Genre: Drama
Director: David O. Russell
Writer: James Morgan & Ann Morrow
Cast: Steve Carell, Christopher Walken, Laura Linney, Jim Carrey, Bill Murray, Ezra Miller, Helena Bonham Carter, Melissa Leo, Dale Dickey
Plot: Danny Stone (Steve Carell) is a successful screenwriter who just won one of the world’s biggest accolade for a script he wrote a while ago. He’s in a meeting with his boss, movie studio executive Denise Ward (Melissa Leo). She urges him to write another compelling script as she wants to capitalize on his success to market his next film. She tries to force him to write a certain story, which he declines and he tells her to go fuck herself. She’s outraged at his outburst and tells him that he must come back with a good goddamn story or else, he’s fired.
On the bus ride back home, Danny’s feeling a bit depressed. He must admit that it isn’t the lifestyle he chose when he first started as a screenwriter. He never wanted the glory, he never wanted to be pressured into writing what other people wanted him to write. He just wanted to write the stories he wanted to and he’s starting to feel like this time has passed, here’s why he feels depressed. Ward decided to not abdicate in front of his fortune and he decided to live a normal life, without falling into excess and luxury, the sole reason why he’s still taking the bus. His relative anonymity as a screenwriter gave him the right to do without being harassed like some other Hollywood hotshots would be if they were to take the bus. He receives a text from his high school sweetheart who asks him to come on a date with her, tonight. They’ve been seeing each other for about a month, after accidentally meeting at a convenience store. He accepts gladly.
When Danny gets back home, he starts his writing ritual. He washes his face with ice cold water and he says the trademark catchphrase of a superhero he imagined when he was young, the Magic Man. He shakes the hand of the life-sized model of Magic Man he has at home and he sits down in front of his computer with a glass full of prune juice. The ritual may have worked in the past, but he hasn’t been able to writer one more page of his ongoing script for at least a month. He slams his head against the desk and starts cursing at himself.
It’s now the evening and Stone still hasn’t written a single word on his screenplay. He dresses up nicely for his date and he leaves the house, but not without shaking hands with Magic Man. He takes the bus to the restaurant where she booked a table for two. It’s an Italian restaurant, not too chic, not too cheap. It’s relatively crowded in there, but he’s able to notice her. She greets him and they exchange some basic salutations. Danny has had a fascination for Claire Wilson (Laura Linney) since high school. Out of nowhere, Danny sees his father, Albert (Christopher Walken) approaching the table. He makes him signs that he doesn’t want him to come, but Albert is so drunk that he doesn’t care. He touches Claire inappropriately and he says that he wants to sit on her lap. Claire is completely disgusted and tells Danny that she’s leaving. He apologizes profusely and says that he will call her again. Albert, who finally has a seat at the table asks his son how the screenplay’s doing. Danny says that he still hasn’t been able to write another line since the last time he saw his father. Albert laughs profusely at his son and tells him he’s a one-hit-wonder. Danny tells him to shut up, but his father adds that he’s never been creative, just look at Magic Man, for example. Danny pitched the superhero to at least ten different companies when he was younger, and nobody picked it up, the life-sized model he has at home is a reminiscence of that period. Danny disagrees. Albert says he could try to put Magic Man in his film and that he will see for the eleventh time in his life that nobody is interested in Magic Man. Albert says that he’s leaving, but with his son, because Cheryl, his girlfriend for the last two months threw him out, and this is why he’s drunk. Despite his father being an irritating man tonight, Danny sets his anger aside and opens his heart to the man who raised him.
The next day, Danny looks at his father, who’s asleep on the couch and swears that he’ll prove him wrong. He starts his writing routine and when he turns around to shake Magic Man’s hands, he finds out, to his utter stupefaction that Magic Man (Jim Carrey) is alive and refusing his handshake. He tells Danny that he won’t shake hands with a loser who can’t write a single line of dialogue. Magic Man adds that because of Danny, he’s never been able to be a real superhero and he’s now just a washed-up superhero that nobody even knows. Stone tries to calm Magic Man down, but he won’t shut up about how much he hates his life. Albert wakes up and finds his son talking to himself and moving his arms around. He realises that he may have been harsh with his son last night and he apologizes to him. The superhero tells the old man to shut and that he should start drinking again. Danny tells him to not say that to the total confusion of his father. Albert notices the open computer and the prune juice on Danny’s desk and thinks he must be immersed in his writing process and he believes it would be better if he leaves and he does. Magic Man tells Danny to incorporate him in his film, just like his father suggested. Just so he can calm him down, Danny starts a new script with the characters from the other movie and inserts Magic Man in the story as an important character.
Danny’s progressing well on his new script with Magic Man as a main character. He’s surprised by another one of his character, Eric Helms (Bill Murray), a grumpy old man who’s forced, by his landlord, into caring for a young man, Sammy Stonestreet (Ezra Miller), who’s on the run after a drug deal gone wrong. Helms tells Danny that he doesn’t think his new version of the movie is good and that Magic Man is just a farce that people won’t want to see. He starts arguing with Magic Man, until Sammy Stonestreet enters the office and tells everyone that he needs both Eric and Magic Man in his journey. Danny, who’s now thinking he lost his mind, leaves the house in a hurry, as the three characters argue. He takes a few moments to breath and only comes back to his senses when he receives a text from Claire. He says that what happened last night was a mistake and that his father isn’t always like that. She understands, and she offers him to repeat the experience tonight. He accepts the offer gladly.
Danny goes back inside with and the three characters are still there. He realises listening to their argument that these three are just a crazy bunch of lunatics. He sits down and starts writing again, creating a new character for the story, a crazy lady who’s the tenant where Helms is living. Her name is Helena Jankowski (Helena Bonham Carter). It’s not really surprising anymore, but he realises that Helena materialized in his house. Her wild demeanor eats up a lot of space in the relatively small office and her unspoken attitude clashes with Helms’, who’s more calm. As Danny writes in the script that Helena has a thing for Magic Man, she starts flirting with him in the office. Danny is so concentrated that he doesn’t even hear them anymore. Albert comes back at the house and he sees his son writing. He decides to make as little noise as possible to avoid breaking his concentration. He goes in the kitchen to grab a drink, while the four characters talk trash to him, telling him how he’s the worst father ever, a drunkard, an insult to patriarchy. The fact that he can’t hear them make them all laugh thinking he’s left speechless by their instults. Albert drops the glass on the ground and Danny comes out of his writing trance. He looks at the clock and notices that he’s almost late for his date with Claire. As Danny getting ready, he receives a call from Denise Ward, his boss. She says she better have a screenplay on her desk tomorrow or she’ll get someone else to write her a movie. All the characters call her a bitch and Danny tells them to shut up. He says he’ll be there first thing tomorrow and she’s going to be blown away, but deep down, he knows it probably isn’t up to her standards.
On the bus ride to his date, Danny finally stops seeing the characters he created, the first time he has piece of mind since getting seriously into writing his newest screenplay. He was thinking about ghosting Claire to finish his work, but he always wanted to go out with that girl and it can be his chance to finally do it. He looks by the window and he sees an ongoing drug deal in an alley. This scene makes him think of Sammy and he appears. Without thinking, he tells him out loud to go away, that he wants his mind to be at peace tonight and people are starting to stare at him for talking to himself. Eric appears and being the exact opposite of Sammy, urges the young man to stop bothering Danny. The conflicting nature of Magic Man gets the better and he appears and a fight between the imaginary characters start in the bus. Danny witnesses it, there’s nothing he can do to make them go away, even listening to music. Everything reminds him of these characters.
Danny is at his date with Claire. While his father isn’t there to ruin the whole thing, you can see and feel that Danny doesn’t really want to be there, by the way he talks and how bothered he looks. Claire sees it, but she really wants the relationship to work, so she doesn’t say a thing and hopes for the best. It doesn’t help that Helena is playing with Claire’s hair, calling her ugly and other names. Magic Man wants all the attention he can get by climbing on the table. Eric Helms is trying to eat off Danny’s plate and Sammy’s hitting on the waitresses. Danny is doing his best to try to erase them from his memory for just one night, but he is not able to do such a thing. He excuses himself to Claire and tells her that she’s nice and all, but now is really not a great time for him to be in a relationship. He assures her that he’ll come back when he feels like it’s the right time. Both of them are heartbroken as Claire accepts what Danny told her and he leaves the restaurant with the four eclectic imaginative beings. As soon as Danny gets back home, he starts working on his script as the various characters give him ideas.
The following day, Danny has about half a movie in a suitcase when he enters Denise Ward’s office. She only takes the time to read about two and a half pages when she tells Danny that it’s foolish and that it’s literally unproduceable. Danny starts asking her why and she criticized the inclusion of a superhero in the story and she feels the characters are one dimensional. Magic Man, Sammy Stonestreet, Eric Helms and Helena Jankowski can’t believe what they just heard, especially Magic Man. He starts telling Danny what to answer and it’s literally filled with profanities. Sammy, Eric and Helena continue and Danny, unable to stop, says it all. He’s stopped when security arrives and escort him out. She adds that Danny’s fired. She adds that she’s going to make sure that no one in this town will buy his script and he can be sure.
Danny goes back to his office and he’s more determined than ever to finish his script. Beside the glaring flaw (Magic Man), his script is relatively decent. He does his best to flesh out his characters a bit more, based on suggestions made by them. Eric Helms is always grumpy and has a laid back attitude, because he’s on Xanax as he never got over the death of his wife by the hands of a young and troubled old man, hence his lack of empathy towards Sammy. Helena, their landlord, is always super weird because of a shady past that she doesn’t want to talk about and a suspected drug issue. That would explain why she wants to protect Sammy so much, he’s her dealer. Speaking of Sammy, it’s now made clear that he entered the world of drugs to perform more at school and he was never able to stop using. He found out that it was lucrative, and he abandoned his studies to deal drugs. After an intense writing session, Danny still isn’t happy and he wants to finish his script as soon as possible, but he doesn’t have the energy anymore. Danny receives another text from Claire, she’s certain that Danny is not in the right mood for dating because of his screenplay and that she’ll be down for a third and hopefully good date once he turned it over to her boss. Then, Danny realises something. He devoted the last days of his life to characters that have done nothing but bad things in his life. Magic Man and everyone else are ruining his life, a life he cherished, but in the last few days, Danny has been insane, it’s a case that could land him in the loony bin. When Danny realises that in his own head, he breaks down and he throws his glass of prune juice on the group. He picks up a piece of broken glass and threatens the characters to get out of his life. Magic Man tries to calm him down and Eric says that they are like a disease in his mind. He created them and they will a part of his life forever, or until he forgets about that. Helena says that he will never forget about them, since it’s them who rendered him insane. Danny snaps and he tries to stab Helena, but Magic Man is able to seize Danny. Sammy says that he has a great plan to calm everyone down and tells Danny to follow him. He refuses to comply to his demands, but Magic Man forces him to go.
They enter a shady part of town, where Magic Man feels a certain danger and Helena has a lot of fun. Sammy tells them to continue to follow him, despite repeated attempts by Eric and Magic Man to stop them. They enter an alley and Danny meets Samantha (Dale Dickey), a drug dealer. Sammy learns Danny how to talk on the streets and he asks for a concentration drug, Concerta. She says she has the stuff and Danny pays for it. Magic Man starts making fun of Samantha which prompts Danny to make fun of her. She calls in her thugs and they start to beat Danny up a little bit. He calls for the help of Magic Man, but he’s not real, so he can’t interfere. They leave alone after they think he’s deranged.
When Danny gets back home, beaten, really concentrated because of the Concerta, he realises his father, Albert, came back. He starts lecturing his son about his recent attitude and on Eric’s suggestion, he tells him to back off. Albert slams the door of his room, but not before taking several bottles of alcohol with him. Danny starts another intense writing session, where he often says the lines his eclectic cast of characters will say. While drinking, Albert hears his son as he answers to his imaginary friends. After he drank all of what he had with him, he leaves his room and hits his son on the shoulder, breaking his concentration. Danny is mad at him for it and pushes him on the ground and tells him to never come back. Danny says that his father always told him how much of a disappointment he was to him for becoming a screenwriter and how much he made fun of him because he wasn’t able to continue his screenplay and now that he does make progress on his screenplay, Danny says Albert is jealous of the progress he’s making and Albert can’t put up with the fact that, for once in his life, Danny Stone was right and Albert Stone was not, something Albert can’t accept, can’t conceive, because for him, his son is nothing but a piece of trash, an innocent man that you can control at ease. Danny ends the conversation by saying that Albert was the worst dad he could have growing up, a womanizing, cheating and incredibly bad influence on him and he wished he never knew him. Albert, realising his son lost his mind, has no choice but to leave, with tears in his eyes. He admits that he may have not been the best father a son could ask for, but he says a man never deserve such a verbal assault like that, even less from his own son. Albert tells Danny that he just broke his heart tonight. He says that Danny wishes he disappeared and Albert will do just this, hoping to bring happiness in his son’s life, just for once. He grabs his keys and leaves.
Albert, clearly drunk, took his car anyway. He gets on the highway and starts driving recklessly, crying, for breaking the only viable bond, the only remaining relationship he had in his life. He collides with another car and he’s ejected of his vehicle in the crash.
Danny, who’s nearly done with his screenplay (and completely forgot about the incident with his dad), has a hard time imagining an ending. He writes a botched one and emails his script to whatever contacts he has in Hollywood. Within an hour, everyone has answered, and everyone declined his script, blaming the ending as a story-killer. Everyone can’t believe it. Magic Man takes it personally, but Eric couldn’t care less. He receives a phone call from the hospital, but he choses not to answer. He takes the remaining Concerta and works on an ending, a better ending. His phone keeps ringing, but he doesn’t answer. As he types the last words of his screenplay, his cellphone rings and he finally picks up, irritated. It’s the hospital. All his world comes crashing down and for the first time since the bus ride, Danny is alone in his head. He leaves in a hurry.
Danny arrives at the hospital, but it’s too late. Albert died without saying goodbye to the only thing he had left in his life, his son, but he rejected him. Albert died alone, with nothing. Danny realises that he crumbled under the pressure of writing a great story and after taking a moment to console himself and signing the hospital papers, he comes back home, to see his film characters, after turning on his computer. He speaks to them individually, telling how each of them destroyed his personal life in the last few days, how there’s special place in hell for each of them. He says goodbye to them individually and despite their reluctance, he deletes his script and when he looks over his shoulder, they’re gone. He calls back Claire, fighting back his tears and tells her what happened in his life lately, including the death of his father.
A year later, Danny opens the door of his store and shakes the hand of Magic Man. He drinks a shot of cold prune juice and officially opens the store. After what happened, he bought a comic book store and he’s been managing it ever since. Several people inquire who’s the super-hero with a life-sized model in his store, but he just tells them he’s no one, he just thought he was cool. The night has come and he closes down the store. He drives back home and Claire opens the door. They share a kiss and hurry to watch the news together. The movie Denise wanted Danny to write was released two days ago and it’s a smash hit. They already say it’s going to win a bunch of awards. Danny mentions to Claire that he was approached to write the film, but he declined. She asks him if he misses Hollywood and has he looks at a picture of his father, he starts crying and answers that he doesn’t miss it at all. They share a hug and they embrace as the film ends.
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