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The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at the Trope Launch Pad.

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FlashSteps Since: Aug, 2014
2023-07-11 16:42:04

Bump, still hoping for an answer.

PCD Since: May, 2021
2023-07-12 04:28:27

It's difficult to figure out the example, but I don't see a decoy. If Chris and Lynn aren't married to each other in the first scene, then Chris telling Lynn he wants a divorce *does* refer to her divorcing Jeff. It's not stated because they both know their own situation. The problem is that the audience has misintrepreted the situation, believing these two are married to each other. The film lets us believe this for the sake of later drama. I don't know if I'd call that being a decoy? How do you see it?

WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
2023-07-12 10:48:55

It's probably just a standard Bait-and-Switch.

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Scorpion451 (Edited uphill both ways)
2023-07-12 12:02:07

Yeah, seconding Bait-and-Switch, with the actual relationship being a Tomato Surprise

Calling it a cheat crosses over from critique into complaining, also: The film frames the conversation in a very deceptive way, but on the Watsonian side there's no reason for Chris to add "from Jeff" when they both know who she's married to, and on the Doyalist side the Rule of Drama justifies lying to the audience even more blatantly than this in the name of making a twist work.

Also would be Once More, with Clarity if we revisit a longer version of the scene giving us the full context that set up this line, or Rewatch Bonus if it's something that only makes sense when you watch it a second time.

Edited by Scorpion451
FlashSteps Since: Aug, 2014
2023-07-14 16:04:44

I don't know if I'd call it complaining (and I'm just relaying what I heard from podcast reviews of the film when it comes to describing it as a cheat) but of course, there's no reason for him to say "I want a divorce from Jeff" when he himself isn't married to the man. If anything it may be a subversion of Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic because when she asks what you want, you just wouldn't say "a divorce" (his exact words) as the third party in the triangle (presumably Chris is single and he clearly isn't talking about a marriage he's a partner to), you'd say "I want you to divorce him". So, yes, maybe the deception is too much, doesn't strictly work after Once More, with Clarity or as a Rewatch Bonus (it only works in the first viewing under the presumed context of the scene) and this edges it over into "cheat" territory. But, thanks for your suggestions, they do work other than that point of contention.

Edited by FlashSteps
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