Cannot follow the plot?

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I don't have much problems to follow social cues, facial expressions, body language, etc. in movies. It seems to be way easier than in the real world.

I have other problems with movies when they are originally in Dutch, that is: the speech in the movie is Dutch. Actors often speak improperly so that it hard to hear what they are saying. I don't have this problem with movies whose speech is originally English or German (the languages that I know often well enough to understand people and follow movies in those languages), with or without Dutch subtitles.

Last edited by hans66 on 11 May 2013, 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This. It doesn't happen so much with TV shows, but movies are a big problem. I can never seem to recognize a lot of the characters so sometimes it gets really confusing until something they do makes me link it. Then I'm like "ooooh, alright so that's who that guy is". The plot isn't so bad, unless my mind starts to wander and then I have to rewind.

But yea, most movies are just boring. There are a few good ones that I like. Which, strangely enough, I find easy to follow, but other people don't.

I struggle to keep up with films and certain tv programmes. I have to pause every so often to get my wife to explain what is going on. Love boardwalk empire but just don't understand most of it. Comedy films are ok but anything with a decent plot and I'm confused!

I can't follow the plot sometimes too. It has various reasons:

- The movie doesn't interest me much, I get into my own world for a short while and when I "wake" up I missed some of the plot and don't know what's going on anymore.
- I have a hard time remembering names which can make plots very confusing if you don't know who they are talking about.
- There is so much social interaction/talking going on that I eventually lose track.
- I'm not the smartest person out there, I get completely lost on complicated plots.

I still do enjoy watching movies. The ones I watch are mostly animated movies and comedies nowadays, easy to follow with not too much of a plot and fun to watch.

I have to watch the movie at least 5 times--and/or read the spoilers online--before I finally understand what's going on. It's like that with TV shows too.

I was always wondering about that, too.

I sometimes thought maybe I was too stupid to understand the plot.

I also wonder if it's because I'm so perfectionist that even when I do understand, I can't feel I have understood. Other people are too overconfident to realize they didn't really get it. In other things (not movies) that's actually often the case. So that could be true with movie/story plots as well.

It depends. I tend to particularly have trouble if it particularly involves, say 'this person did this and this other person did this very different thing,' largely because I suck at remembering names and faces (and even if I learn them, that doesn't mean I'll associate the right name with the right face). I often find myself going 'wait, which person is this again?'

Some shows and such are better than others. For example, if the appearances or names are distinctive. Sometimes I find myself having to watch parts of a series twice, just so I know what's going on after I finally figure out who's who.

I keep nudging my husband and asking, Was that the bad guy or the good guy?

This (being unable to recognize who is who) happens to me all the time. Interestingly, it happens when reading as well (as I forget the names of the characters). To compensate, I end up either having to go back to prior pages or maintain a written list of characters.

Back when my friends and I went to the movies, I would notice that other people could keep track of characters and plot much better than I could. Now that I watch movies at home, if it's a good movie, I'll watch it a second time within a few days and get much more of the plot and details.

I'm a big movie fan, but I do have problems with following plot. I'm big into technical theatre, so I'm always noticing makeup or set design or costumes. Or maybe something in the dialogue reminds me of something else, so I zone out. In all cases, I lose track and when I come back I don't know what is happening and to whom. I find I can follow foreign language films better because of the subtitles. Having to focues on reading the dialogue helps me pay better attention. Plus I don't get as distracted by the actors because for the most part I don't know them. In Hollywood films, I of course recognize the actors from other films and start thinking of what else they've done, so can't get into the current role.

Some posters blame the film quality rather than AS, and in some cases that's the case. Some films are so mediocre that they don't hold my attention. The films that are REALLY bad are different though. You can get some entertainment value out of those by making fun of them.

I need no plot! I make my own!