Help Please! Looking for an arc!

[Rich.]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for stories in which the POV charcater's arc goes from controlling to cooperative, from control freaky to laid-back. Any suggestions from from book or film would be most appreciated.

Cheers m'dears!

 

[Richard Turner]

Does a control freak ever become a follower? More likely the other way round I would think, but will be interested to see what the others have to say.

 

[Rich.]

I was thinking more in terms of a control freak learning to accept that which they can't control, to trust that they'll cope even without a plan.

 

[Barbara]

Not sure why, Gran Torino comes to mind. It's probably not quite what you're looking for but the protaginist kinda obsesses about the car, which I suspect is a metaphor for something, then lets himself be shot (acceptance).

 

[Leonora]

As Good as It Gets with Jack Nicholson? Great fun and touching, but not exactly Haika! Will mull it over and see if I can think of anything else.

 

[Rich.]

All good stuff. Thanks to you all. And don't worry, @Leonora, I'm not looking for Haika as such, just stuck on a plot point and in need of some inspiration. Emotions are emotions whatever genre they come from.

 

[Barbara]

In broad terms, maybe Rainman? Dustin H's character is obsessing in his own way (it's part of his illness after all), yet at the end he seems a bit more chilled, has leartn to 'operate' better in the world, and has less outbursts. He's able to function better. Tom Cruise's character too. He is obsessing about money at the beginning, in the end he has leant to 'co-operate' with his brother and has made the transformation to a person whose brother matters more than anything.

Maybe not quite what you're after, but there might be something in it.

 

[Susan]

Can’t think of any, but something tells me there must be some 80s comedies about image-obsessed yuppies or uptight career women forsaking love and babies? Was a bit of a trope.

 

[Susan]

There are probably a few 40s movies as well with the controlling woman type, probably featuring Katherine Hepburn. Can’t quite remember, but maybe The Philadelphia Story and the African Queen. It’s a Wonderful Life has a suicidal man embrace his life again, though maybe this isn’t quite what you’re looking for.

 

[Nikky Lee]

What about Willie from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? She goes from high strung city slicker to slightly less high strung sidekick.

 

[Nikky Lee]

Another possible one (maybe): Cayse Pollard from William Gibson's Pattern Recognition.

 

[Carol Rose]

The African Queen comes to mind. Someone here already mentioned it. Rose is an uptight missionary, pouring proper tea in Eastern Africa for Charlie, and trying not to flinch every time his stomach growls in her presence. By the end of the movie, she's helped him repair his boat, steered it across rapids, and helped him sink a German U-boat. Her uptightness and controlling personality is gone. She's a woman in love, who's had a marvelous adventure, and she can't wait to have more of the same with Charlie.

 

[Carol Rose]

The Sound of Music. Captain Von Trapp runs his household like a naval base, complete with individual whistles for each of his children, until Maria shows up.

 

[Carol Rose]

Baby Boom. Diane Keaton is a dedicated career woman, about to make partner in her firm, when she inherits a distant relative's toddler. Okay. So not the most believable plot line. LOL! But it's a charming movie, actually. She doesn't even know what to feed the poor kid. Eventually, she buys a farm and starts her own line of organic baby food so she can be home to raise the little girl. She says goodbye to Corporate America although she still works, but now from her home.

 

[Emily]

The Way (film, Martin Sheen), The Secret Garden (just finished reading it to my kids!)

 

[Matnov]

Scrooge?

 

[Rich.]

Lots of food for thought, thanks everyone!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Based on a novel by Frank O'Rourke, The Bravados was filmed starring Gregory Peck. He plays a vengeful rancher out to kill the men he thinks killed his wife. Peck's character is merciless...most unlike the heroes he normally plays. There's a brilliant twist in the tale, when he realises that he's been completely wrong, and he reverts to being a loving father. One of his best performances, and definitely the only film I'll ever recommend starring Joan Collins!

The Bravados - Wikipedia

The whole film:

 

[Eva Ulian]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for stories in which the POV charcater's arc goes from controlling to cooperative, from control freaky to laid-back. Any suggestions from from book or film would be most appreciated.

Cheers m'dears!

You make me smile at this one Rich, because it happens all the time in Italian politics... One minute they rule the government as PM, the next they are not even elected. Giulio Andreotti was 20 times a minister and seven times PM in his 38 years in parliament. But coming closer to our times Silvio Berlusconi really puts the cherry on the cake. He becomes PM and a few months later is dethroned and that went on and off for the past twenty years, until about five years ago when he was condemned for not paying his taxes properly... Let's not forget he's a tycoon and gives work to thousand of people in Italy! For two years he was under house arrest; so no politics, no "elegant" parties with half-naked blondes running around the place, and he just did as he was told. Bless his heart! He went to feed the old age pensioners, wipe their bottoms, and may have even had to clean the toilets as part and parcel of house arrest detention. Could that not inspire you in some way Rich?

p.s. I forgot to mention, the first guy Andreotti died in his 90s but spent his last days ingloriously in front of a judge and jury charged with having Mafia links- (having kissed one on the cheek!)- he was cleared but the stigma remained. Yet he was always elegantly dressed in his pin striped grey suit going to 8 o'clock Sunday Mass... just like one of us.

 

[Amber]

There are probably a few 40s movies as well with the controlling woman type, probably featuring Katherine Hepburn. Can’t quite remember, but maybe The Philadelphia Story and the African Queen. It’s a Wonderful Life has a suicidal man embrace his life again, though maybe this isn’t quite what you’re looking for.

Yes. Philadelphia Story ... Woman of the Year ... and more recently The Ugly Truth ....

I don't think you'd have to spend too much time in the romantic fiction aisle before you had a stack of romance novels where the hero or heroine was suffering either from an excess of control or a lack of control and through their interactions with the hero/heroine (who certainly is their polar opposite on the control spectrum) learned to be more self-accepting of the fact that control is an illusion.

I just watched The African Queen on Thursday ....and yeah Katharine Hepburn plays a laced up missionary and Humphrey Bogart a gin swilling riverboat captain ....

But you don't write romance. So... you could take the basics of the arc and apply it to fantasy.