A Novel in 30 Days? I Wish!

I am a writer. I'd like to think so, anyway, though when it comes to creating stories and characters from scratch I seem to be coming up short lately. Just writing a short story causes a great deal of brow furrowing; attempting a novel is a ridiculously complicated prospect for which I seem to possess insufficient imagination, patience and stamina. So when I started watching Alex and Emma, a romantic comedy starring Luke Wilson and Kate Hudson, I found the premise that our hero was going to write a 300-page novel from scratch in 30 days rather laughable. Not only that, he would be dictating it, which would never be a workable situation for me, as solitude is an essential ingredient in my cocktail of inspiration, not to mention the fact that whatever wit and clarity I possess on paper tends to go out the window when I open my mouth. So as a writer, I was skeptical but also curious. Was this a workable endeavor?

The bulk of Alex and Emma takes place in Alex's (Wilson) apartment. A wreck of a reclusive writer, he has gambled away the profits from his previous effort and, what's worse, is in debt up to his eyeballs to a bunch of seedy loan sharks. He needs this next book in order to survive; not only does he have to worry about his day-to-day needs, but if he fails to deliver the goods on time, there's a bullet with his name on it. Luckily, his editor understands his dire situation and promises an advance large enough to cover the debt - if Alex can cough up a manuscript in time. Since his friendly neighborhood gang of Cuban mobsters axed his computer as part of their warning, he's convinced the only way he can possibly finish his book in time to pay them off is to hire a transcriptionist. Enter Emma (Kate Hudson), a good-natured but strong-willed woman who needs more than a little convincing that this is a solid business proposition.

Even once she agrees to be on board, so unyielding is Alex's writer's block that their first session produces nothing but a first sentence, and a mighty tepid one at that. Emma threatens to abandon the project, Alex protests and somewhere in the confrontation adrenaline kicks in and inspiration is born. And from then on, Alex is right on track, making his story up as he goes along, though it seems to be heavily informed by personal experience, particularly toward the end of the film when we find out more about his background. Must to Alex's consternation, Emma does not keep her strong opinions to herself, so while he is trying to blaze through as many pages as possible, she's busy questioning his writerly choices at every turn. As aggravating as that is - one that would pose far too great a distraction for me - these interjections eventually change the direction of the novel as he sees his characters and plot differently through Emma's eyes.

Because of the nature of the movie, voice over is a prevalent technique. We hear Alex's voice throughout much of the film, and Emma's pipes up fairly frequently. While we observe the way in which the novel is created, we also watch the fictional story unfold alongside the real one. The protagonist, also portrayed by Wilson, is a poor tutor named Adam living with a wealthy French family. Hudson, meanwhile, takes on the role of the housekeeper, whose nationality and name changes from Swedish to German to Spanish before finally staying put as an American named Anna. The main conflict in the book revolves around Adam's love for his boss, the bewitching Polina (Sophie Marceau). He is penniless, and she is being wooed by another very rich suitor. Worse, she doesn't technically have her own fortune, though she will acquire one upon her grandmother's death. The housekeeper begins as an afterthought, but the role gradually expands until, by the end of the book, Alex has turned her into a legitimate romantic interest. Who will Adam choose - and does he even have open options, given his financial status? And after the book's final page has been written, will the movie conclude in a similar fashion?

This is a predictable romantic comedy, so we all have a pretty good idea how things are going to end up. What's more interesting is how we arrive to that point. I still find the circumstances to be somewhat unbelievable; Alex keeps changing his mind about things, so Emma has to go back and redo everything, and it's all on a typewriter, which she only has time to type on after heading home for the night after a solid work day of what seems to be 12 or so hours. I guess she must resign herself to a couple of hours of sleep each night, but even so I don't see how it could be a really cohesive novel on paper with no real time to go back and change things.

The chemistry between Wilson and Hudson is decent, but since there's not much going on besides a whole lot of writing, it doesn't make for the most scintillating romance. There are a couple of scenes before the writing concludes, however, that allow them to engage in other activities, particularly when they spend a day on the town, purportedly to rejuvenate Alex's writing muscles after he has written himself into a corner. There's an almost flip fantasy sequence tone to the cinematography in the story-within-a-story. The acting is all intentionally a bit over-the-top. It's a bit hokey-looking, but it's a stylistic choice that makes sense and adds more flavor to the somewhat sedate main storyline occurring in the apartment.

Alex and Emma is a film with an unusual structure that will appeal to anyone interested in the story-building process. I don't think it is executed quite as well as it could be; even as an English major, I found it a tad dull, so less literary-minded audiences will probably find all that exposition especially irritating. Still, Alex and Emma is a fairly sweet and clever movie. Now if it could just inspire me to write a novel in 30 days...