Uncovering Character Perspectives in ‘Little Black Book’ (2004)

Uncovering Characters Perspectives in ‘Little Black Book’: They say the people you hang out with contribute to who you are and who you want to become in the future. So be careful who you spend your time with. Are you doing that already? Or are you still planning to do it? If so, when will you do it? Well, for Stacy Holt (Brittany Murphy) in Nick Hurran’s Little Black Book, the right time would be her graduation day in college. She broke up with her college sweetheart Bean (Dave Annable) because she thought they were not on the “same page” in life, and that would only lead to “chaos” in their relationship.

When Bean asked Stacy, “How did  you know (that we are not meant for each other)?” Stacy answered, “I’m certain.” Her answer seemed to come from her gut feeling. Academic sites such as Harvard Business Review, Master Class, and Healthline shared that following one’s gut feeling is good as long as fears and biases will not influence the gut feeling because fears and biases often lead to bad decisions. Unfortunately, people usually interpret their fears as gut feelings.

To distinguish between the two, experts from the above academic sites informed that gut feeling makes the person feel relieved after making the decision, while fear makes the person feel bad. Sadly, Stacy felt the latter as soon as Bean proclaimed that Stacy would regret her decision. A similar feeling happened to Stacy when she heard her mother’s unconvincing voice, “You do?” followed by, “Don’t over-commit yourself unless you are absolutely certain.” Does that mean Stacy’s decision to break up is not a gut feeling?

Stacy’s tendency to quickly change her decision every time someone tells her the potential negative side of her choice proves people’s propensity to become hedonistic – that is, we don’t want any negative experience, ever. Who doesn’t? That’s why, even at the last minute, we try to change, compromise, organize, and control things.

Little Black Book surely evokes the viewers’ memories of their first day at work when Stacy first came to Kippie Kann Do. The female protagonist was a nuisance on her first day due to the typical culture of workplaces. They gave late and raw introductions of the team, places, and functions in the office. If Ira  (Kevin Sussman) is a real person, he would agree to that raw introduction because he was mistaken as a new employee by Kippie. Stacy’s nonchalant expression upon learning the red flags at her new job, such as stealing ideas and backstabbing colleagues, may resonate with the psychology term Bystander effect.

Though Stacy in Little Black Book did verbalize that she wanted to help Kippie by encouraging Barb (Holly Hunter) to join, she did not walk that talk when Carl was bullying Kippie. Even Ira, who said he would find the culprit in front of Kippie, ate his words. Again, this all comes down to people’s hedonistic tendencies; how can Stacy and Ira help Kippie when they don’t even have the power in the office, let alone have their ideas accepted by their immediate supervisor, Carl?

Indeed, there’s always an exemption to the rule and case-to-case basis when applying positive life tips, just like how Stacy was able to apply the lesson, “choosing the person you hang out with wisely” with Bean, but not with her colleagues. As a new employee in a new workplace, it seems difficult to be picky about the people you want to hang out with because senior employees might take your pickiness against them and won’t help you become familiar with your new post.

That unwritten rule that some people seem to subconsciously follow opens an opportunity for senior colleagues to exploit new employees, with or without awareness from both parties. In Stacy’s new workplace, the company culture is to exploit the setbacks of new employees. As Barb said to Ira, “We march thousands of Stacys through here every year. We uncover their secrets, and we spare no feelings. But today, suddenly, you get a conscience.” So, that explains Barb’s pushiness to Stacy when investigating Derek’s exes.

Lucky for Barb, Stacy quickly overcame her guilt when our heroine discovered that Derek and his exes, especially Joyce (Julianne Nicholson), are still talking to each other. Stacy ate her words of “It feels like dishonest” and eventually joined the game of deceit that the people around her were playing. But heading to a war without knowing what you’re facing is dangerous to one’s goal. In Stacy’s case, it’s Joyce’s irresistible kindness and liveliness, as well as her faith to be with Derek. That faith was so infectious that Stacy believed that Derek and Joyce were endgame, too.

It was noticeable that Stacy felt more sadness over anger (as proven by her voice while singing Carly’s song) after hearing Joyce’s words of hope to be with Derek. Then, the next day, when she and Joyce watched a hockey game, Stacy was amazed by Joyce’s banter with  Derek. Those scenes subtly show the benefit of empathy to one’s problem: it lessens people’s negative emotions. Typically, sadness and anger are the two emotions that people experience when problems arise. But when they take into account the perspective of the person that hurt them, the anger subsides.

Empathy was why Stacy’s rival thought toward Joyce was replaced by concern. That’s why she initially rejected the idea of showing Lulu’s (Josie Maran) video to Joyce. But Barb wouldn’t take no for an answer (of course, it was the last straw of her plan), so she pushed Stacy to show the video. Although Stacy was fascinated by the relationship between Derek and Joyce, she was not strong enough to give way.

Stacy won big time in making Joyce hate Derek. But what should have been a shrieking of the word yes! from Stacy’s mouth turned into, “Why did I feel so bad? I should have felt happier at that moment. I had won. But the cost was high, and the victory hollow. I had taken a good friend from someone I loved, and nothing about that felt right.” Indeed, hurting people just to get what you want is never a good feeling. Even Barb felt down before she sold Stacy’s story to the world.

Indeed, life has a way of making people taste their own medicine. Derek deceived Stacy, and Stacy deceived Joyce; Barb, Carl, and Kippie deceived Stacy, so Stacy accidentally deceived back Derek through the show. Yet before that, Stacy was already deceiving her boyfriend by investigating Derek’s exes because Derek was refusing to tell the stories of his exes to Stacy. Carl and Kippie deceive Stacy, but during the show, Stacy reveals that Carl is deceiving Kippie. So Barb and the production team showed Carl’s face on the show, leaving Carl to experience instant betrayal.

For what it’s worth, Barb was betrayed too by the production team after the show; they showed her face while Stacy was condemning her. Therefore, the jokes are really on Kippie and her employees. For years, they laughed at the miseries of their guests, and then, one day, they were the ones being rebuked and laughed at. What an immediate justice for Stacy!

Aside from Stacy, Bean also received justice, but it wasn’t about betrayal; it was justice from the pain of rejection caused by Stacy. Bean got justice from Derek, as the latter was not into Stacy. But since Stacy’s relationship with Derek was more detailed and probably more challenging than Bean’s, numerous lessons came out from Stacy’s second boyfriend. Particularly these lessons: there are no secrets that cannot be revealed, and hiding your true feelings actually harms the “good” relationship you have with your partner. Both lessons resonated with Stacy and Derek. For Stacy, pretending to like hockey and pretending to accept Derek’s preference of not bringing girls home, as well as not talking about past exes. For Derek, not telling about his meetings with his exes to Stacy and not speaking about his true feelings toward Stacy and Joyce.

The lessons from Stacy and Derek’s relationship, though impressive, are easier said than done, especially when it involves fear of outrage, rejection, and dishonesty from a romantic partner when demanding one’s needs. If not, maybe they just love the person so much to the point of spoiling them. One of them (or all of them) seemed to be the reason that Stacy used underhand tactics to learn about the affairs of Derek and his exes. In Little Black Book, Derek appears to be away from home always.

Perhaps his job is too demanding, and that could be the reason that he was less vulnerable to Stacy and himself to lessen the load on his plate. Because Derek was so used to spare himself from difficult conversations with Stacy, he couldn’t answer Stacy’s question, “Why (is Joyce different)?” during the show. It’s like during the course of his relationship with Stacy, Derek’s mindset was, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” which led him to be included in the “everybody” of the saying, “Everybody waits until it’s too late.”

With all these mishaps and setbacks, Stacy’s humble version came out. From saying to Bean, “I’m certain,” to realizing that “you just can’t know it all.” Perhaps Stacy’s valid reason for breaking up with Bean was to find the greenest partner she could have, and that’s okay because if she stayed with Bean, her humility would probably not improve. As Psychology Today informed, people wouldn’t think about “improving” if dissatisfaction didn’t exist in the human experience. Along with that desire to grow one’s pleasure is the growth in personality development. Although Stacy did not find the greenest relationship with Derek, she came out positively from her personality development training.

Read More:

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The Little Grey Cells On Screen: Hercule Poirot and Cinema

The Cast of Little Black Book (2004) Movie: Brittany Murphy, Holly Hunter, Rashida Jones, Kathy Bates, Jullianne Nicholson, and Ron Livingston

Little Black Book (2004) Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes

Little Black Book (2004) Runtime: 97 Minutes