# Your favorite movie in which nothing happens **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 27, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379 "2014-02-27T03:00:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/41 "2014-02-27T20:30:13Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > **The Station Agent** was great, three quirky characters meet while they’re all dealing with the loss of people close to them. The film was about how Peter Dinklage’s character was drawn out of his solitude by Bobby Cannavale and Patricia Clarkson’s characters (who have their own issues). So it’s not that nothing happens; it’s just not a thrill-a-minute adventure. Lots of films are like that. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/42 "2014-02-27T20:36:38Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > We presume. > The film ends prior to this occurring. Are you sure? It shows them leaving the courthouse, presumably after the trial is over. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/43 "2014-02-27T20:40:58Z")
It’s far from my favorite movie, but for a 4-hour film where nothing much happens but a young painter visits an older painter, and older painter ends up painting his girlfriend a bunch of times, [La belle noiseuse](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101428/?ref_=nv_sr_4) isn’t bad. A naked Emmanuelle Béart will suffice for plot, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/44 "2014-02-27T20:41:25Z")
Who said a movie has to be a shoot-'em-up? Plot and character development makes a story. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/45 "2014-02-27T21:35:23Z")
Sling Blade may count. Most of the action depicted is told through a story in the beginning of the movie rather than shown on screen. The vast majority of the movie doesn’t have any action. It is just about Karl reintegrating with the outside world. Dwight Yoakam plays an abusive asshole but I don’t think I would call that action. There is something big that happens at the end but even that isn’t shown on screen. Napoleon Dynamite may also count. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/46 "2014-02-27T21:52:37Z")
Gus van Sant’s [Gerry](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302674/) is pretty much just two guys walking in the desert for days. There is one [long uninterrupted shot](http://youtu.be/rMEx4g-CFCk) of them walking into the sunrise that is absolutely mesmerizing (or deadly boring depending on your point of view). ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/47 "2014-02-27T22:14:22Z")
I like[The Party](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Party_%28film%29), starring Peter Sellers. All he does is wander around the party and be goofy… yet it’s watchable. Far more watchable than My Dinner With Andre, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Roundabout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dec6dc/32.png) [@Roundabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roundabout)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/48 "2014-02-27T22:21:31Z")
Friday. They get high. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/49 "2014-02-27T23:31:23Z")
Did anything happen in [The Royal Tenebaums](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265666/?ref_=nv_sr_1)? I liked that move a lot more than I thought I would. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/50 "2014-02-27T23:48:41Z")
Slight tangent on Raiders: How many “Top Men” did they lose before they decided to crate it up and lose it in the warehouse? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/51 "2014-02-28T00:05:51Z")
I know I felt like nothing much happened after watching _Full Metal Jacket_. There was some screaming and abusiveness, some shooting and killing, but in the end, it left me feeling like that famous line from MacBeth about life being a ruckus of no consequence. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/52 "2014-02-28T00:47:28Z")
[Waiting for Godot (2001)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276613/). Not to be confused with [Waiting for Godot (2008)](http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi1957298713/) which was really boring. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/53 "2014-02-28T01:40:24Z")
On Golden Pond Twelve Angry Men (1990s version) The Caine Mutiny Stalag 17 (though there was some killing) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/54 "2014-02-28T01:53:52Z")
_ **Hedda** _ (1975). As I remember it, it was just a lot of people sitting around talking (it _was_ adapted from an Ibsen play), but Glenda Jackson was riveting in the title role. Looking at IMDB, I see it also featured Timothy West and Patrick Stewart, neither of whom I would have recognized thirty-odd years ago. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/55 "2014-02-28T01:59:01Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Actually, the entire film makes one huge presumption: That the US was more than mildly interested in what the Germans were doing in 1938. An even bigger assumption is that Hitler would have been hot to get his hands on a Jewish artifact at the same time he was burning down synagogues all over Germany. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/56 "2014-02-28T01:59:21Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > Did anything happen in [The Royal Tenebaums](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265666/?ref_=nv_sr_1)? > > I liked that move a lot more than I thought I would. > > Brian Guy slits his wrists. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/57 "2014-02-28T02:09:39Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Which he then got back, after a dashboard beat down and throwing the German driver under the truck. Ever stop to think that all the Nazis had to do was follow the truck and wait for Indy to get wherever the hell it was he thought he was going? Or just run out of gas? He hijacks a truck full of soldiers and they’re stupid enough to try and climb into the cab while it’s going at full speed? Where the hell is he going to go? It’s the middle of the fucking Sahara desert! Just sit back and enjoy the ride, _Jungen_; you can kill him when he stops! ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/58 "2014-02-28T04:59:39Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The film was about how Peter Dinklage’s character was drawn out of his solitude by Bobby Cannavale and Patricia Clarkson’s characters (who have their own issues). So it’s not that nothing happens; it’s just not a thrill-a-minute adventure. Lots of films are like that. Please, if watching people draw someone out of their solitude for and hour and a half doesn’t count as nothing happening then no movie here belongs on this list. And I say that as a person who liked this movie. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/59 "2014-02-28T13:54:48Z")
_[Stranger Than Paradise](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Than_Paradise)_. There’s a point midway thru the movie where the subtitle reads “One Year Later”, and it gets a big (and genuine) laugh because nothing much has happened in the first part of the movie and nothing has happened in the year in between. I usually hate absurdist movies like this, but I really enjoyed this one. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379/60 "2014-02-28T20:40:49Z")
**Celeste**. About Marcel Proust’s maid. Long shots of her sitting waiting to be rung for. > [@Disgruntled Penguin](#): > > I’d like to nominate The English Patient which was the most boring movie I ever saw but I’m reasonably sure some stuff happened that I just didn’t care about. ELAINE Ugh. You wouldn’t believe it. My boyfriend dumped me. My friends, who I don’t even like, they won’t talk to me. All because I don’t like that stupid English Patient movie. WAITRESS Really? I thought it was pretty good. ELAINE Oh, come on. Good? What was good about it? (scoffs) Those sex scenes! I mean, please! Gimme something I can use! > **[The English Patient Transcript at IMSDb.](https://imsdb.com/transcripts/Seinfeld-The-English-Patient.html)** > > The English Patient transcript at the Internet Movie Script Database. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-in-which-nothing-happens/682379.md?page=4)