# Movies that gradually change in tone (e.g., starts a comedy, ends a drama)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 10, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200 "2011-08-10T15:09:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/81 "2011-08-12T13:51:07Z")
Second **Life is Beautiful**. I knew what it was about going into it, but it’s so easy to get swept up in the romanticism and charm of the first part. About halfway through I remember thinking, ‘‘Shit, I totally forgot this was about the Holocaust.’’ That’s part of the magic of the film, I think. The characters are people before they are victims.
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### Author:  [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/82 "2011-08-12T14:51:19Z")
In the spirit of _The Descent_: I recently saw French film _Vertige_ (English title _High Lane_), a flick that begins rather like a mountain climbing against-the-elements thriller but ends up a pretty bog-standard slasher. That sort of transition — friends get together for some activity, more or less the filmmaker’s excuse for their isolation — might not be too outside of the box for the horror genre; this takes the first act perhaps a bit further than usual.
You can catch it on Netflix streaming but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s not a very good movie.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/83 "2011-08-23T04:32:19Z")
[The Match Factory Girl](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098532/) (1990). The first half is completely depressing, but then it quickly turns around. Recommended.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/84 "2011-08-23T06:35:45Z")
_Heathers_ might well be my favorite movie if they’d kept it on course, but after about an hour of pitch-black humor, it suddenly grows a conscience and gets practically accusatory toward the viewer for laughing at the first two thirds.
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### Author:  [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/85 "2011-08-23T08:03:22Z")
> [@Haunted\_Pasta](#):
>
> _The Descent,_ although its two genres aren’t as far apart as a lot of others in this thread. The first (better) half was all atmospheric and psychological. The second half was just straight-up horror. The exact moment of transition about made me jump backwards through the wall, though.
It is one of my all time horror movie favourite moments. I love watching the film with people that have never seen it before. Brilliantly done.
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### Author:  [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/86 "2011-08-23T10:19:55Z")
> [@RadioWave](#):
>
> _Life is Beautiful_ is an excellent example of this. It’s all giggles and romantic quirkiness in the early parts and then slowly turns into a film about the Holocaust and a family that gets caught up in it.
This sounds kind of like the first movie I thought of - _Everything is Illuminated_. It starts off as a goofy, maybe insensitive but hilarious, comedy about cultural misunderstandings. And ends up very heavy. This one is foreshadowed the whole way through so I think it counts as a gradual change in tone. (It’s much less gradual in the book; the movie cut out the half that consists of flashbacks.)
> [@EvilTOJ](#):
>
> **Shaun of the Dead** started out as a zombie comedy movie and ended up as a zombie chick flick, all serious n’ shit.
And this one reminded me of another example: _Zombieland_. This one starts out as a silly, gory zombie comedy and ends up being first a feel-good road trip movie with a side of rom-com (the undercurrent of black humor keeps it from descending too far into the saccharine) and then has an action/adventure ending.
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### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/87 "2011-08-23T13:12:54Z")
This long, and nobody’s mentioned _Barton Fink_? It starts as a comedy about Hollywood, and gets… darker.
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### Author:  [@Zuzu\_s\_Petals](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zuzu_s_Petals)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/88 "2011-08-23T13:24:49Z")
Million Dollar Baby. Starts off fairly lighthearted and then about halfway through turns abruptly tragic. I was sobbing by the end. (Note to self: Clint Eastwood just doesn’t DO films that are only lighthearted; what did you expect?!)
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/89 "2011-08-23T13:27:07Z")
> [@Zuzu\_s\_Petals](#):
>
> Million Dollar Baby. Starts off fairly lighthearted and then about halfway through turns abruptly tragic. I was sobbing by the end. (Note to self: Clint Eastwood just doesn’t DO films that are only lighthearted; what did you expect?!)
Hey, nice user name. You should have come in and mentioned _It’s a Wonderful Life_ before I did on the previous page.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/90 "2011-08-23T13:43:32Z")
To paraphrase Ebert’s review of LITTLE BLACK BOOK, Brittany Murphy is so earnest in showing us a cute and quirky everygirl’s first day on the job – interspersed with light comedy opposite her amiable boyfriend – that we’re genuinely surprised as the film becomes a cynical and complex look at amorality.
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### Author:  [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/91 "2011-08-23T15:00:07Z")
**The Brothers Bloom** was pretty light and funny most of the time. The ending was a total downer.
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### Author:  [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/92 "2011-08-23T18:49:54Z")
Not a total fit, but **The Dirty Dozen** goes from an Act I grim beginning (a witnessed hanging) to a lighter Act II (officer whipping misfits into an effective military team) and ends with an utterly dark Act IV slaughter.
But out of nowhere Act III is a war game played for laughs that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hogan’s Heroes episode. 😕
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### Author:  [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/93 "2011-08-24T04:13:47Z")
[Successful Alcoholics](http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/a5c1f2716c/successful-alcoholics), a short film starring T.J. Miller and Lizzy Caplan, starts off as a pretty light hearted comedy about two drunks. Doesn’t quite end that way.
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### Author:  [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/94 "2011-08-24T16:14:50Z")
An old one - They Drive By Night starts off as a slice of social realism, exposing the trials and tribulations of the America’s truckers in the pre-Teamster era. Then it takes a turn into film noir before ending in courtroom melodrama, complete with scenery chewing “Mad, mad, I’ll show them who’s mad!” turn by Ida Lupino. Very odd.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/95 "2011-08-24T17:02:52Z")
I came in here to mention **Life is Beautiful** , but since that’s been done.
**50 First Dates** starts out as the kind of movie that you’d expect Rob Schneider to be in – and indeed, he does fail to add anything of value – but it ends as a pretty decent romance story.
**Witness** starts out as sort of an action movie, but turn into a love story. Then turns back into an action movie again.
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### Author:  [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/96 "2011-08-27T23:22:34Z")
Devil’s Advocate. It starts out as pure John Grisham: young lawyer with perfect wife is overjoyed to be hired by super-fancy law firm, enjoys the life of luxury, then slowly starts to worry that his superiors are into something dodgy, and then all of a sudden
there are succubi (or something. It’s been a while) all over the place and Al Pacino is the devil, and it’s some kind of horror film.
WTF?
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### Author:  [@Chipacabra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chipacabra)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2011, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/97 "2011-08-28T03:14:42Z")
[The Apartment](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053604/). It’s a silly little comedy about a schlub being taken advantage of by his boss… and then around the middle of the movie MacLaine’s character attempts suicide and the silliness drains out of the movie.
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2011, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/98 "2011-08-28T04:04:00Z")
Kind of obscure, but the 2003 Brazilian film _[The Man Who Copied](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367859/)_ shifts from a quirky romantic comedy to a heist caper that involves at least one gruesome death. This shift seemed pretty abrupt to me as I watched half the movie on DVD one day and the other half the next, but the financial crime element is actually present from pretty early on – the protagonist works in a copy shop and realizes he can use the machines to counterfeit money (hence the title).
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### Author:  [@gatorslap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gatorslap)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/99 "2011-08-28T04:20:47Z")
Chasing Amy. The beginning is hilarious and the ending is quite serious. Although I wouldn’t exactly say it was a gradual shift in tone.
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### Author:  [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-gradually-change-in-tone-e-g-starts-a-comedy-ends-a-drama/592200/100 "2011-08-28T15:46:31Z")
Heavenly Creatures.
I know it’s based on a true story, and there are flashes of the end at the start of the film, but it goes from a fairly light coming-of-age tale to one of the most horrific endings I’ve ever seen in a movie.
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