Plotting and snappy dialog are important, and “Right of Way” has them in spades. But if you think about the stories you love and why you love them, chances are you’ll be thinking about character. That’s what connects us to movies the most.
The action, the effects, the photography, the music, costumes and art direction -- they’re all there to enhance the relationships we have with the movie’s stars.
Do we have a great central character in “Right of Way”?
In Mayor Russell Napolitano, I believe we have the beginning of one. We care about Napolitano, I hope, for a few reasons: For one -- and you can’t underestimate the importance of this -- he’s a cool guy. He’s charismatic and powerful, and yet he doesn’t take himself too seriously. That’s what readers (and ideally viewers) will latch onto right off the bat. He’s likable in a superficial way.
As we get to know him, though, we realize he’s passionate about something: He wants to expand L.A.’s subway system, and he seems to want to do it for the right reasons. So we can emotionally connect with that too.
But is that all there is to Russ Napolitano?
Thankfully, no. Contributor Glenn Camhi made certain in his pages (28-31) that we see Napolitano as a good friend to Larry Davis, Celeste’s murdered husband. His personal affection for Larry is what drives him to risk his life and political career to get to the bottom of Larry’s murder.
That’s the heart of our story, and it’s something I think we need to see more of: Napolitano as a guy who feels the loss of his friend and wants to set things right.
So if he cared so much about Larry, then why did he sleep with Celeste?
I might write more about that later, but for now, here are two possible explanations to chew on:
1) Maybe he didn’t. Yeah, he spent the night at her house, and yeah, there’s obviously some romantic tension between them, but we never saw them in bed together, so we really don’t know.
2) Or maybe he did. Maybe he screwed up big time and has to spend the rest of the movie trying to live it down. Flawed characters make mistakes, and screwing his good friend’s wife on the night of the friend’s murder would certainly qualify as a whopper.
It’s the kind of thing that could dimensionalize a larger-than-life noir hero and fuel a quest for redemption that lasts a whole movie.
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