Line #29 Film/ShortcutToHappiness


1	[[quoteright:337:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shortcur_to_happiness_6.jpg]]
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3	''Shortcut to Happiness'' is a 2007 film adaptation of the Creator/StephenVincentBenet classic short story ''Literature/TheDevilAndDanielWebster''. It stars Creator/AlecBaldwin, Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt, and Creator/AnthonyHopkins. Baldwin also directed the film.
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5	In Manhattan, ambitious writer Jabez Stone (Baldwin) is a complete loser. He is not able to sell his novels, he lives in an awful apartment and he does not have success with women. When one of his friends, Julius Jensen (Creator/DanAykroyd), sells his novel for one hundred ninety thousand dollars to an editor, Jabez feels envious and promises to sell his soul to the devil for success and accidentally kills a woman with his typewriter. The devil (Love Hewitt) knocks on his door, fixes the situation, and seals a contract with Jabez. His low-quality novels have bad reviews but become best-sellers; Jabez enriches; he has success with women, but he has no time for his friends. Jabez meets with publisher Daniel Webster (Hopkins), who offers him a chance to break the contract with the devil.
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7	!!Tropes in ''Shortcut to Happiness'' include:
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9	* AccidentalMurder: When his typewriter breaks as the last piece of a HumiliationConga, Stone snaps and [[ApplianceDefenestration flings the machine out his window]]. Where it kills an old woman walking by on the street below.
10	* AcheyScars: The scar at the base of the Devil's spine where Daniel Webster cut off her tail is still sensitive. So much so, in fact, that she flinches away just as Jabez Stone is about to touch it.
11	* AlliterativeName: '''J'''ulius '''J'''enson
12	* AnimatedCreditsOpening: Features an animated Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt wreaking havoc on the opening titles, and the titles fighting back.
13	* ApplianceDefenestration: When his typewriter breaks as the last piece of a HumiliationConga, Stone snaps and flings the machine out his window. Where it kills an old woman walking by on the street below.
14	* {{Balloonacy}}: In the StoryWithinAStory that opens the film, Johnnie attaches balloons to his new bicycle--which he sees as the cause of all of his problems--to cause it to float away. At the end of the film, the bike is seen floating above Manhattan. In both cases, it is probably intended to be symbolic.
15	* BattleTrophy: In one of their earlier encounters, Daniel Webster cut off the Devil's tail. He now has it framed and hanging on his office wall.
16	* CarFu: The Devil causes Julius to be run down by a taxi cab. Webster's narration refers to it as "the Devil's chariot".
17	* CarpetOfVirility: After his DealWithTheDevil makes him irresistible to women, Jabez Stone has flings with a lot of different partners, resulting in many shots of Creator/AlecBaldwin's very hairy chest.
18	* DealWithTheDevil: Stone sells his soul to the Devil for 10 years of success.
19	* DramaticThunder: When, during a fit of pique, Jabez Stone declares that he would sell his soul to trade places with Julius Jensen, there is a single bolt of lightning from a clear sky and a dramatic crack of thunder.
20	* EvenTheGuysWantHim: After his DealWithTheDevil, Stone finds women lusting after him. At his book launch, he notices one of the male waiters eying him suggestively.
21	* EvilIsPetty: After two kids on scooters almost collide with the Devil, she causes them to crash. When Stone objects, she airily replies that she should have set them on fire.
22	* FallingIntoHisArms: Not romantic (for obvious reasons), but when Johnnie falls out of the barn in the StoryWithinAStory that opens the film, he lands in his father's arms.
23	* GoingCommando[=/=]VaporWear: The Devil reacts angrily to Stone's scar survey, and rolls out of bed naked, pulls on her trenchcoat, and storms out of the apartment with nothing on underneath it.
24	* GreenEyedMonster: Jabez Stone is jealous of the success his friend Julius Jensen is having: having just signed a three-book deal for a huge amount of money. At the end of an extreme HumiliationConga, he yells to the sky that he would sell his soul to trade places with Julius Jensen. Then there is a crack of thunder and a knock on the door...
25	* HeelRealization: Mike visits Stone to tell him something important, but never quite manages to get it out because they keep being interrupted by Stone's entourage. Thinking his friend needs money, Stone offers him cash. Mike gets angry and storms out. It is only then that Stone puts the clues together and realizes that Mike was trying to tell him he was dying, and that he has just blown off his dying best friend in favour of a photoshoot for ''Architectural Digest''. It's further hammered home when Kee tells him "the light's gone" (referring to the photoshoot). Stone realizes that the light '''is''' gone from his life and he has become a horrible person. He starts trying to put things right before his 10 years are up and [[DealWithTheDevil the Devil comes to collect on her deal]].
26	* HotAsHell: The Devil is played by Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt and first appears to Jabez Stone wearing a LittleBlackDress with NavelDeepNeckline: all revealed by SexyCoatFlashing. And she seals [[DealWithTheDevil the bargain for his soul]] by sleeping with him.
27	* HumiliationConga: In the space of one day, Jabez Stone loses his job (for being nice to a customer); has his manuscript rejected by his idol Daniel Webster; learns his best friend has just signed a three-book deal with a lucrative advance that will increase with each subsequent book; discovers he is broke due to a spiteful act of his {{Jerkass}} brother; is mugged by a gang that severely beats him and steals the laptop containing the only copy of the manuscript for his novel; tries writing on his old electric typewriter only for it to break, and finally he [[ApplianceDefenestration flings the typewriter through his window]] where it hits an old woman in the head and kills her. Small wonder he [[DealWithTheDevil accepts the Devil's offer to buy his soul]].
28	* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Early in the movie, Mike tends to cough every time he lights up a cigarette. This leads to a RunningGag between him and Stone, as every time he does this, Stone sarcastically tells him to "have another cigarette". Eventually, after a particularly bad coughing fit, Stone takes the cigarette out of his mouth and throws it away. The viewer later learns that this was the moment when Mike quit smoking. However, the coughing is an early symptom of the lung cancer that eventually kills him.
29	* InexplicablyAwesome: No explanation is given as to why publisher Daniel Webster is the only mortal able to take on the Devil and win: once having even physically confronted her and cut off her tail, which he hangs on his wall as a trophy.
30	* JuryOfTheDamned: The Jurors in Stone's trial are dead authors, including Truman Capote, Jacqueline Susann, Creator/ErnestHemingway, Mario Puzo, Creator/CharlotteBronte, and Creator/JamesJoyce.
31	* LittleBlackDress: When the Devil turns up to buy Jabez Stone's soul--a deal that is sealed by the two of them having sex--she is wearing a little back dress with a NavelDeepNeckline, which she reveals to him via SexyCoatFlashing.
32	* MadnessMantra: After learning that his friend Julius has been given a $190,000 advance for his next novel, and then being mugged and having his laptop (which contains the manuscript for his own novel) stolen, Stone breaks down, hauls his old electric typewriter out of the closet and starts typing 'ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY THOUSAND DOLLARS' over and over again on a sheet of paper. Then the typewriter breaks and he resorts to ApplianceDefenestration.
33	* NavelDeepNeckline: The night the Devil buys Jabez Stone's soul, she is wearing a LittleBlackDress with an ''extremely'' plunging neckline: all revealed by SexyCoatFlashing.
34	* NoFameNoWealthNoService: Jabez starts the film working in a high-end men's clothing store. He gets fired for serving an old man who his supervisor does not think is wealthy enough to be shopping there. As a final act of defiance, he buys the tie the old man was interested in and gives it to him as a gift.
35	* ResetButton: The jury declaring Stone's contract null and void seemingly undoes all of the events of the movie, with Stone suddenly finding himself back before he made his DealWithTheDevil, with Julius still alive and presumably everything else undone as well.
36	* RichJerk: Jabez's brother [[MeaningfulName Dick]]. A wealthy Wall Street type, he flaunts his wealth in the face of brother, who is a struggling writer. He arranges an extremely expensive anniversary present for their parents--knowing that Jabez will never be able to contribute to it--insisting that he just wants everything to be 'perfect'. And when Jabez writes a token cheque to contribute to the cost, he cashes it even though he must know that doing so will leave his brother broke.
37	* ScarSurvey: When Stone wakes up next to the Devil after having sex, he runs his finger along the perfect skin of her back, only to find an ugly scar at the base of her spine where her tail was cut off. She reacts angrily and refuses to discuss the scar.
38	* SettingUpdate: Of ''Literature/TheDevilAndDanielWebster''.
39	* SexyCoatFlashing: While making her deal with Stone, the Devil strips off her orange leather trenchcoat to reveal a LittleBlackDress with a NavelDeepNeckline underneath.
40	* SexyShirtSwitch: When Stone and one his groupies are lying post-coital on the kitchen floor, she is wearing nothing but one of his shirts.
41	* SoreLoser: The Devil throws an epic hissy fit when the jury finds in Stone's favour and nullifies her contract.
42	* StoryWithinAStory: The film opens with an extract from Jabez Stone's novel, alternating between his typing and the scene being acted out. (It's possible the title of the novel may be [[MetafictionalTitle ''Shortcut to Happiness'']], but this is never conclusively established.)
43	* TitleDrop: Johnnie's father in the StoryWithinAStory tells his son that "there is no shortcut to happiness".
44	* VomitIndiscretionShot: Mike visits Stone to tell him that he is dying of cancer. However, before he gets a chance to do so, he throws up all over Stone's coffee table and carpet. Stone still doesn't figure out what's going on until after Mike angrily storms out. It is this event that triggers Stone's HeelRealization
45	* WhiteGangBangers: Stone is mugged by a multiracial gang that includes at least one very prominent white member.
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Context Film / ShortcutToHappiness