“… Protagonists, be they villainous or heroic, don’t need to be sympathetic.  They need to be fascinating.  Establishing empathy (i.e. we can see something of ourselves in them, however disagreeable) is certainly vital, but wasting precious screen time on her daddy never loved her or kids used to beat him up during recess, etc. — nuh-uh.  In movie entertainment terms, this is Too Much Information….”

Go to Billy Mernit’s place …