*note on characters & plot.
TINA is married to JASON an atty in BOSTON. He is so busy suing people he never gets to spend time with wife and daughter, but Tina’s role is to shop, cook and home-school their only child. CASSIE is ten, a spoiled and precocious very lonely child. TINA is 40-ish and JASON is constantly “improving” on her by implants, and botox and so forth. She is “antiseptic” but charming and gorgeous in a Stepford Wife kind of way. The MERMAID CASTLE is one of the biggest houses in Nag’s Head – read prior scene here.
BENJAMIN is a Parsifal Grail King figure. In this group of characters, he will be teaching CASSIE to have “fun” and that he was once ten. He will also sleep with TINA but as a healing figure around body issues and her OCD approach to life. Through the charming tales from CASSIE about BENJAMIN — eventually JASON will realize how much CASSIE and his wife TINA need him to be a real father.
LOCATION & examples of HUGE houses that are like MERMAID CASTLE (rentals)
The Mermaid Castle is the OPPOSITE of Benjamin’s little cottage (warm, friendly glow) — it is sterile, plastic and gigantic with garish non-taste. Cassie isn’t allowed to have pets because of germs. LIFE/DEATH leitmotif, with BENJAMIN being LIFE across film. BENJAMIN had lost BETH in twin towers in 2001, and grieved her since. His trip to the cottage where he once fished as a boy is bringing him back to life from the ASHES – so Phoenix rebirth tale.
IMAGE for TINA PINKERTON look:
writing to:
and:
TINA could see BENJAMIN being led by CASSIE across the gravel that separated the two houses. I think this will be enough, she thought. I sure hope so. The counter must have had 40 platters and bowls heaped high with crazy concoctions she assembled from all her frozen and canned foods. Tiki taco dip was a specialty of hers. So was Fluffy Ambrosia and jello salad. There wasn’t a fresh item in site. That handsome actor looking man next door had promised to bring fish. What a hunter!
Music plays in TINA’S Kitchen while about one hundred swirling robotic vacuums run on the floor of the massive dining area/kitchen area it resembles a sea of moving tiddly-winks in a crazed obstacle course. She sways in time to song sexily.
“Ruff, ruuf, rufufufufufuf”
“Binkyboy what are you doing?”
“Grrrrrrrrrr”
CASSIE’S new dog was growling at her and grabbing her flowing pantleg of the one piece halter jumpsuit she was wearing.
“Binky stop that.”
She reached down to pat its head, her boobs nearly leaping out as she did so.
“Binky, Mommy says go sit in the corner.”
“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”
“Binky stop that!”
“Ruffff Rufffff Rufffffff”
CASSIE had pulled BENJAMIN across the gravel in his socks, they had had so much fun playing piano. At the threshold he looking down at his feet. Uh oh, he thought.
“C’mon,” Cassie tugged. “The brownies!”
Dozens of flights of stairs later they reached the vast space that was kitchen dining all in one. Eighteen toaster ovens and eighteen microwaves were imbedded into the walls glinting silvery. Five massive stainless refrigerators stood side by side to hold all the frozen foods. The entire counter glistened under the artificial light in a bluish glow.
Wow, was all Benjamin could think as his eyes scanned the room. “This is BIG.”
He had never seen a kitchen this size and this oddly arranged. Mermaids of every sort were painted on the walls which were endless. A gigantic moderne white couch that could seat 50 friends was aligned under the windows that faced the sea. It looked like no one had ever sat down on it. And then there was the dining room table. It could seat 50 as well.
“How long have the two of you lived here?” he asked.
“Grrr Ruuuf ruuuf ruuuf!!!!”
Binky had been programmed to sense CASSIE’S voice, and wag his tail. He quickly dropped TINA’S pantleg and zoomed his way to CASSIE navigating the tiddly-winks rolling across the floor as he went.
“Binky meet Benjamin,” Cassie said.
Binky sat at her command and lifted a paw for BENJAMIN to shake. “Rurururururruuuuf!
“Come on,” Cassie tugged. “My brownies!”
Getting around the obstacle course the spinning tiddly winks made was hysterical as BENJAMIN hopped two and fro and sometimes on one foot. This was one wild dinner alright.
“Want a drink?”
“Love one,” he said, as TINA hit the remote button and a huge wet bar opened. “What can I get you?”
“Cuba Libre?”
“Sounds good.”
“Benjamin taste the brownie!”
“Can I wait til after dinner?”
“NO!”
Tina smiled as she handed him the cocktail. He couldn’t help but notice her zaftig cleavage dancing in a way that, well. It was going to be a long night. God she’s sexy, he thought. It was the first time he had actually had that thought since Beth. He felt guilty, like he had in the restaurant at Fisherman’s Wharf. He felt for his pocket and the shell ornament was inside.
“Did you fish?”
“Oh I’m sorry, Cassie reminded me a little while ago. I was so stunned by the beauty I wandered around with my camera and forgot what I told you.”
“Benjamin!”
“I’m sorry Tina. I promise to get some fish for us, as soon as I’ve gotten some tackle and a rod.”
“Mommy it’s okay,” chimed Cassie. “We have plenty.”
“Looks like you made enough for an army.”
“We do every night.”
“You do?”
Cassie shook her head up and down over and over, smiling. “Mommy loves to cook.”
Images for the Tiddly Winks – but they are all brightly colored like polka dots on a twister game “make” ? (spray paint?)
Image for Cassie’s DOG BINKY
“Mommy turn those off!”
TINA flips the remote and all the little dots stop at once leaving the floor like a massive old fashioned Twister game BENJAMIN thinks, smiling. Where am I? he thinks but the Cuba Libre tastes fantastic, even in the strange cold light of the kitchen.
“Cassie did you ever play Twister?”
“Benjamin I loved that game!” Tina said. “Let’s have another drink and play.”
“You know what I heard today?”
“What?”
“Green Onions.”
“I haven’t heard that in years!”
“Mommy what’s green onions?”
“It’s a song Benjamin and I danced to when we were little.”
“Do we have it?”
“I don’t think so Cassie, but we have something else. Let me put it on!”
TINA and BENJAMIN begin to start dancing the twist in front of CASSIE. It’s a very happy moment and they are twisting all around the room, dancing like they did as children. A series of tunes in a montage show the three of them “twisting” and then breaking into a game of Twister using the huge stopped dots that litter the floor. All of them are laughing and very gay. Periodically they head to the counter and take bites from the gigantic “buffet.” It’s the first time BENJAMIN has “let loose” since BETH’S death. He tells TINA this, and how wonderful it is.
VALENTINE BONNAIRE - WRITER 