Back and Forth with Fritz

This is an excerpt from an email from my friend Fritz, who was one of the first to hear the verbal pitch from me of the story (and my many incarnations thereafter) as well as one of the first to read the initial draft of the script (which subsequently went through 6 months of revisions). Fritz, god bless him, had to suffer through many of the ideas that were ultimately cut (such as the scene Fritz is referring to here). His friendly, intelligent, thoughtful responses would haunt me for days while making the final revisions.

Date: November 17th 2005 
>From: Fritz Darling 
>Re: White Knuckles 
>
> I think at this moment William needs to 
> not focus on himself. Rather he needs to echo her 
> beliefs that she should move on… that he had been 
> failing for a long time in giving her the kind of 
> life she deserved. Being the person she deserved to 
> be with. He could even paint a rosy picture about 
> how life would be better without him (her 
> relationship with her son etc.) At that moment the 
> mirror is being held up in front of her and she is 
> forced to take responsibility for her life and have 
> pity on herself. She needs to forgive herself as
> much if not more than her husband. 
> 
> If the focus remains on him, and his motivations 
> are still self centered than I don’t believe that 
> Julie would see anything worth saving in general. 
> Let me know if this makes any sense. 
>
> Best, 
> FD