the end of the movie would act different than the character at the front of the movie, then it’s a good indicator of a changed character. And I don’t think the Kevin at the end would act the same as the Kevin at the front.
My initial thought about the movie was that it was probably trying to be a Grand Argument Story, but that it probably wasn’t. Do Kevin and his mom both change?