How Raymond Carver’s “Why Don’t You Dance?” came to life on screen

Dan Rush’s Everything Must Go is about a successful businessman whose life ambitions get demolished by a midlife crisis due to his addiction of alcohol. On a business trip nick relapses and ends up sleeping with one of his co-workers. The consequences of his relapse result in the termination of his employment and his wife leaving him. Nick goes home to find the locks changed and all his possessions on the lawn. Disgusted by the situation, Nick sits down on the couch in his front yard and drinks a case of beer. His life is now on display for his whole neighborhood to see. Raymond Carver’s “Why Don’t You Dance?” does not accurately describe why Nick is living on his front lawn, because he is still allowed access to his home. The film and story both have Nick living on his front lawn, although the story supports the theme of having your life on public display. In Rush’s film, he enhances the setting, characters, and plot from Raymond Carver’s short story “Why Don’t You Dance?” to support the theme of living a life full of regret and that nobody is perfect.
The setting of Dan Rush’s Everything Must Go sets the mood for the viewers through the eyes of Nick Halsey. Nick sits in his car after getting fired and reminisces through flashbacks of the occurrence in his mind. While nick’s appearance is cliché, his emotions are becoming unveiled on camera by Rush’s ability to bring out his thoughts. Close up’s of facial expressions are being revealed after every flashback presented in the setting. Nick knows he has made bad decisions in his life, but the only way he knows how to cope with his life at this point is by retrieving the canteen that is filled with alcohol from the trunk of his car. In Raymond Carver’s “Why Don’t You Dance?” the setting is describing Nick’s living arrangement on the lawn,