Reference no: EM132279659

We fade up on a Porsche. In the passenger seat is Brad (Johnny Depp). The driver is a primly dressed woman. He says, "Shall we do it?" She agrees, starts up the car, and drives into a huge, gated estate. Inside, we find the library and the girl's old father behind a tank of a desk. He asks his daughter to step outside; he wants to have a private word with Brad. Once she leaves, he says, "You're not going to marry my daughter." Brad argues, "I've asked her to marry me, she loves me." The old man takes 20,000 dollars out of the desk and spreads it out in front of Brad, "You're not going to marry my daughter." Brad's totally insulted, "She's old enough, we don't need your permission." Another 20,000 is added to the pile. Brad is more righteous, "How dare you sir! You can't buy love!" The old man shoves another heap of bills onto the pile, "You're not going to marry my daughter." Brad looks at the mountain of bills, glances out to the cobblestone drive, thinks a moment and says, "Throw in the Porsche." Cut to the autumn leaves flying as Brad pulls out of town in the Porsche. (1) ? This is a movie about a handsome kid who's got the perfect con...he goes into a town, finds the richest girl, gets her to fall in love with him, makes sure the parents hate him, and gets paid off not to marry into the family. It's Don Juan DeMarco meets Music Man. A few days later, Brad's in the islands, enjoying his loot. Pool bar—Oprah's on television. Suddenly he sees a composite picture of himself and Oprah interviewing his last "love" victims. They're all happy that they knew him, for they all learned about men and love through him. But they want his private parts. (2) He realizes the game is up, and decides to pull one last, major con before retirement. He has to find the one place in the country where the women are interested, their fathers are wealthy, and no one watches Oprah. The answer—Stanford. His goal, the daughter of the President of the United States. (3) ? At Stanford, it takes no time for the President's shy daughter to fall madly in love with him. He's invited to the White House and begins to turn the family against him—he makes a pass at the first lady, the President, and the downstairs maid. But, back at school, there's a problem—he keeps seeing a pretty graduate student who seems to be following him (maybe Secret Service, maybe a reporter). He finally confronts her, and she admits that she saw him on Oprah. (4) But she doesn't want to turn him in. Instead she wants to write her graduate thesis on the mating habits of the American male with Brad as the star specimen. Or else she'll bust him. He agrees. The con continues. ? But it's not so easy. Brad is beginning to fall in love (for the first time in his life) with none other than the winsome grad student. He tries to tell her how he feels, but all he can manage are his trite, old lines, which she puts into her thesis. The payoff day arrives. But instead of paying him off, the President says, "You're an S.O.B., son, I'm an S.O.B. Welcome to the family. Oh, yeah—and you let my baby girl down, I'll kill you." The Secret Service are assigned to make sure Brad won't run, his bank account is emptied, and his pretty Porsche impounded. (5) ? There's nothing Brad can do but go through with the nuptials. After one last attempt to tell his grad student sweetheart how he feels, he apologizes for his actions and heads for the church. (6) It's a huge church, thousands of people are there. He walks out in front of the crowd, there are TV cameras and klieg lights and then Oprah Winfrey struts out, turns to the cameras and says, "Ladies and gentleman, we caught him!" From the back of the auditorium, the President scowls at Brad. Brad faces the music. (7) ? Two hours later, Brad finds himself penniless, careless, and dateless as he attempts to hitchhike out of town. He's cold and tired, when a small VW bug pulls up. It's the graduate student. And for the first time, he's able to express his love; "Love is infatuation combined with knowledge. If you know someone, know all of their idiosyncrasies and shortcomings and if you're still infatuated, then you're in love." The grad student admits that she, too, must be in love. They ride off into the sunset together. (8) What structural part of the story does (3) indicate? Major decision Climax Disturbance Enlightenment