Genre: Drama
Director: Casey Affleck
Writer: Mo Buck
Based on the 2018 French-Canadian film
Cast: Casey Affleck, Cate Blanchett, Alex Lawther, Keri Russell, Ben Affleck
Plot: Martin (Casey Affleck) walks around the suburban Massachusetts town where he grew up, but everything is spinning around him. He walks straight, but it looks like everyone else is walking in a weird way. Even though it’s the end of the summer, Martin is dressed heavily and he sweats profusely. He sees a woman in front of him and he turns around and it looks like he’s trying to run away from her. He trips on the sidewalk and a man helps him to his feet. He has a hard time to have a good look at his face, as the sun is now shining bright, even though it was the night seconds ago. The man calls his name again and again.
Martin wakes up suddenly, dripping in sweat with his brother, Matt (Ben Affleck), by his side who was trying to wake him up. Matt gets angry at Martin while he’s trying to regain his senses. Matt says he can’t do this sort of shit in his apartment again and he throws Martin’s drugs off the coffee table. He looks at his brother’s arm and finds needle marks. He slaps him in the face and he tells him to get the fuck out off his apartment. Martin tries to argue, but Matt reminds him that he promised he wouldn’t use again and that’s why Matt allowed him to crash on his couch. Martin begs him, but Matt grabs his few belongings and he throws him out. Martin asks why he’s doing this. Matt says he’s trying to keep the custody of his daughter and his ex-wife is using Martin to make her case, his girlfriend doesn’t want to come over when Martin is here, he’s toxic for him. He gave him enough chances, but enough is enough and he slams the door to his face. Martin vents his frustration and punches a hole in the wall and he bangs on the door repeatedly, to no avail. He gives up and sits down on the floor in exhaustion.
Martin walks in a bar and orders a drink, even though it’s only ten in the morning. His cellphone rings and he sees that Martha is calling him. He puts the cellphone away and the bartender asks him if he’s running away from her, pointing at his stuff, but he isn’t. He takes a out a notebook and he starts scribbling. The bartender asks him what he’s doing and he says he’s writing because he’s a published authors. He asks if he’s written anything he might have heard of or read, and Martin starts a rant about no one reads poetry anymore, they just read the commercial shit of romance books devoid of any sense or any quality. If these books were released back in the day, they would be ravaged by critics, but now, when you try to write something good, something that comes from the heart and you put your heart and soul in, people don’t buy it, because they don’t want to put the effort to understand what it really means. The bartender says that nobody reads poetry anymore, he should try to write a crime novel instead, that, he would read. Martin says that if he ever writes a crime novel, or any commercial bullshit, he will blow his brains out and he’s not kidding. He gets another call from Martha, but he ignores it and he throws his cellphone in his bag.
Martin is out of the bar and he walks in the town. He has not showered and shaved in a while. People look at him in disgust, but he has learned not to care about it. The city of Boston is particularly busy at this hour and some people even move out of their way not to cross Martin’s path. He stops in front of a building and he notices by looking through a window that people are leaving. He goes in the alley next to the building and he knocks at a window. Martha (Keri Russell) sees him, and she says he can come in by the front door.
Martin enters Martha’s office and she keeps her distance from him. He tries to hug her, but she takes a couple of steps back,. Martin asks her what’s wrong and Martha gets upset because he doesn’t seem to remember their relationship is over and it has been for a while. Matt asks her if she can take him back, his brother just kicked him out and he has no place to go. She’s afraid she can’t do that, as she has a boyfriend now and she’s not sure he’d want her ex crashing on the couch. He asks her since when she’s in a relationship and she says it’s been a while and if he came over more often, like when she calls him, he would’ve learned it a while ago. He asks her if he knows her boyfriend and she says she doesn’t think so. He’s a banker and he treats her right. Martin is upset that Martha, who he once knew as a free spirit, in a bohemian way, and look at her now, wearing pantsuits, her hair tied up. What happened to her? Martha says she grew up, unlike him. She says she doesn’t have time to talk about that today, she wanted to see him to tell him the publisher will be dropping him. His poems don’t sell and she kept him only because they were sleeping together and that’s not the case anymore. Martin says she doesn’t care about true art. Martin gets upset and she calls security to escort him out of the building.
Martin goes back to the bar, only to find out a woman is sitting at the stool he had earlier today. He greets her and asks her if she wants to move, he likes this stool, he’s more inspired and the words flow on the page. She’s intrigued by the character in front of her and moves to her right. He asks her name and she’s called Dyane (Cate Blanchett). He asks her what brings her to this shitty bar next to a guy like him. She says she had a rough day and she wanted to get out of her house for a while. He asks her if she’s married, she looks pretty uptight, but yet still open to other people at the same time. She says she’s divorced with a kid, well he’s a man now, but he still lives with her. He asks her if she’s lonely sometimes, he’s been alone for a while and he doesn’t feel lonely. Dyane says she doesn’t want to get personal with him, she doesn’t know him at all. It’s now her time to ask questions. She asks him what happened to him and what he’s doing in life. Martin answers that he’s trying to get people to fall in love with his words and he’s trying to make a living out of it, but times are hard when a celebrity cookbook sells more in a week than all the poets combined in a year. His brother just kicked him out and he has nowhere to go, so he goes back to his old friend, alcohol. He still doesn’t understand why she seems interested in him and she says she can be… adventurous sometimes, whereas Martin seems to embrace his wild side every day and she isn’t wrong.
Dyane pulls over in her driveway and stops the car. She turns to Martin and tells him that even i she brings him to her place; nothing is going to happen. She makes him repeat after her to make sure he understand and he does. Right before she opens the door, she reminds him once again that nothing is going to happen. She opens the door and Martin sees a pristine home, that you usually see in magazines. He asks her if his kid is home and she says he’s most probably upstairs buried in a book. He’s a brilliant kid, but he’s socially awkward. She wonders if he even talked to a girl once and says Martin should have a chat with him, perhaps he could help. He did manage to come home with the best looking woman in that bar, but nothing’s going to happen completes Martin. She tells him he can use the bathroom and she’ll wash his clothes while he’s in there.
Martin comes out of the bathroom, clean shaven and… clean. He thanks her again for her hospitality and she says it’s nothing; and perhaps one day she’ll brag that she had a famous author at her place. He laughs and he says there’s no way he’ll be famous in his lifetime. If he ends up famous, it’ll be after he dies, like most of his predecessors. Dyane says he’s cocky to compare himself with famous authors, when he’s just a nobody, Martin answers that he’s a dreamer. He always had big dreams, thinking he would be famous and rich in no time, but he’s poor and has no place to live well into his forties. Dynae says that’s what you get when you don’t adhere to society’s standards. Just look at her, she went to college, got a degree and she has a nice job, a nice house, a son… but she’s unhappy, says Martin, he can see it in her eyes. Or else, why would a woman like her be doing in a shitty bar on a week night. She hates her life and it’s her way of punishing herself. Dyane says she doesn’t hate her life, but seems uncomfortable. She tells him she’s going to bed and he can take the couch and she leaves.
When she’s out of sight and in her room, Martin, who is really hungry, takes food from the fridge and he starts eating. He’s surprised by Dyane’s son, Henry (Alex Lawther), who asks him who the hell he is. Martin says it’s a long story, but his mother brought him home. Henry seems unfazed, and he just nods. He grabs a bag of chips and goes back to his room without talking to Martin again. Martin sits on the couch and looks at his bag. He takes out a bottle of fluid and a needle, but he heads the floor crack over him. He discourages himself and decides against doing drugs tonight. He settles for a single red pill that he takes without effort.
Martin has another weird dream where he’s wearing his winter coat even though it’s a summer night. He sees the mysterious woman again and her face is revealed to be Martha’s. He tries to chase her, but she runs away from him faster. He’s not able to close the gap. He trips on the sidewalk and a woman comes to help him. He has a hard time seeing who it is and her face is slowly revealed to be Dyane’s, who’s trying to wake him. Dressed in only a black negligĂ©e, Dyane whispers in his ear to come and meet her in her room. Martin asks her what happened to the “nothing’s going to happen” and she says screw that, she wants to have fun for once in her life. Martin follows Dyane in her room and they have sex in her bed. Afterwards, she tells that she indeed, knows how to have fun.
The following morning, Dyane and Martin go downstairs, hoping that Henry isn’t up yet. Dyane doesn’t see him in the kitchen, so she tells Martin the coast is clear. However, Henry is in the living room going through Martin’s bag. When he sees them, he tells her mom that she should know the man she has sex with is a junkie. He knew she was desperate, but this is a new low for her. Martin tells Diane he can explain, but she says there’s no need, she just doesn’t care. Dyane officially presents Martin to Henry and Henry nods and goes back to his room. Dyane asks Martin if he thinks his son is awkward and he agrees, She gets closer to him and tells him that she doesn’t care if he does drugs, but he doesn’t do that shit in her home and she kisses him. Dyane gets ready to go to work and he asks her what about him. She says he can stay here for the day, it’s not like he has another place to go.
When Dyane leaves, Martin is left all by himself in the house. He looks at the pictures in the living room and he doesn’t see a picture of Dyane’s ex anywhere, no family portrait. He goes upstairs and he sees Henry’s door open. He goes in his room and he starts talking to him. Henry asks Martin who he is and Martin says he’s just some guy, he doesn’t need to worry about him. He sees that Henry is busy with homework and he asks him what he is studying. He says he’s studying statistics and mathematics in college. Martin makes a witty comment about Henry’s conservative choice of life, even though he doesn’t seem to be good socially. Martin says he could have had a life that, but he chose something else, something more freeing, more liberating. Henry asks him how that worked out for him thus far. Martin laughs and he says he may not have a lot of money, he may not have a nice home, but at least he’s happy and he lives his life to the fullest. He doesn’t need fancy things and a lot of materialistic stuff to be happy. He doesn’t think Henry is happy spending all his time in his books and on his computer. Henry says it’s been tough for him ever since his father left and he guesses that he decided to cope with it by studying hard. Henry gets uncomfortable and he asks Martin to leave, he needs to be alone now.
The evening has come and we see that Martin has worked on his poetry all day at the kitchen table. Dyane comes back from work and reads what he has written thus far and she’s impressed by his writing. She asks him what he did today and he says he had a chat with Henry this morning and he got mad when he talked about his father. Dyane says he was really close to his father and he took it the hard way when he left. Martin asks what happened between them and Dyane says she doesn’t want to talk about it. Martin asks what’s for dinner, he’d kill for a home-cooked meal. Dyane says he came to the wrong place if he’s expecting a home-cooked meal, she’s the world’s worst cook, according to Henry. She’ll just order takeout as always. Henry comes downstairs and he says he’s going out tonight, they don’t need to wait for him to eat. Dyane asks Martin what he did to her son when he leaves and he says he didn’t do anything, they just talked. She sits on his lap and kisses him, while getting a hand down his pants.
Matt calls Martha while he paces around his kitchen. He asks her if she has seen Martin lately. She says she didn’t and Matt says he’s worried about him, as it’s been four months since he last saw him and he doesn’t answer his phone. He called all his friends and they haven’t heard from him either. Martha says she hasn’t heard from him since that time he went to see her in her office after Matt kicked him out of the house. He asks her if she helped him and she sighs, saying they’re not together anymore and she’s not looking after him anymore. Perhaps he should’ve been easier on his brother instead of relying on her for his safety. Martin needs help and she couldn’t help him anymore. Matt is the only family he has left, he’s the one who needs to take care of him. He says she knows he couldn’t keep him around if he wanted to keep custody of his daughter and he asks her one more time if she’s sure she didn’t see him and Martha hangs up.
We cut back to Dyane’s house. It used to be pristine, but there are now things everywhere and it seems dirty. Martin lays in bed with Dyane. He tells her she needs to work, but she says screw it, she wants to spend the day with him and she kisses him. He tells her she needs to go though and she agrees with him and she gets out of bed. She does her hair in a messy bun and she puts a simple t-shirt and pants. She kisses him goodbye, and she asks him to clean a little today, she wonders what she’s doing with all his time. Martin says it’s not polite to interfere with his creative process. Dyane leaves the house and gets into her car. She looks at the time and realises she’s nearly late. She forgot to take a shower, but she doesn’t have time to take one, so she rubs the car freshener under her armpits and leaves for work, clearly underdressed. Once Martin sees Dyane leaving the house, he puts his boxers on and goes in Henry’s room. Martin asks him if he’s ready and he says he is. They’ll eat and leave after.
Matt is seen visiting homeless shelters, hospitals and police stations looking for his brother, to no avail. He tries calling for his cellphone again, but it goes straight to voicemail. Matt leaves him a message, telling him to come back, he wants him back in his life. He lost custody of his daughter and he feels alone. He’s the only family he has left and he wants him by his side. He can help him get back on the right track. Matt starts to cry and hangs up.
Martin notices he has a new voicemail while he’s getting ready to leave with Henry. He closes his door and he puts it on speaker. He listens to Matt’s message and he sits on the edge of the bed, staring at the horizon. Henry opens the door and once the message is over, he asks Martin who was that. Martin says it was nobody. He grabs his backpack and they leave with Henry’s car.
When Dyane gets to work, she gets a lot of unwanted attention for the way she’s dressed. She gets in her office and she talks to herself, telling everyone that they can go fuck themselves. She opens her computer and notices she received an e-mail from her boss. It says that she has received a formal warning. She has slacked in the last couple of months, she’s late most of the time, her performances are declining, she doesn’t respect the company’s dress code and she fails to adequately follow the company mission statement to remain professional and to do their best work. She’s tempted to just say screw it, but she looks at herself in the window’s reflection and she doesn’t like what she sees. She tries calling home to ask Henry to bring her some clothes, but she gets no answer. She calls his cellphone and he doesn’t answer either. She tells her boss that she’s going to take a day off and leaves.
Henry and Martin are in an abandoned building and Martin’s backpack is open. He heats up some drugs in a spoon and Henry scoops it up in a syringe. While Henry injects the drugs, he asks Martin if he found a title for his manifesto yet. He says he did and he called it For Those Who Don’t Read Me. Henry laughs and he says that’s an appropriate title for something that will call out everyone who only like superficial bullshit. Martin says he will surely get it published, he used to have sex with his publisher, proving once again that sex can get you anything in this messed up society. Henry says he’s so glad that he made him see that it was messed up and he was able to get him out before he was too late. He says he likes his new life, free of everything. Martin says he hasn’t told his mother yet and that’s going to be the worst part. It’s now Martin’s turn to take the drugs, while Dyane is trying to call Henry on his cell phone.
Dyane gets home from work and is surprised to see that Henry isn’t there. She looks at the state of her house and she starts cleaning months-old stuff from the counters and the furniture. She cleans her room and she stumbles upon a briefcase of old pictures. She looks at old pictures of her and her ex-husband and she sees how happy they were. She looks at Martin’s pile of stuff and sighs. She turns around and she looks at herself in the mirror and she doesn’t like what she sees. She goes in Henry’s room, despite usually avoiding it at his request. She sees all his ripped-up textbooks and she finds a bag of weed. She starts to cry, but she stays strong and finishes cleaning the house. She tells herself that she needs to stay calm.
Martin is still with Henry, who’s hammered by drugs, he takes his laptop Dyane bought him and he sends his manifesto to Martha. He celebrates with Henry, but he’s clearly out of it. Martha sees the e-mail from Martin and starts reading the manifesto. She decides to call Matt, who’s still looking for his brother. She tells him that he sent her a manifesto and it’s really disturbing and he’s clearly deranged. Matt thanks her for the heads up and he decides to call Martin. Martin answers and Matt begs him to come back home, Martha says he’s not feeling well and he’s acting weird. Martin starts cursing at him, telling him that he’s a jerk for not helping him and not agreeing with his lifestyle, but now he’s happy with a woman he loves and he doesn’t need him anymore. He knows Matt doesn’t love him and he better forget about him, because he wants nothing to do with him. Matt tries to reason him, but Martin keeps telling him that he’s a jerk and Martin hangs up after he insults him one more time. Martin high fives Henry, saying that he now cut everyone holding him back from his old life. Henry is clearly not feeling well, so Martin decides to head back home.
Martin comes back home with Henry who looks like he’s sleep-walking and white as a sheet. He’s met with Dyane who asks him what he has done with their lives. Martin says he freed them and he made them happy. She starts to cry and she asks what happened to Henry. She looks at his arms and she sees needle marks and she gets angry. She screams at Martin, telling him to get out of her house because he ruined their lives. He’s like a virus and he infected them with his words. He ruined her son’s life, just look at him, and he nearly ruined hers too. Martin tries to argue, but Dyane starts hitting him and she slaps Henry across the face, basically waking him up. Martin tries to argue again, but Dyane curses and hits him. She forces him out of the house and screams at the top her lungs that he needs to get away before she kills him or calls the cops. She closes the door and drops to the floor exhausted.
Outside, Martin tries to call his brother to beg him to take him back. Matt says he’s not going to help him this time, not again and he wishes him luck. The film ends with Martin walking away from Dyane’s home, not knowing where he’s going, leaving behind two changed lives and not for the better.
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