I had every intention of watching this again and offering what I thought a storyform for it might be. I haven’t rewatched it, but here’s a guess at some of the storypoints based on memory.
Mr. Fredrickson is MC. We follow him as a child meeting his future wife for the first time and follow him through a montage before seeing through his eyes what’s it’s like to be forced out of your home and then to take a trip to fulfill a promise to his late wife, Ellie.
There’s a lot of do-ing but his primary course of action when addressing a problem seems to be grouchy at it in hopes of being left alone. So things can BE the way the were before Ellie passed. I could see either way, but would lean toward a be-er just based on that.
Mr F also seems to have a chip on his shoulder what with all of his grouchiness. But the root of that would seem to be the Ellie shaped hole in his heart (eventually filled by his relationship with Russell). I’d lean toward Start based on that.
He’s focused on the destination (getting to South America) so much that the rest of his life is quite literally relegated to a montage of him saving his change for the trip. The rest of his life is seen in relation to working toward the goal (a tree landing on the house isn’t its own event, it’s an event that causes him to have to break into his change jar, thus delaying their reaching the destination). He has to learn to appreciate the journey. That seems to be a roundabout case for linear. Also, everything he does has a very connected feel in relation to the problem. They want to take my house and put me in a nursing home. I want to go to South America to fulfill a promise to my late wife. I’ll just take the house with me to South America. Linear.
When he hits the guy, they decide he needs to go to a nursing home. He decides to attach balloons to his house and fly away. When the house falls too close to the ground, they decide to drag it the rest of the way. I can’t remember how it ends exactly (uh-oh, a bad sign for a storyform, perhaps), but there’s a dog fight…like, an airplane dog fight, but also literally with dogs flying the planes…and it seems like maybe the old guy falls off the blimp or something. Then Mr F finds the photo album and takes Russell to his scout thing. I can’t remember what brings the story to a conclusion, but i’m leaning toward action driver.
Mr F refuses to sale his house. Then he flies his house as far as it will go. Then he walks his house. Then he goes back to take Russell to the scout thing. He seems to be working through his options.
He reaches the falls. He also comes to understand that it’s about the journey. Success.
I think he’s moved on from Ellie (not sure if that’s in the movie or just me remembering it that way), and seems happy to be hanging out with Russell. No longer grouchy, no longer trying to keep things the way they were. No more angst regarding fulfilling his promise to Ellie. Judgment of Good.
I’ll stop there, and maybe the act of posting this will be enough to drive me to watch it again to look for the storyform.
Be-er (maybe), Start (maybe), Linear, Action Driver (probably), Optionlock, Success, Good.
