Movie Reviews for Writers: Grace

Charles Elliston is a writer who is unproductive in his solitude and unproductive with the assistants his agent sends him to help him with everything but the writing so he can focus on getting his overdue work done. So when “the Supreme Narcissist” the agent’s wife’s nickname for Ellison) runs off yet another helper, his agent sends him Dawn — a hard-assed, take no crap writer at the beginning of her journey — to clean the house, run his errands, etc. Her initial take on his latest book — “self-indulgent bullshit.” Cue the obvious Odd Couple plotline without all the comedy sass.

Grace succeeds in exploring the dynamics between a writer’s solitude vs. intrusion from others. It encapsulates the problem of how careful we writers can be regarding who we let into our solitude. We tend to divide our lives into the solitude of actually writing or being “in the zone” and the other, regular stuff of going to the grocery store or visiting family and friends. But we are notoriously picky about the folks we invite into the “zone” with us. That’s a private, personal, proprietary space for us.

Dawn and Charlie clearly have preconceptions about each other when they begin their time together. Dawn sees the world through the eyes of someone who looks up to a “genius” whose work she enjoys, and Charlie through the eyes of a writer who expects people to want something from him and disturb his settled world.

Dawn: “Do you ever get lonely?”

Charlie: “Not really.”

Dawn: “How’d you start writing?”

Charlie: “I don’t remember not writing. Are you a writer?” 

…

Charlie: “Most writers write about their childhood, which is a travesty in my opinion. I write about what embarrasses me, what makes me nervous, what enrages me beyond the pale. Write for yourself first; worry about the world later.”

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