WHAT WE GIVE AWAY UNDER PRESSURE

Did anyone watch Netflix's Red Notice over the holiday?

Look away now if you want to avoid spoilers

although

you

won't

be

missing

much.

It's

not

that

complex

a

movie.

Okay? Still here?

You will have heard me talk (often) about character development and how the best way to show it is to take two different characters and put them in a situation where they are forced to talk.

By the end of the story, we should know something about them we didn't at the beginning, something to either illicit our sympathy or make us think they deserve their fate.

Red Notice is a romp. It doesn't have any aspirations - other than a healthy box-office return and a sequel. And it's entertaining.

Gal Gadot's character has next to no character development. She turns out not to be who we think, but we don't really learn any more about her or why she is what she is. I think they swap depth for figure-hugging outfits here.

Ryan Reynold and Dwayne Johnson are the bro-mance aspect of the movie. They have very simple, mirror-image, character development arcs.

In jail together and through various tight situations, they confess their secrets. Ryan Reynolds is a thief because his dad was a cop who loved something else more than his son. Dwayne Johnson is a cop because his dad was a thief who disappeared on his son's thirteenth birthday.

There's a little more to Johnson's character arc, but, basically... that's it! As simple as it could possibly be.

Now you can look for it in other stories - and be sure to work it (or something a little more complex) into your own.