An analysis of the Plot and Structure of Bedazzled (2000)

Michaela Belanová, Sexta. A, 10. 10. 2009

This film is a remake of the 1967 film Bedazzled, originaly written by Peter Cook and
Dudley Moore. It was directed by Harold Ramis and had three screenplay authors: Larry
Gelbart, Harold Ramis (also director) and Peter Tolan. Harold Hamis directed 11 films, but
the most famous are Groundhog day, Caddyshack and Analyze this. Larry Gelbart wrote
screenplay for 10 films, such as Tootsie (co-written with Murray Schisgal) or Oh, God!. Peter
Tolan wrote Analyze this and Analyze that (with Harold Hamis), My Fellow Americans, Guess
Who and Just Like Heaven.

In this movie, Bedazzled, friendship plays an important role. It is apparent from the
start, since the main character (Elliot Richards) can be seen trying to fit in.
Unfortunately, he is trying too hard, and failing miserably – his „friends“ are only
making fun of him because of it. They find his behaviour amusing and use his desire
to fit in to their amusement and make him do things he normally wouldn’t do. It also
affects his wishes: he almost always asks to be popular and liked. In the end he
realized that he shouldn’t try so hard at befriending his colleagues, because they are
simply not worth it and when they try to make fun of him, he makes it obvious he is
not interested. I think it is a move in good direction, because I think he realized that it
is not worth having friends at all costs, but that it’s what kind of friends they are that
matters.

Love is also important to Elliot, but since from the start he is very shy and unsociable. That
means, ha doesn’t have courage to ask the girl he loves out. When his „friends“ finally make
him talk to her, she walks away and he is left heartbroken. That is also why every of his
wishes (except for the first one) is about her – either that he is married to her, or after that
doesn’t work he asks for her to be in love with him. Of course, it never works out right – for
some reason or other she looses her interest in him and so he has to try again with his next
wish. The wish that saved him was about her as well, only this time he didn’t wish for her to
love him, but thought about what she wants. At the end of the film he finally finds the courage
to ask her out, but she says she is already seeing someone. This comes as quite a shock,
because the viewer was led to think that they would end up together. But when he comes
home, he finds that he has a new neighbour – a girl with similar hobbies and dressing style. It
is an obvious love at the first sight. I like that they didn’t go with the cliche of getting the girl
that he tried to get by abnormal means when he could only ask her out, but that they added
twist to it: he doesn’t get her anyway, but gets someone else.

In the beginning, there is conflict between Elliot and his co-workers. He doesn’t fit and they
make fun of him. To solve this problem, he makes a deal with the devil and most of the time
asks to be someone popular. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out, because the devil always
finds a way to ruin his wishes. This conflict never dissapears, even at the end, because it
seems even though his co-workers won’t make fun of him anymore, they won’t really become
friends. But the ending is happy regardless of this, because Elliot now seems capable of
finding other friends, probably even better ones.

I think this movie was quite good, but not the kind I would normally watch. The plot was too
simple and easy to see-through for me. I prefer movies with complex plots that can sometimes
be hard to follow. Even though I din’t see the twist about Elliot getting together with someone
else than Alison. But, since this movie was probably intended to be a simple relaxing movie,
it was a lot better than most of its kind I’ve seen.