DRAMA, ROMANCE, SUSPENSE, THRILLER

Elizabeth lives a life of luxury, wealth, and marital unhappiness with her violent and cold husband, Mason. She dreams of a past romance that made her feel true love, at least once in her lifetime. One day, she meets her sweetheart, Simon, a kind and altruistic firefighter, who starts working as a security guard for Elizabeth's husband. They resume the torrid romance of the past, and Elizabeth can feel joy again. But once Mason finds out, he tries to kill her, but Simon saves his life and ends up shooting Mason, who falls dead. The judge understands that Mason was an aggressive man and that his death was caused by his own violence, thus allowing Simon and Elizabeth to live happily ever after.

FAIR

THIRD PERSON

Authors Writing Style: FAIR

Characterization: FAIR

Commerciality: FAIR

Franchise Potential: FAIR

Pace: FAIR

Premise: FAIR

Structure: FAIR

Theme: FAIR

The author could add information about the secondary characters as well.

The beginning of the book offers a good reflection on the rape that so many women suffer from their own husbands. Despite consensual sex, the man rapes the woman while does not listen to her requests to get out of that situation. With this beginning, the book already presents the dominant-dominated relationship between Mason and Elizabeth and places us on the protagonist's side.

The book ends up revolving a lot around the forbidden love of Elizabeth and Simon, which ends up leaving the narrative more in anticipation of the future and in the memory of the past, than in actual actions in the present.

THE STORY DOES NOT RELY ON SPECIAL EFFECTS

The hook would be a woman's dream of leaving her relationship of submission and dominance with her violent husband and living a genuine and more sincere love - which would be the representation of many women's dreams.

Precisely because of the universal content of the book's theme -- domestic violence and the dream for a better life --, the book would have a chance of reaching a large audience.

To increase the potential for awards, the adaptation should follow a more dramatic path, about the violence suffered by Elizabeth within an unhappy marriage. However, the book ends up focusing too much on the forbidden romance and ends up losing its strength as a result.

LOW BUDGET

ENOUGH (FILM 2002), MATCH POINT (FILM 2005)

It is somewhat original to see the "cheating" arising from the search for being loved and feeling happy again. More than cheating to satisfy physical desires, the protagonist cheats on her husband in search of her own happiness. This motivation brings a certain lightness and beauty to the narrative.

Elizabeth is a strong woman who suffers her husband's violence and abuse in silence to keep her family together. She thinks of her daughter first, so she tries to maintain an unhappy marriage to guarantee her daughter a promising and trouble-free future. She also lets herself be carried away by the love of the past as she feels joy and desire again. Sensations taken from her life. In other words, she is a character with different layers.

It's not a rare gem, especially because the film "Enough" is quite similar to this one, except for the more romantic and sensual element. Having this addition of romance to the story of violence is a way of making the narrative fresher, but at the same time, this addition ends up taking away the gravity of the theme a little.

Film: Indie, Streaming

WORK IN PROGRESS

It is a work in progress because the narrative is not yet robust enough to reach the screens with its full potential. As interesting as it is to see a woman who suffers abuse in her marriage finding freedom in the arms of a loving and kind man, we still feel that the story has narrative gaps, and sounds repetitive at times.

To make it reach its maximum potential and be considered by players and studios, the adaptation would need a more balanced equilibrium between the abuse suffered by the wife and the torrid romance with someone from the past. As much as it is understandable that she cheats on her husband with the love of her life, and that he somehow becomes her savior, the thematic comings and goings of the book end up diminishing the strength of both narrative layers. On the one hand, we would like to see Elizabeth stand out more for herself, regardless of whether she is in love with someone else or not. It would be nice to see her resolve this part of her life in a more forceful way. Second, it would be interesting for the past love to resurface in a less obvious way. The impression it gives is that Elizabeth is quite passive in her experiences: She is not happy in her marriage, but she does not put an end to it, nor does she try to resolve the situation in more assertive ways. She is in love with Simon, but is still married to a man she doesn't love, and tries to keep her lover away from her. It would be great to see this woman resolve her issues and take matters into her own hands. I know that many women live submissively in their homes for fear of the lethal violence they may suffer, but at least in the cinema, it would be inspiring to have the impulse of a better life generated by female strength itself. An inspiration so that many others could also overcome their problems. The dialogue also ends up sounding repetitive, as many point out what the between the lines were already able to tell us. In this type of narrative, moments of silence and reflection are very important.