ANALYST’S REPORT

TITLE: DC	GENRE: Political Thriller
AUTHOR: Michael January	PAGES: 117
SUBMITTED BY: Author	FORM: Screenplay
SUBMITTED TO: Analyst	DRAFT: N/A
TIME: Present	DATE: May 19, 2003
LOCALE: Washington, D.C.	ANALYST: Lynn Terashita
ELEMENTS: N/A	BUDGET: Moderately High

PREMISE:

A serial murderer is killing young women in Washington. A doctor believes that a suspected U.S. Senator is being framed by an elite group of his power club colleagues and finds herself caught in the cross-hair of the conspiracy.

ANALYST’S EVALUATION

	EXCELLENT	GOOD	FAIR	POOR
PREMISE:	X
STRUCTURE:	X
CHARACTERIZATION:	X
DIALOGUE:	X
COMMERCIALITY:	X
PROJECT RECOMMEND:	RECOMMEND
WRITER RECOMMEND:	RECOMMEND

SYNOPSIS:

A YOUNG WOMAN jogging in Rock Creek Park is savagely murdered by a MASKED ASSAILANT. DETECTIVES ROBINSON and LOGANO investigate. The situation is similar to the murder of another young Washington staffer. Muck-raking, always on the scene, TV reporter, JEB WYRICK, theorizes that she’s the latest target of a serial killer. The cops won’t confirm or deny.

DR. HARRIET ROSE, a trauma surgeon, meets SENATOR MITCH CALDERON at a health industry fund-raiser. They’re attracted, but Harriet has no patience for politics.

Later that night, Mitch appears at the ER, carrying the bleeding body of a high-priced call girl, FELICIA RINGLAND. She’s been stabbed. While treating her, Harriet discovers a bit of jewelry clutched in her hand, like a gold knotted rope. The detectives arrive and find a stiletto knife in Mitch’s car. The weapon and wounds seem very much like the others.

Despite Harriet’s efforts, Felicia dies. Detective Robinson questions Harriet whether the victim identified her attacker. Harriet recalls that when she asked what happened, Felicia pointed at Mitch.

At the police station, Mitch volunteers to recount his movements for the detectives. He details his otherwise unexceptional day: a vote on the Senate floor, an elevator ride with his aide, ROBBY LISLE, a conversation with SEN. MULLINS, one with a lobbyist LANSMAN, another with old, but still powerful SEN. COMSTOCK, a tense word with young, ambitious SEN. BRENT MORRIS, a photo-op over a new fuel cell energy bill.

Recounting his time at the fund-raiser, Mitch claims he fell asleep in the bar. After leaving the hotel, he took a wrong turn and Felicia fell in front of his car. He seems appropriately shocked when the police produce the knife found in his car. But asked if he knew the victim, he hedges. He seems to be hiding something.

U.S. Attorney LARRY JOHANSEN, planning a run for Congress, eager for advancement, wants to go for an indictment, but he needs Harriet’s statement that the victim identified the Senator.

Harriet arrives to sign her statement but discovers Robinson misinterpreted what she said. She insists she didn’t ask Felicia who attacked her, only that she pointed to the Senator as if he could tell where he found her. Johansen is convinced that she’s changed her story, that the Senator “got to her”. Johansen leaks to the press that Harriet “changed” her testimony and she finds herself thrust into the building media feeding frenzy.

At the hospital, Harriet suspects that someone has searched her locker. Her best friend and colleague, MONICA ICHIKAWA, has also noticed odd happenings, but counts it as prying reporters. Later, on her way home, Monica is followed, She is attacked by the Masked Assailant. He seems to be searching for something. Her body is left in the bushes of a church and won’t be found for two days.

Harriet is upset that the ambitious Johansen is trying to use her. She goes to Mitch’s office to drop off a letter to him. He invites her to lunch - in the Capitol. He takes a tape recorder. They encounted Sen. Comstock, an alcoholic and shifty old letch. Harriet only begins to realize how deep she’s getting. Even more so, as she realizes she’s falling for Mitch.

Harriet returns to her rural farmhouse to find her dog beaten and her house searched. She assumes it was the reporters gathering in a media city. Harriet is rabid about her privacy, “training” the press to keep to the boundary of her property, brandishing a shotgun.

Wyrick ambushes Harriet. He tells her about The Lanyard Club – a group of insiders who are as secretive as they are powerful. Their insignia is a piece of gold jewelry shaped like a knotted rope – exactly like the one Harriet found on Felicia. Years before, a prostitute had been found murdered, clutching the same pin. But it was covered up. Wyrick wants to know if Mitch is a member.

Now suspicious, Harriet confronts Mitch. He admits he was invited to join the club of powerful government officials, but declined. She believes him. She can no longer avoid her feelings for him. She invites him home for a cooked meal. One thing leads to another.

The M.E. finds an inconsistency between the knife found in Mitch’s car and Felicia’s wound. He also determines Felicia had attempted suicide. Robinson discovers that Felicia was paid by Lansman’s lobbying firm and suspects Lansman arranged for Felicia’s medical care after her suicide attempt. Lansman’s firm was also lobbying for an energy bill that ties him to one of the other victims. Robinson thinks he’s getting close to the solution, but before he can question Lansman, the lobbyist is found dead in an alley, made to look like a drug deal gone bad. His last phone call was to the Capitol.

Harriet is attacked in her bedroom by the Masked Assailant, even while the reporters are outside. He’s looking for the rope pin Harriet inadvertently pocketed and forgot. She fights him off and grabs her shotgun, but he gets away, crashing through the window.

Reporters hear the gunshots and flying glass. They chase the killer through the woods, recording live, the reporters becoming the story. But the killer escapes. Moment’s later, Wyrick, appears, claiming to have fallen asleep. Is Wyrick the killer?

Wyrick contacts Harriet. Says he has something regarding Mitch that she should see and gets her to meet him. She arrives on the dark, deserted Capitol Mall for their meeting but finds him with a bullet hole in his head. He’s clutching an envelope.

As Harriet tries to reach Robinson on her cell phone, a JOGGER appears, carrying a silenced gun. She’s been set up. She runs, but no-where to hide. She seeks asylum at the closed National Art Gallery, where a guard patrols, but the Jogger kills the GUARD, setting off an alarm.

Police arrive. The Jogger carjacks a cab. Robinson was nearby. He’s had Harriet watched. Helicopters track the cab through the city, closing in at last on the trapped killer. But when they finally surround the cab, it’s the wrong one! He got away.

Robinson examines the envelope Wyrick was carrying. It contains photos of Mitch having sex with Felicia. Robinson knows how much Harriet wanted to believe in Mitch’s innocence, but reveals that they found a Colorado pin at the location where Felicia was attacked. It’s the kind Senators wear. All the evidence points to Mitch. Harriet still doesn’t believe it. She wonders if Wyrick was killed for the pictures, why didn’t the killer take them?

Johansen has an indictment to arrest Mitch, but Robinson suspects that Mitch is being framed. The photos had been doctored. Harriet’s question about the pictures prompted him to dig a little deeper. He’s discovered that Lansman and Senator Morris were pushing an energy bill backed by a Montana company hoping to score billions from new fuel cell technology. The other female victims were all connected through the Lanyard Club parties to bribes paid to pass favorable regulations. Robinson and Logano race the Capitol.

Mitch’s trusted assistant, Robby, tells him that Harriet wants to meet him. But Robby has ambitions, too. He has lured both Mitch and Harriet into a trap. He’s been working for the old boys club, Senator Morris and Comstock, and now intends to kill Harriet and make it look like Mitch did it, then took his own life. It will make for a perfect murder-suicide story for the muck hungry press.

Mitch tries to shield Harriet. Robby shoots him. Harriet gets away. Robby chases her, UP, into the Capitol Dome. With nowhere else to go, Harriet climbs outside onto the dome, clinging to the iron curving sides like dangling from a cliff. Just as Robby catches her, Mitch appears, fighting his wound to try to save Harriet. He grabs Robby. They fall. Their bodies crash through an upper window, but Mitch catches on a cleaning rope. Robby falls to his death on the floor of the rotunda, at the feet of Johansen and a few guilty Senators, about to be arrested by Robinson. Vindicated in her belief in Mitch, Harriet must call on her skills as a doctor to save him. And succeeds.

COMMENTS:

This is a well-crafted screenplay. The high concept story is an original take on a screen staple – the political thriller – following in the footsteps of THE CONTENDER, ENEMY OF THE STATE, and even THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR. The theme running through that “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” is still true, perhaps even more so today than when Lord Acton first observed it over a hundred years ago.

The story line feels like it should be predictable but the clues are subtle enough that the perpetrator isn’t evident until well into the third act. The writer has crafted an excellent example of an intricate plot with many turns and twists that ultimately all lead to an inevitable end.

The complicated story, tapping as it does into the public’s general distrust of Washington Insiders, supports the believability of this script. The subplots (e.g., the romantic liaison between Harriet and Mitch) are all inextricably entwined with the main story and the continuity is excellent (not easy to do in a complex piece like this).

There’s a terrific hook. Though the female jogger has been done to death, we’re still drawn in as we think she’s going to hook up with the other Jogger. Instead, she’s brutally attacked.

The script has an elegant structure. The writer lays a solid foundation and builds his story carefully, in such a way as not to topple anything too soon. The ending may be a little over the top but it works. Something with this much tension needs a huge finale and this script delivers.

The setup of the main character and her conflict in the beginning is quite well done with great economy of words. As each plot piece is added, we’re drawn further and further into the characters’ complex lives. In the end, we not only find out whodunit, but why.

Appropriately, the pace is very fast. It begins at a good clip and continues to build throughout until the final climatic chase scene.

The characters are wonderfully three-dimensional – not just the majors but the supporting cast, also. The writer has given them just enough backstory to understand their actions and their range is quite broad. They have clear motivations: Power is what these guys are all about and they’ll go to any length to keep what they have and get even more.

The characters are all marvelously flawed. Harriet is both too suspicious and too trusting. Mitch is idealistic, which is admirable but can be a negative trait in politics. Everybody wants something. Robinson is possibly the only one without flaws, professionally speaking, but that doesn’t prevent us from cheering him on.

Everybody has an emotional arc. Harriet’s is the biggest, as she learns how far she’ll go to see justice done for someone she admires. Development is consistent throughout. There’s a great deal of rooting interest. We WANT Mitch and the good guys to win. There’s a wide variety to the characters, also. The writer has indulged in some stereotyping (e.g., “The Southern Senator”) but the individuals can stand on their own.

Harriet makes a terrific hero. She believes in her man and saves his life, literally. The stakes are, literally, life and death and she emerges triumphant. There are many appealing roles in this script with a lot of substance for actors to work with.

Dialogue is very good at revealing character and feeding us information while continuing to move the story forward. It flows well and is appropriate to each individual character.

The writer has not only mastered the craft of screenwriting but has developed a discernible individual style. This is a good, robust concept that has been excellently executed with some great visuals. It’s a real page-turner with few, if any, dull moments, adding up to a well-constructed political mystery/thriller that’s a workable blueprint for a feature film.