MOVIE BREAKDOWN | THE INVISIBLE COMPOSER: THE ROD TEMPERTON STORY

Welcome to my breakdown of the film script for ‘The Invisible Composer: The Rod Temperton Story’.Show more

From 'Boogie Nights' to 'Thriller', the film follows Rod Temperton's meteoric rise from gutting cod at Grimsby Fish Market to teaming up with legendary producer Quincy Jones and laying the foundation for Michael Jackson’s solo career, among many others.

The script starts with an African-American couple buying a newspaper from an LA newsstand and learning of Rod’s death in September 2016.

The couple reads the article about Rod - nicknamed ‘The Invisible Man’ in the music industry due to always keeping a low profile - before deciding the Englishman didn’t do anything they would’ve known.

The scene cuts to the couple in earlier stages of their life. First, meeting in a club while dancing to ‘Rock with You’. Then getting married to ‘Always and Forever’. And finally singing along to ‘Give Me the Night’ with their child in the car.

As the couple walks out of shot, the scene transitions to 1982 and Rod is introduced with him famously writing the rap to ‘Thriller’ in the back of a taxi just as Vincent Price arrives at the studio to record it.

After establishing several of his songs along with his importance and mystery, the film subsequently tells a linear story of Rod’s life and career, backtracking to Cleethorpes in England in 1974.

Working as a fish gutter at Grimsby Fish Market and playing organ with a local band, Rod answers an advert he spots in Melody Maker magazine.

The advert - placed by Heatwave frontman Johnnie Wilder Jr – simply reads: “Soul band needs keyboard player.”

The position involves moving to Germany and the story picks up in the town of Worms where Rod starts playing cover songs with the band Heatwave.

The soul band soon start recording their own music and their debut album ‘Too Hot To Handle’ was released in 1976, including the huge hits ‘Always and Forever’ and ‘Boogie Nights’.

After the success of Heatwave’s second album ‘Central Heating’ in 1978, producer Quincy Jones contacts Rod about writing on what would become Michael Jackson’s ‘Off the Wall’.

Rod flies out to LA and writes and records demos for three songs that would all feature on the album: The title track ‘Off the Wall’, ‘Burn This Disco Out’, and the worldwide smash ‘Rock with You’.

At the end of the fruitful weekend, an impressed Quincy asks Rod if he’d be interested writing songs for every project he was working on, including the likes of Chaka Khan, The Brothers Johnson and George Benson – as well as Quincy’s own album ‘The Dude’.

The story also follows Rod’s collaborations with Aretha Franklin and Donna Summer and his multiple nominations at the 1981 GRAMMY Awards - before tragedy strikes…

Heatwave frontman and close friend Johnnie Wilder Jr is paralysed from the neck down in a car accident in his hometown in Ohio.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, Rod’s mother Ida has some devastating news that she tries her hardest to keep from her overworked son in America.

The story’s love interest – Rod’s future wife Kathy – is also introduced in the film at this stage.

The rest of the movie focuses on the making of the ‘Thriller’ album and Rod’s involvement as a songwriter and member of Quincy’s top-table team, along with engineer Bruce Swedien.

Rod went on to compose a third of ‘Thriller’s’ final track list, including – once again – the album’s title track.

Alongside this, we learn how other songs like Billie Jean and P.Y.T. came about, we see Eddie Van Halen famously setting a speaker ablaze while recording his solo for ‘Beat It’, and we experience the disappointment of the disastrous first official listening get-together with record bosses.

The album’s overlong running time caused serious sound issues with the vinyl test press so the team had to ask for 10 more days to trim and remix every song.

The script follows the enormous global success of ‘Thriller’ following its release in late 1982.

Side stories include the end of Heatwave, Ida’s situation, and Rod’s blossoming affair with Kathy.

The film ends with an epilogue about the main characters' lives and a final scene set in 2019 when a blue plaque was unveiled in Rod’s hometown several years after his death, in a touching ceremony attended by his widow Kathy and an elderly Quincy Jones.

‘The Invisible Composer’ is a fun, music-driven film for the whole family, but more aimed at mum and dad - parents get to decide cinema night while this one’s showing!

For a relatively small budget, this could be one of the films of the year!

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