28 Days Later
A friend of mine recently posted his impressions of the film 28 Days Later on his blog. He was unimpressed, to say the least. As I read his review, I began thinking it might be interesting to look at the film in terms of mind, body, and spirit characters. If a movie or book is bad (assuming the writing and grammar are OK), there are two primary culprits. First, the story is not structured properly. Whether it's the classic three-act structure, the hero's journey (a more specific three-act structure), etc., a story has to have a foundation that resonates with its audience. The second culprit is a missing or ill-defined mind, body, or spirit character. In his analysis, my friend wrote, "What bothered me most about the film is that there’s seemingly very little logic in how events progress." This is indicative of a missing mind character. What follows is his take on the three character types in the film. The Spirit Character: Jim (Cillian Murphy) I c...