MEMORIES OF ONE KIND OR ANOTHER presents with an original voice. One considers it a character driven story of self-discovery. It’s a psychological, drama with sci-fi and supernatural features. There are solid themes about connecting, belonging, and learning the true meaning of family. The concept of the “God Particle” makes for a compelling hook. The tone is dramatic with some surrealism. The script is introspective and some scenes require interpretation. The plot presents with both strengths and weaknesses. First, the script does a brilliant job of creating two parallel stories that nicely intertwine with each other.
One story focuses on the idea of the Large Hadron Collider and the idea of a finding the “God Particle” to help solve the mystery of the universe’s origin of life. The second story follows the hero’s journey to unravel his birth origin. The subtext is well crafted. Both are about birth and searching for the answers of how life was first formed: one for the universe and one for the hero. The event of the Large Hadron Collider experiment to find the God Particle has a strong influence on the journey for Troy and this connects the stories well.
The event of releasing the particles and colliding with other particles creates an anomaly in the universe creating a parallel world within the story involving doppelgangers. In addition, the idea of the protagonist going on a “road trip” is a nice story choice, as it symbolizes his journey of self-discovery. He has life choices and life paths can take, well represented in the road trip. Troy has to overcome both physical and emotional obstacles along the way. The story is told with great subtext and symbolism, which is both one of the strengths and one of the detriments of the script.
The plot involving Troy is clear. He has a solid external or actionable goal to learn about his birth family. His inner goal is to feel as if he belongs. However, there are certain events within the script that are not as clear, and this especially occurs in the third act when Troy arrives at this destination. First, there’s an identified three-act structure. The story feels goal-focused and for the most part the pace works well to move the story forward. The first act sets up the ordinary world of Troy. He suffers from severe migraines and this leads him to wanting to know more about his medical history.
It’s a good story choice. He’s clearly conflicted about his past. His decision to find his birth family and the connection he makes with his biological aunt are the inciting events and the catalyst that drives the plot. The audience easily identifies with Troy’s goal and the audience effortlessly roots for him. Also, in the first act the idea of the Large Hadron Collider is well established. It’s clear what the goal for this experiment is. The subtext of Troy’s goal and the LHC’s goal is nicely connected, although some audience may not immediately pick up on the link between the two goals.
The idea of a parallel world is nicely foreshadowed. The second act is Troy’s road trip or journey. There’s a strong pivotal plot beat when Troy finds Gigi. This is actually when the story becomes more emotionally engaging. The story adds nice suspense when the black car begins to follow Troy. In fact, black mustang. The car following Troy actually reminds one of the classic DUEL (1971) film. Consider finding ways to elevate the tension between Troy and this mysterious car. Creating a strong sense of the car stalking and show more effectively how this psychologically affects Troy.
The idea is to create much more suspense and tension about the car. The second act offers plenty of obstacles for Troy, such as the tire blow out and being arrested. As the second act progresses, one begins to suspect that Gigi is a ghost or some supernatural being, and some may even suspect that she’s his “mother,” but this is fine. Nice clues are planted in the dialogue about Gigi being related to Troy and they all work well. The second act also introduces the idea of the doppelgangers and the audience realizes that there’s been some powerful effect on the universe due to the experiment.
It’s very entertaining and fun to see the doppelgangers. It’s a strong element. Where the story becomes more confusing and less engaging is when Gigi disappears (with Ben) and Troy arrives to his final destination. A lot of new characters are introduced like Bonita and Marisol, which feel non-essential to the storytelling. Why not just have Troy arrive and Anna isn’t home and he waits for her in the car and then a neighbor comes up and calls him by the name Yuseff and then explains that this was Graciela’s baby’s name. Then transition to the idea of Troy seeing the car and the driver.
He follows the driver eventually being revealed to be “him” or Yuseff/Troy2. This would eliminate the “preacher” and the confusing reference to “Ray Ray. ” The confrontation between Troy and Yuseff, unfortunately, doesn’t feel satisfying. There’s really no resolution. Suddenly, Yuseff is gone or they have become one (it’s not clear). The ending feels more like a social drama with the idea of Troy being introduced to Eugenio and Jerry. None of this really feels compelling In addition, one feels that questions are not effectively answered regarding Troy’s mother and what happened to her.
On page 95, Anna says they found “him” and it’s not clear whom she’s referring to (Ben? ). Thus, it’s not clear if something happened years ago with his mother, such as her being abducted and now history repeats it’s self with Ben abducting Gigi. This present day abduction apparently helps solve the old case. Or what Gigi hit by a car driven by Ben. All of this should be clarified. It’s also not clear why Troy was given up for adoption. More confusion is created with Vincent being revealed to be a doppelganger of Troy and what this means for the plot. Thus, at the end one doesn’t feel emotionally satisfied.
What appears to be missing is a clear link that depending on the collision of particles, life can take a different path or direction. For Troy, his life took one direction when he was given up for adoption. For Yuseff, his life took a different direction. One that doesn’t seem good, but it’s not entirely clear. And for Vincent/ Troy, his life took another different direction. However, this is all up to one’s interpretation and it might benefit the script to clarify how the beginning of life is crucial regarding the path one takes and then it’s up to the individual to create their own path or life choices.
The story uses a series of voice-overs. The voice-overs contain strong subtext. The voice-overs switch from Troy to Callahan, then back to Troy. It’s a creative choice, but be consistent. It can work either way. In some scenes Troy’s VO do sound awkward and it may benefit the script to consistently use the Professor as the source of the VO. So, beginning from page one, examining the structure more closely consider the following:
