*waves to Wenamun*

—L.

We never come back to any of this stuff again. We never see the married couple, and there’s no further reference to the protagonists’ careers at all.

But the opening is funny. It pulls us into the story. And, most importantly, it establishes the protagonists as a pair of extraordinary baloney artists who are so in synch with each other that they finish each others’ sentences. They are more than half con-men, they don’t care how hokey a line is if the mark will buy what they’re selling. And yet they also deliver on their promises — by the end of this little vignette, the couple has arrived at an agreement to separate their property, and the divorce can move forward.

All these qualities in the protagonists’ personalities are essential to keeping the movie going forward when we get to the real action.

The Farrelly Brothers, who created There’s Something About Mary, demonstrate that your protagonist can do hateful things if he shows the audience he’s also compassionate and has good character. And a good place to start with that is at the very beginning. If your hero is going to cold-bloodedly kill 100 people in Scene 2, maybe it’s a good idea to have him rescue a puppy in Scene 1.

There’s another sort of opening, probably not common in print these days, that I can’t think of a catchy name for. Oh, let’s try calling it the Antiques Roadshow, in which the opening focus is on the description of an inanimate object, still life, building, etc. before (one hopes) it broadens out to other things.

Marie, I agree that there is - can be - a huge element of trust involved when we sit down to read depending on what we ourselves as readers bring to the table. If I pick up a book with a preconceived notion of how it is going to fit into my reading tastes, I may judge it more harshly or less harshly depending on the circs. I think it takes a strong soul indeed to resist the siren call of any taint of prejudgement based on outside factors. How often have we heard a book condemned, or praised, by someone who hasn’t read it?

Although this subject is tangential to that of openings.

It was cold, rainy night in October and the Lady Evelyn’s screams echoed throughout the mansion for hours before she finally gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.

I tend to see this a lot in rp character backgrounds. For some reason the weather is always mentioned.