Emotional Twist

There's a great little movie scene in Throw Momma From the Train, written by Stu Silver. Billy Crystal's a writing teacher and his most annoying student is Danny DeVito. Danny invites him for dinner. Danny's living with his old mother; his father passed away when he still was a kid. The teacher hates to go. He despises Danny and so do we. Billy hopes to leave after the dinner, but Danny wants him to show his coin collection. Billy has no choice but to say yes. Up to now Danny hasn't done anything that's not irritating. We loathe that guy, and we really don't want Billy to spend more time with that moron. Danny opens his treasure box and dumps about ten coins on the floor. A couple of ratty quarters, dimes, and a nickel or two. Billy is mortified. So are we. "That's his coin collection?" we are thinking. And then, in a mindblowingly amazing turnabout, the writer makes us love Danny DeVito. He picks up a coin, shows it to Billy, and he says, "This one here, I got in change, when my dad took me to see Peter, Paul, and Mary. And this one, I got in change when I bought a hot dog at the circus. My daddy let me keep the change. He always let me keep the change." How absolutely wonderful! For the rest of the movie, Danny DeVito can do whatever he wants. We can't help loving him.