“Resting Comfortably” First draft 6-22-08

Feature film synopsis © 2008  Jim Terr

Al Fine is a 70-year-old widower, furniture business retiree from New York, living alone in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.*

He spends his days watching TV – wrestling, golf, car races, war documentaries – and occasionally visiting casinos to break the boredom of watching TV.

His daughter, Rhonda, a sweet but aimless 20ish sometime college student, calls frequently to check in, complain, ask for money, and express concern about his gambling and his boring life and obvious attempts to distract himself (“From what?” he always asks defensively).

She also comes to stay now and then, when a relationship blows up and she needs to hide out for a few days. During which they spend their time arguing about whose life is more pointless and, when they get sufficiently loaded, singing songs together to Al’s guitar accompaniment.

One day Al wins the Half-a-Million-Plus jackpot at Big Risk Casino. Seeking a little continued excitement, Al offers the casino, through his conservative, reluctant young attorney, a proposition: Rather than the prize money, he’ll take a penthouse suite in the casino’s hotel, including cable TV and full room service, for the rest of his life.

Since Al is a drinker and a smoker, from a short-lived family, and has been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer – all of which he freely discloses -- the casino’s attorneys, accountants and hired actuaries decide to take the deal. And Al, after all, has got his investment income, and he can sell his home for some additional spending money.

So Al puts the house up for sale and moves in to the casino penthouse apartment. His daughter is appalled at the news, just on principle.

With the greater proximity to the gaming tables and slot machines (Al plays them all), his money outlay increases, as do his boredom and frustration.

Rhonda comes to visit, and is suspicious of the hotel’s concierge, Star, a beautiful native American back from a brief, unsuccessful acting career in L.A. Star is obviously bright, sassy and charismatic, yet genuinely humble and good-hearted, and cares about and enjoys Al as a person -- yet Rhonda instinctively dislikes and mistrusts her.

Al seems to treat his prostate cancer with indifference. He refuses formal treatment – much to Rhonda’s dismay, of course – and dabbles instead with non-traditional therapies: diet, acupuncture, warm rocks, massage, which also serve Al’s ongoing quest for physical / romantic contact, a quest which never seems to pan out. Al’s ability to sabotage any romantic prospects seems almost infinite, despite his wit, financial security, and penthouse suite.

One day when Star visits Al, she finds him singing and playing guitar. She urges him to continue and, charmed, pushes him to perform at the casino’s talent night. He’s clearly conflicted about his aborted early career as a performer, but he works through it in order to please Star. She and the audience love his performance at talent night.

On Rhonda’s next visit, Al works out a couple songs with her, and they perform at the next talent night, to a great reception, and the casino’s management offers them a trial gig in one of the casino’s smaller showrooms.

That gig goes over great. Star’s boyfriend, a somewhat irritating non-native “promoter” of whatever currently has him excited, offers to promote Al and Rhonda in other venues. Subject to his continued good health, of course, and, we suspect, partly in an attempt to please Star.

Another woman enters: Sadie Blackwell, 50ish, sexy Santa Fe divorcee in stylish cowgirl attire. She seems to have her own money, but she’s not real genuine or endearing, and so her motives and attraction to Al are unclear and suspect, especially to Star and Rhonda, who have gotten friendlier with each other.

Despite occasionally ridiculing Sadie behind her back, Al is spending more and more time with her, evidently getting the sex he’s been missing for years, and buying her expensive gifts though she doesn’t “need” them. His budding performing career is on hold. Al notes that ejaculation is supposedly good for the prostate.

He even wins almost $100,000.00 more one morning in the casino – which he splits between Rhonda and Sadie (Star refusing her offered “cut” on ethical grounds.)

Suddenly (wouldn’t you know it?) his prostate cancer worsens, he’s feeling general symptoms of tiredness, etc., and he agrees to treatment. Reluctant to submit to a prostatectomy, which will curtail his budding sex life, he opts for the middle road, brachytherapy (insertion of small radioactive pellets). Sadie has virtually disappeared.

During his treatment and wait-and-see period in his suite, Al and Rhonda discover and share with each other some of their anger and early disappointments, and their mutual “resentment” of mother/wife having died and left them years ago, and they find forgiveness and release through some uncomfortable effort -- and through music.

Al’s condition and prognosis are left undetermined, but we have a sense of Al and Rhonda having reached a level of peace, clarity, love and honesty unimaginable earlier – and of this being enough.

(And isn’t this, after all, where we all hope to end up?)

-- End --

* (AL: Think Alan Arkin). Al’s favorite story, which no one around here ever gets: “A family, OK, all of them in the clothing business, the family has always been in the clothing business, OK, that’s all they know. So the daughter, young woman, is closing up the business one night, goes out on the street. She’s walking home, OK, this guy jumps in front of her, opens up his coat and flashes her. She says, “You call that a lining!?”

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