"HIGH FIDELITY" (2000)

HIGH FIDELITY

By

D.V. De Vincentis, Steve Pink, & John Cusack

Based on the novel by Nick Hornby

9/11/98

London Draft Registered: WGAw

FADE IN:

STEREO

Not a minisystem, not a matching set, but coveted audiophile clutter of McIntosh and Nakamichi, each component from a different era, bought piece by piece in various nanoseconds of being flush.

RECORDS

Big thin LPs. Fields of them. We move across them, slowly... they seem to come to rest in an end of a few books... but then the CD's start, and go on, faster and faster, forever then the singles, then the tapes...

It seems the records, tapes, and CD's will never end until... we come to ROB -- always a hair out of place, a face that grows on you. He sits in an oversized beanbag chair and addresses us, the wall of music behind him.

Group of bags huddled next to the door. Not the go-on-

vacation set, but the clothes-to-coffee-maker moving out variety. Rob stares at them, his face unreadable, his head gripped by a big pair Boudokan headphones. We hear what he is hearing, something foreboding and upbeat at the same time.

LAURA, Rob's girlfriend, enters the room, and he immediately pulls the headphones off.

She clocks him for a moment, catching him in what seems to be an old and repeated moment of nonpresence. She begins to heft the bags, Rob goes to her, a little tardy for his big goodbye. Laura begins to cry a bit.

He smiles, and she doesn't. He adjusts.

Laura shakes her head, lifts the last small bag, and backs out the door. A strap catches on a handle and the two of them wrestle with it a bit, while trying to keep the door open, until Laura awkwardly disappears from view and the door shuts behind Rob. He stays right there staring at the shut door for a long moment, listening to the fading sound of Laura and her dragging bags.

STEREO

Rob's left hand cranks the volume knob while his right switches the CD changer to something loud and adrenal. He addresses us again.

Laura drags her bags, banging down the stairs --

Rob moves around the apartment, seeming to expand physically, looking for change as he continues.

He adjusts the angle of the TV, stuffs a creepy family portrait into a drawer.

He moves through the living room to an open window facing the street. Looking down two stories, he sees Laura emerge from the building and drag her bags toward her car across the street.

Rob and Alison sit on the bench, kissing awkwardly.

PARK BENCH - DUSK

The same shot, the next night: new clothes, same clumsy make- out session.

PARK BENCH - DUSK

...Next night...

SAME PARK BENCH

...And the fourth night...

Alison and another boy, KEVIN BANNISTER. Kissing. In the background, Rob approaches and stops. He implodes with self- consciousness and humiliation and attempts to affect a casual gait as he mopes away.

Rob sits in his chair, a cord leading from the stereo to headphones draped around his neck. Behind him is the wall of music.

He lets the needle down on the turntable next to him.

"Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon begins to play as

PRESENCE...

...and continues as SOUNDTRACK. PENNY, 16, is walking across the grass toward us. She's the clean, sporty, nice wholesome girl-next-door. She waves to off-camera friends, smiling a winning smile.

Penny and Rob sit on the edge of the bed, kissing. Rob moves his hand up toward the breast, but the hand then seems to have a new idea, and dives south to follow the thigh into Penny's skirt...

...when he contacts skin, Penny rolls like a gymnast away and off of the bed, out of frame. Rob looks away balefully.

"Nobody Does It Better" continues as Rob walks Penny to her front door. She is smiling, he seems distant.

She leans in to kiss him, and he shrugs her off.

Without looking at her, Rob turns and walks down the street, getting smaller. Penny watches for a while.

Rob sways with the other commuters.

A BUSINESSMAN looks up from his paper at Rob, then back down.

An old Chicago block of local merchants, on a busy street.

Rob makes his way down the street, jangling a set of keys and talking to us.

Rob arrives at a storefront, and begins unlocking a rusty gate with two locks and then a beaten-down door.

In almost darkness. More light might penetrate the windows if there weren't so many record-release posters taped to them. A dusty narrow corridor clad in burlap and shag rug. On the walls are bagged 45's you will never hear unless you commit your life to the losing proposition of listening to every noodling of Jah Wobble and Glen Glenn and other people you've never heard of.

But as Rob opens the door, enters, and flips a switch causing the fluorescents to sputter, we see in his eyes the reverence and earnestness of a football coach gazing across an empty field or a priest drawn at midnight to his empty church.

As he walks one of the two slim aisles toward the back, he stops on a dime, steps back and pulls a CD from the sea and

replaces it almost the same position, but not quite -- meticulousness and pride in this gesture...

After a moment the door creaks open behind Rob, admitting DICK, a nervous, forlorn but sweet and intelligent discophile with long greasy black hair, a Sonic Youth T- shirt, a monstrous pair of headphones, and a canvas record bag emblazoned with a label logo.

Dick is behind the counter, Rob in the aisles with a clipboard doing inventory.

The door flies open and BARRY, an acid-tongued post-punk rock misanthrope without quite enough intelligence to conceptualize his own rebellion, walks in. His teeth are clenched in air-guitar concentration and he's phonetically cranking a Clash riff:

Dick shrinks back from him instinctively. He stops mid-step and cocks his ear at the music playing in the store. His face adopts an exaggerated grimace.

Barry moves in on the stereo behind the counter, and Dick gets out of his way.

He pops the CD out and frisbees it to Dick.

Barry pulls a tape out of his jacket and jams it in. "How to Kill a Radio Consultant" by Public Enemy comes through at through the red levels.

Barry walks in rhythm toward the stockroom and disappears.

Rob goes behind the counter and stops the tape. Barry's head pops out of the stockroom.

Rob groans.

Barry bristles and moves slowly in on Dick.

From outside. HEAR THE SOUND OF SKATEBOARD WHEELS CLACKING AND SCRAPING, GETTING LOUDER. Rob, Dick and Barry stop fighting to listen, then each moves purposefully to a spot in the store. Dick to the register, Barry to the back, Rob next to the door, as if bracing for a street fight.

The SOUND gets closer, then stops. The door swings open to admit VINCE and JUSTIN, two fifteen-year-old skate punks.

Vince's hair is post-apocolyptically hacked to different lengths, Justin's in uniformly shaven with leopard spots dyed browse. Rob follows them, watching their every move.

Dick counters from his perch, getting another angle. Barry cracks his knuckles threateningly. Vince and Justin do their best browser impersonations. Finally Justin plucks a CD, and the two move to the counter.

Vince reaches into his deep pocket and pulls out a paper cup, with piece of paper attached that says "Please help me. I'm retarded." He pours a mass of change and crumpled singles onto the counter. Dick begins counting it out.

Dick cracks a sad smile for a second. He bags the CD and Vince and Justin are off. Rob walks back through the stock room door.

Rob is on his knees, opening boxes with a razor knife. He talks to us as he works.

Dick sticks his head in the door, looks at Rob, looks where Rob is looking (camera), and retreats back through the door.

Rob continues.

He hears the bell on the front door RING, and he stops and listens, looks a bit worried.

Rob relaxes and goes back to work.

Rob deflates, shaking his head.

STORE FLOOR

Barry leans back, elbows up on the counter behind him, talking to the CUSTOMER, a middle-aged graying man in a raincoat.

The Customer throws up his hands and starts out of the store.

He steps out of the door.

Outside, anger catches up to the Customer. He turns and throws up a middle finger --

-- and bolts. Barry smiles and turns to see

ROB

standing in the doorway of the stock room. He feigns applause.

Rob's face begins to redden with anger.

Rob is red and seething.

Rob springs on Barry, grabbing him by the lapels and jerking him up against the wall. Rob is so mad he can't say anything.

Rob runs out of steam and drops Barry, who backpedals fast.

Barry stomps out of the store. Rob turns and goes back to the stockroom, and sits on the stepladder. Dick appears in the doorway, terrified.

Rob nods. Dick sets out into the uncharted conversational territory of interpersonal relationships.

Dick laughs nervously.

Rob looks up at Dick, who is so nervous that his brow is wet.

Dick sighs with relief, and smiles his way out of the stock room.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

About twenty feet away we see a tall, thin beauty, bleach- blonde hair cropped short in darling '80's new-wave asymmetry.

She is speaking animatedly to a PAMPHLETEER, driving her points home with a forefinger.

A younger Rob sits amongst a group of STUDENTS who are engaged in a heated conversation. He is smiling, mouth closed, just happy to be there. Charlie sitting next to him, tousles his hair as she talks incessantly.

Charlie gives Rob a quick kiss and keeps talking...

Rob and Charlie walk arm in arm, Rob in cool clothes and sunglasses trying to look cool, Charlie making a point about something.

Rob checks out how cool he looks with her as they walk by a store window REFLECTION.

The fabulous sophomore design student's studio apartment:

White wood floor, white walls, overvarnished door, Doisneaux print on the wall, futon on the floor. Rob lies back on his elbows, watching Charlie in uncomfortable, worried awe. She stands, her back to him, wearing only her underwear and pulling on a T-shirt -- a heartbreaking image to look back on.

Charlie turns around and looks at Rob with naked ambivalence.

It is RAINING like crazy, and Rob is shouting up at a lit window, maniacally gesturing. The curtains part and Charlie's figure appears, clad only in a sheet. Next to her is a tall, built, handsome man, MARCO, also in a sheet.

Eventually he falls to his knees with a splash and buries his head in his hands. The light goes out.

Rob wandering through the rain.

A younger and catatonic Rob listlessly sorts through a stack of records.

Rob stands in front of his wall of music, shifting LPs around between the shelves and piles on the floor as he talks to us.

Rob presses play on the answering machine. A pleasant, older female voice is heard. It's JANET, Laura's mother.

Beep.

He pulls an LP from a shelf, puts it on the turntable and sits back in his chair.

The MUSIC becomes SOUNDTRACK to the following scenes. Rob and SARAH, a thin, modestly attractive young woman, SARAH, walk and talk. They seem to be emphatically complaining together.

Rob and SARAH sit up in bed, staring at the television...

of Sarah, sitting across the table, mid-confession.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

The MUSIC becomes PRESENCE again, and Rob takes the needle off the record.

Rob is surrounded by stacks of records on the floor. He looks to camera.

The phone rings again. Rob picks it up.

Rob deflates a bit.

Rob holds his lips together with thumb and forefinger, but succumbs --

Silence.

Silence... More silence.

THE SOUND OF SOFT CRYING

Silence. Rob busted.

Rob hangs up the phone. He fills up his glass again, takes a swig, and slumps into a chair. If there was any wind left in Rob, it just got knocked out. After a moment, he gets to his feet, grabs his jacket and heads out the door.

Rob comes down the street and gets in the short line to enter the club. From inside he hears a GUITAR, playing a tune that becomes familiar not only to Rob, but to us. When a strong, lilting female VOICE begins to sing, we hear what it is: "Baby I Love Your Way," by Peter Frampton.

Rob smiles at first, but begins to darken as the verse continues. He steps out of line and leans against the outside wall, listening. Is he beginning to cry? Yes, he is...

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

He looks around self-consciously, and paces a bit, deciding whether or not to stay. He takes a deep breath, and heads in the door.

As Rob enters he looks to the stage, where MARIE LASALLE is standing alone with her acoustic guitar, heading toward the song's finish. Rob's expression begins to shift from the melancholy to something else altogether. Marie is beautiful, and Marie has touched his heart. Rob navigates toward her though the small crowd as if pulled by something unseen. He addresses us over his shoulder.

As he gets closer to the stage --

Rob looks over to see Dick sitting with Barry, a few feet away. He shakes it off and sits with them, extending a meaningful hand to Barry, who takes it. They turn back to the stage as Marie finishes the song.

Dick and Barry nod, then keep watching. All three of them are in their own private fantasies with Marie.

They drop it, so that their eyes can drift back to Marie.

MARIE

as the song ends, and she smiles out over the room. The audience applauds.

ROB, DICK, AND BARRY

Barry and Dick stand and begin to move off...

...and they're gone. After a beat, Rob gets up and follows them.

FOOT OF THE STAGE

Dick and Barry wait nervously to buy a tape, Rob just behind them. Marie processes sales with polite monosyllables, until the three get up front.

They dart eyes to each other, then nod.

Rob hands her a ten and she roots around in a duffel bag for change...

Barry and Dick do not try to control themselves. They point to Rob.

Marie laughs.

The line behind them is moving in, and Marie smiles at them and turns to someone else. They scurry back toward their table.

Rob looks over Barry at Marie. She catches his eye as she looks over the room. His eyes shoot to the floor.

Rob is going through a huge stack of used CD's, sorting them off into different bins, bouncing his head absently to the music -- the same song of Marie's that Rob had on when Laura called last night.

Rob reaches over and hits the SPEAKER button on the phone, still in the groove of sorting.

-- Dick bursts in, huge-faced --

Rob freezes, he and Dick turn to the speaker, which cranks Marie's voice. Rob goes to the phone and picks up the handset.

He hits hold.

He hangs up fast, spins around to look in a cracked one- foot- square cracked mirror bearing the logo of Aerosmith that is mounted on the wall, and moves out into the

FRONT ROOM

and up the aisle fast toward the stereo where he turns Marie's music off. He takes a deep breath and looks up, meeting her eyes.

Marie smiles.

He reaches back and puts it back on. He cracks his face into a smile, then walks fast back to the stock room door. Marie watches him go.

STOCK ROOM

where as soon as he crosses the threshold his fist clench and he grimaces:

Dick comes in --

Dick backs out fast. Rob leans on a wall. Barry enters --

Barry sighs, throws up his hands and heads out the door.

Barry exits. Rob seems to be having trouble staying on his feet.

Rob enters and walks to the mail table, looking like shit.

He starts sifting through envelopes for his.

He slows... and stops. His face gets a little paler as he lifts a letter up to his face.

CLOSE-UP: LETTER

A cable service bill to a Mr. I. Raymond.

ROB

as he looks at it, divining.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

Darkness. We move silently through the rooms, and enter the bedroom... closer to the bed, we see Rob on his back, sheets held clenched up to his chin. He stares at the ceiling, sadly.

JUMP CUT

To almost the same shot, but it's Rob and Laura in the bed, semi-tangled. Laura has a book in her lap. A CREAKING is heard. Laura's eyes go to the ceiling, and Rob sits up at attention. They look up at the light fixture, which shakes a little faster, with the rhythm of the creaking. Someone is definitely having sex upstairs, and they are going for it.

They turn to each other and laugh.

JUMP CUT BACK

to Rob lying still in bed, staring at the ceiling.

ROB'S IAN-LAURA SEX NIGHTMARE - QUICK CUTS

Ian mercilessly savages Laura from behind, below, and above, champagne showers, toe-sucking, and animal screams --

BACK TO ROB IN BED,

imploding with disgust and sorrow. Tears run down his cheeks into his ears.

Dick and Barry are stocking the racks. Rob stands at the register, rocking back and forth sort of like an idiot, to "Always and Forever" by the Commodores. He is a mess.

Rob looks up to see a nineteen or twenty-year-old GIRL standing in front of him.

Rob smiles bitterly at her, clearly having a different meaning in mind.

She kind of backs away and goes back to browsing. The phone rings and Rob picks it up.

He hangs up and grabs his jacket. Dick emerges from the back.

Rob walks out.

Rob mounts the stairs and rings the doorbell. The door opens, revealing a too-tan WOMAN in her late forties, in designer jeans and a T-shirt bearing a rhinestone peace sign.

She says nothing.

She turns and walks into the house, leaving the door open for him. He follows her in and through a fabulous first floor, packed with big-bucks bourgeois: Rugs, art, and antiques:

She ushers Rob into a large study, and turns the light on. He misses a breath. The walls are lined with mahogany cases custom-built for CDs, albums, epicurean stereo components, a couple priceless vintage guitars -- every one of the thousands of items bear a little numbered sticker, like a museum. She points to several boxes on the floor, full of hundreds of singles.

Rob steps into the room like an Undeserving, and carefully drops to his knees to examine the singles, each pristine in a plastic sleeve: the original God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols, original Otis Reddings, Elvis Presleys, James Browns, Jerry Lee Lewises, Beatles... on and on. The mother lode. Rob is doing the best to control the onset of hyperventilation. He dares a glance over his shoulder to her to see if this is a joke.

Rob's face goes funny. He looks around for a hidden camera.

Rob looks back at the records but avoids the trance.

They start smiling at each other.

Rob half stands, then drops again for one last lingering look.

Rob comes down the stairs holding his single, and walks down the street talking to camera.

The bar where Al Capone used to party, and it looks about the same: colored lightbulbs, shadowboxes, deep plush booths and a stage for jazz. Rob slumps back in a booth, stirring a drink with his finger. After a beat, we hear a DOOR SLAM off camera, and Rob looks up with a bit of fear.

Heavy footsteps get louder and closer, until a shadow shrouds Rob -- LIZ stands in front of him.

She is enormous, and she is mad as hell. Rob reflexively shrinks.

She turns and stomps toward the door. Rob gets up and follows.

Rob comes out of the club and follows Liz. She hears him and turns on him, punctuating with a finger in his chest.

She turns again and keeps walking, holding a defiant middle finger over her shoulder as she fades down the street.

Rob sits, rocking slightly with the movement of the train.

He stares at an OLD COUPLE who do not speak to each other.

A LONG BEAT, even five or ten seconds.

Saturday. For the first time we see the place kind of busy. Rob watches the room. Barry is toward the back, talking to a CUSTOMER. "Cruel to Be Kind" by Nick Lowe plays.

He plucks it from the rack, and sticks it in the Customer's hand, who regards it with a bit a of shame.

DICK

is listening to a female customer, but he doesn't hear her voice.

CUSTOMER - DICK'S POV

The army bag with a red cross on it. The ring-of-ivy tattoo around the wrist. The monkey boots. The eye shadow.

DICK

thinking, calculating...

Dick pulls a Stranglers record and puts it on the stereo. Her brow furrows, and then she smiles.

Dick smiles humbly. Two people in the store turn and approach.

BARRY still talking to his Customer, who now has several CD's in his hand. He looks at Barry with a mixture of hate and adoration.

Barry adds more records to the Customer's stack.

A FEW MINUTES LATER - ROB AND DICK

stand behind the counter. Rob holds a CD in his hand, and surveys the roaming customers with a semi-serious air of authority.

Rob pops the CD in and it begins to play... He stands there with his arms folded, waiting. After a moment, a Customer approaches.

ROB'S POV

of the room. Something has caught his eye: a cropped head with a leopard skin pattern surfaces and disappears, like Nessie.

Rob's face gets hot and mad. He jumps out from behind the counter.

He moves like a cat through the crowd. Justin sees him coming and counters around the middle island and heads for the door. Vince appears next to him, fiddling with his belt.

He sees Rob now, and he and Justin bolt for the door. Rob doubles back.

Dick sees Vince and Justin too late. Rob is right behind them and as they get out the door, he reaches... and comes up with the back half of a skateboard.

Rob emerges behind them, Vince's skateboard in hand. They have enough distance to bolt, but they can't leave that board behind.

Justin pulls two CD's out and slides them over to Rob.

Vince pulls about six, and puts them down in a neutral spot.

Rob picks all of them up and starts looking through them.

Dicks pokes his head out of the door.

Vince and Justin look at each other.

Justin reaches down again into his baggy shorts and comes up with a tattered old book, "How To Make A Record." He tosses it over.

Rob snorts.

Rob can't resist edifying them -- the curse of the underappreciated expert.

Rob turns to go back in the store.

Rob drops it and enters the store.

Barry emerges from the back with three opened bottles of beer as the last customer goes out the door... The three lean against the bins, tired and smiling.

Dick and Barry look at each other. They almost know how to take a compliment.

Rob, now alone, turns the sign from "open" to "closed" shuts the door behind him, and pulls the gate across. Laura appears from the next doorway. He jumps.

Laura turns and begins walking. Rob looks at camera.

Laura's CAR HORN is heard. He heads off.

They move down the street, and it's a little tense. Laura pushes a tape into the stereo. Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" begins to play. Rob turns away from her and makes a face, but she knows he's making it.

Rob tries not to speak, but --

He reels on her.

Rob shakes his head in disbelief.

Silence.

The car slows, and Laura parks.

Laura turns the engine off and unbuckles her seat belt.

She half smiles.

She gets out of the car. Rob turns to camera, speaking quietly and urgently.

He scrambles out of the car.

The lock turns and Rob enters, holding the door for Laura who slips by, her coat in her hands. She glances down at the table by the door and sees Ian's envelope.

She slips it into her purse. He stands facing her for a moment, then crosses to her, takes her coat and tosses it on a chair. She opens the closet and takes out a big laundry sack.

She begins putting books and other things into the bag...

Having no comeback, Rob goes for the moral high ground.

Laura looks suddenly tired and sad, and looks away.

She stands and walks toward the bathroom.

As soon as she shuts the door behind her, he turns to camera.

We hear the bathroom door open.

Laura comes out with a toiletry bag and places it by the door.

Laura rolls her eyes and head off into the bedroom with the laundry bag. Rob turns back to camera.

Laura reappears, her bag half-filled with clothes, and goes to the book shelves next to the records. She starts topping off the bag with books.

She abandons her attempt at packing.

Rob shuts the door behind him and does a crazy Charleston/ Cabbage-Patch/Boxstep/Touchdown dance of pure elation, then bounces down the stairs.

Rob bounces along, a smile wider than we have seen yet.

Maybe even jumping to touch an awning. He lands and tells us:

Rob moves through the room, still grinning a bit like a proud new father, toward the table where Barry, Dick, Marie and T- Bone sit, listening to a story T-Bone is telling.

Marie turns to him.

Rob glances at Barry, who averts his gaze.

Rob glances at T-Bone, his mind calculating the new info.

Marie slides closer, turning her back on the others. The loop is closed.

SERIES OF CUTS - ELAPSED TIME

Rob and Marie lean in to each other, everyone else out of focus.

ROB AND MARIE - LATER

Rob glows --

ROB AND MARIE

They just laugh and laugh --

Rob and Marie are kissing standing up.

Marie goes into the kitchen, and they keep talking around the corner.

She plants the whiskeys firmly on the coffee table.

Marie picks up the drinks again and exits to the bedroom.

Rob just stands there... and the LIGHTING CHANGES.

...he goes through a door into the bedroom. Marie is taking off her earrings.

Rob stares at the ceiling as Marie sleeps on next to him.

Rob looks to the camera.

The two of them come out of the building and into the street.

Empty. Dick prices records out on the floor. Rob leans against the register. Barry sits on a stool next to him.

They're top-fiving it. Rob's heart isn't in it.

Rob springs to his feet, takes the phone and walks to the end of the cord. Deep breath.

LAURA - INTERCUT

Rob comes back to the counter and hangs up the phone.

SFX: BARRY'S VOICE FADES OUT. Rob's mouth slacks and he stares off.

SFX: BACK TO THE ROOM.

Barry just looks at Rob. He pulls out a Game Boy and begins playing.

Barry shuts off the Game Boy.

Rob brightens. Barry finally considers.

Rob darkens.

They look at each other for a strange moment.

Barry stands.

Dick smiles sheepishly.

Barry's eyes widen.

Silence.

Barry is going a little hard. Dick shrinks back.

Barry picks up his bag and heads for the door.

Rob looks to Dick, who looks guilty.

Dick exits. Rob watches the door close behind him, and looks out over the empty store. He TALKS TO CAMERA as he goes to the light switches and begins shutting them off, one by one...

...until all the lights are out. Rob's silhouette slips out the door.

A downpour is on. Rob has himself wedged into a phone booth, the little kind.

Rob stands under the overhang, watching Laura walk the long hallway from the elevators to the door.

She emerges from doors, says something to him and they start walking, sharing her umbrella.

Rob and Laura have just sat down in a booth.

She looks past him.

She starts to say something else but Rob is up and out.

Rob pushes through the rush hour raincoats, seeming to be the only one going his way.

Rob is soaking, slumped in his chair, his headphones on and the stereo lit up behind him. He talks a little loud, due to the headphones.

He holds up a stack of records and CDs.

She laughs a bit nervously.

He hangs up and stares at the wall for awhile. He gets a beer from the fridge and sits back down. He picks up the phone and dials.

He writes down a number and hangs up, then looks to camera.

He picks up the phone and dials, while continuing to talk to us --

He hangs up quickly --

Rob is tucked into a phone booth across the street. He can see the silhouettes of Laura and Ian in the window. He picks up the phone, drops a quarter, and hits the numbers hard as he dials... a muffled male "hello?" is heard and Rob hangs up. He does it again. And again. And again. Until --

Still an unpacked box or two, but it's set up: a framed "Woodstock - The Movie" poster, stacks of new fiction, a bread maker -- you get the idea. Ian is shorter than Laura, scruffier than Rob, and looks not unlike Leo Sayer/Steve Guttenberg. He stares at Laura with amused exasperation.

She picks up the phone --

She walks into another room, shutting the door behind her.

On a bookshelf is a picture of a younger Ian in a tunic, emoting on some college stage. She turns it face down.

She wanders over to the window, looking out absently. She sees Rob down there at the phone booth.

She clicks the phone off. The door cracks and Ian sticks his head in.

She moves past him back into the apartment.

She grabs her coat and opens the door. The phone begins to ring.

Rob stands on the sidewalk in the rain, Ian's building behind him and down a few doors.

His head turns at the sharp SOUND of a door opening -- Ian and Laura are coming out of the building. He jumps behind a tree, peering around it as they fade down the street.

Rob sits alone, nursing a scotch. Rob looks up into the mirror behind the bar and sees an older woman, MRS. ASHWORTH, sitting alone a few stools down.

Rob remembers, and his gaze has a new found seriousness.

Alison's Mom's brow furrows and her face darkens.

ALISON'S MOM What did you say your name was?

She doesn't seem too happy that Alison lives in Australia.

Rob is thrilled.

She stands.

Alison's Mom strolls out.

Rob turns to the bartender, smiling giddily.

Rob walks through Uptown toward the train.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob into camera, digging through a box, fishing through pictures and letters, concert tickets and other mementos.

He begins to assemble a small pile of pictures of women.

Rob holds an old crumpled address book in one hand and the phone in the other.

Rob and Penny walk out of the theater mid-conversation.

They look happy as they walk down the street.

A mid-scale trattoria. Rob and Penny sit at table laughing and talking. If we didn't know better we might think there is chemistry.

CLOSE-UP -- ROB TALKING

He slows to a stop. We see Penny as she goes from happy to livid.

Penny stands and leaves. Rob just sits.

Rob indicates to an off-screen waiter.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

of a door opening, revealing Sarah, a few years older but still pretty in her mousey way. She looks at Rob with a bit too much in her eyes.

Rob and Sarah face each other over a half-eaten pizza.

Sarah looks down at her plate, shaking her head, blushing.

Rob looks uncomfortable. This is more than he was looking for.

She looks up again...

...and back down again.

Sarah, in the doorway, smiles painfully. It's clear she doesn't want to shut the door, but she does. Rob turns and walks down the hall toward the door to the street as he talks TO CAMERA.

CLOSE-UP: PHONE BOOK

as Rob's finger moves down the column, then stops.

Rob looks up with a little shock, almost recoiling from the phone book.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

Rob hears the door open as he stocks shelves, and turns.

It's Ian. Rob reacts, gunfighter eyes.

Rob says nothing.

Rob is disoriented on the way to angry. Dick and Barry's ears perk up.

CUT TO FANTASY #1:

Rob looking sure of himself, righteous.

Ian leaves, rattled.

CUT TO FANTASY #2:

Same thing.

Rob springs toward Ian, but Barry blocks his way. Dick helps hold Rob back.

Rob reaches a pointed finger over Barry's shoulder.

Ian trips backward and scurries out the door.

CUT TO FANTASY #3:

Rob, Dick, and Barry just beating the living shit out of Ian, Rodney King style. Ian lies on the floor trying to cover himself. Dick, already out of breath, breaks from the pack and jerks the air conditioner from the wall and hefts it over his head, preparing for the death blow.

CUT BACK TO REALITY

Ian walks out. Rob looks spent. He shuffles toward the back of the store.

Rob is laying on his back, staring at the ceiling. Dick sticks his head in the door.

Rob pulls the phone into the bathroom and shuts the door.

BATHROOM Rob curls up with the phone.

Charlie looks even better than when we saw her in college.

SERIES OF SHOTS OVER THE COURSE OF DINNER

Sexy version of a hip wine commercial: a small mid-thirties crowd of successful, beautiful people. Rob sits at the table silently as the other guests talk and eat. Rob's central activities are working his way through maybe a few too many wines making sure his cigarette smoke doesn't get in anyone's face. His eyes occasionally dart around the table, but he says nothing to anyone.

Rob is a little too settled into the couch, somewhat bleary.

Everyone gone but the two of them, Charlie plops down into a chair across from Rob.

Charlie looks off at a corner of the ceiling, musters a look of "contemplation."

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

Rob enters the already open store, in a bad mood, to find Barry putting up a poster. It reads:

"BARRYTOWN/appearing Saturday night/Bucktown Pub"

Barry says nothing.

Rob opens the door to find Laura filling a duffel bag in the living room.

They smile.

Rob flops onto the couch and surveys the room.

Laura sits down, on the other side of the couch.

Laura starts laughing, laying on the couch on her back, very close to Rob. Rob leans in, sort of looking down into her eyes.

He moves a little closer.

She laughs. He moves in, not really trying to kiss her but leaving the door open for her... She almost goes for it, but instead gets to her feet.

She goes to her bags. Rob points to a pile of CDs.

She hefts the duffel bag, opens the door and exits.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to the camera.

Rob walks toward the record store, and looks into a Starbuck's window he passes. He stops for a second, seeing Ian at the counter, chatting merrily with the espresso jockey. Rob keeps walking.

Rob tosses his coat down and picks up the phone and dials...

No answer.

No response.

She hangs up.

FRONT ROOM

Rob comes out of the back, in a daze. Dick and Barry notice.

Barry goes back to his comic book and burrito.

Barry looks up at him, shrugs, then gets an idea.

Nobody can help thinking about it.

The phone RINGS. Rob picks it up.

INTERCUT - IAN'S APARTMENT

Laura is curled up on the couch. Dick and Barry keep listing.

Rob tries to signal to them to shut up but they don't see him. He moves as far away as the cord will let me.

Rob is silent.

She hangs up.

Rob stomps toward Barry, who jumps over the counter to keep singing --

THUNDERCLAPS and RAIN. Rob is in a somber suit, looking through the windshield wipers as Liz drives.

Liz and Rob sit in the back of the dark, smallish nondenominational room. At the front is a coffin, resting on a stand. Laura, her younger sister JO, and her mother sit in the front row, listening to the MINISTER.

He nods "offstage," and a muffled mechanical noise is heard.

The coffin begins to lower through a trap door beneath it.

A low, baleful human HOWL is heard, starting quietly but gaining in volume.

Rob stays back, watching mourners approach Laura and her mother, hugging them. After awhile, Laura sees Rob through the throng, hanging back. She breaks through and to him, holding him close for a long time...

A cozy old Victorian house, full of things -- furniture, paintings, ornaments, plants -- which don't go together but which have obviously been chosen with care and taste. Rob and Liz stand, drinking wine. Jo approaches them.

She glances at Rob, embarrassed.

Jo smiles, Liz gives him a look.

Rob begins to turn red. Anger, sorrow, everything else building.

Rob looks around the room, beginning to hyperventilate and near tears.

He sees Laura in a corner of the room surrounded by four or five mourners. He crosses to them and breaks through to her.

He breaks away from her and slips out the front door.

So darkened by weather that it is almost night, raining torrents and big sheets. Rob emerges from the front door of Laura's parents' house and begins walking down the street, hands thrust into his pockets. The rain almost immediately soaks him.

In the distance, Rob runs toward us. As he gets to us we move with him down the street. He is drenched. We hear the rain, and his ragged breath. Headlights appear behind him and backlight him, getting brighter as the sound of an engine gets louder. Rob takes a look over his shoulder, looks desperately left and right, and vaults himself over a small brick wall and into a flower bed, landing on his back in the black wet earth.

The big drops of rain splash mud on his face, and he burrows deeper into the dirt and flowers with his back, panting and staring up at the sky. Off-camera the car engine catches up, and a door opens and shuts. He sighs and shuts his eyes...

He opens his eyes again, to see Laura's face, wet as well, staring down at him. It is difficult to distinguish rain from tears.

But Rob keeps lying there. Laura pulls herself to a sitting position on the wall just above him.

Rob pulls his muddy self to his feet and sits on the wall next to her.

They swing their legs over the wall and walk to Laura's VW.

They drive sort of aimlessly through Laura's old neighborhood. Laura sees something on her left, and makes a sudden turn up a narrow road through some overgrown trees.

They come to a stop in a formerly paved clearing, looking out on a field with an old abandoned school on the other side. Laura shuts down the engine.

She pulls herself over him, staddling him in the passenger seat and kissing his neck. She pauses and regards him from above.

Laura reaches down and unzips his pants, as they keep kissing.

Laura looks at him, motionless, then begins to cry.

She rolls off of him into her seat. They sit there in silence, watching the rain run down the windshield.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

Rob and Laura lean back in a booth, facing each other. We get that feeling that not another word has been spoken since we last saw them.

Rob leans forward.

She looks up at him.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

Post-lovemaking. Rob and Laura lie on their backs.

Laura is silent.

Rob begins to get out of bed. She grabs his hand and pulls him back down.

She pulls him close and they lie there, the matter seemingly settled.

He turns slowly to her. A giggle from her turns into a laugh, then a howl, a roar --

Rob and Laura walk the cement breakfront.

Rob is silent.

Rob comes out of the stock room and walks toward the counter where Dick and Barry stare at the tape deck like two concerned doctors, listening to a song that is raw and moody and lyrical -- Minor Threat meets Brian Eno, if that's possible. Rob joins them in contemplation.

Rob and Dick look at him, ready to pounce --

Dick and Barry look to Rob, who continues to just listen...

He takes a deep breath and walks to the front door and out, seemingly with a mission.

Vince and Justin are doing noisy skate tricks against the curb across the street. When they see Rob they stop, get ready to flee. He walks across to them. Dick comes out and hovers in the background.

They mumble thanks.

He begins to move toward the store. Vince and Justin look at each other. Rob gets to the door but stops and turns.

Rob looks at them. Then at Dick. Then through the window at Barry, inside looking out. Then at his own reflection in the window. Then back at them.

Rob walks back inside. He seems to be shaking a little.

Rob waves him off and disappears into the stock room. Laura enters.

Laura puts it together, and smiles. She goes to the back and crack the door, finding Rob sitting on a box, thinking.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

After dinner. Rob ambles in from the dining room. Laura close behind. He looks through the bookshelves until he finds a meager little grouping of CDs. He moves up to them and scans the titles: Tina Turner. Billy Joel. Kate Bush. Pink Floyd. Simply Red. The Beatles. The Windham Hill Sampler...

Rob turns around to see PAUL behind him.

Paul laughs.

Rob looks at her.

as they come in the door.

They throw their jackets over a chair. Rob turns on the CD player and "Call Me A Liar" by Palace begins to play.

She moves to Rob and wraps her arms around him. They look deeply at each other. She breaks away from him and walks into the bedroom. He turns off the stereo and follows her.

Rob walks to work, drinking his coffee. He stops and backs up a few feet, and stares at a poster on a plywood board-up.

"'I SOLD MY MOM'S WHEELCHAIR'/the debut single from The Kinky Wizards/on Broken Records/Record release party July 20 at The Artful Dodger/Featuring the triumphant return of DJ ROB GORDON/"Dance Music For Old People"

Rob scowls, and storms off.

Rob paces, Laura sits on the couch, smiling.

Rob wheels on her.

Rob and Barry.

Barry wanders off laughing.

Rob and Laura.

Rob's brow furrows.

Rob goes to the bedroom door and opens it. It's sort of like Christmas: hundreds of Kinky Wizards CD singles, painstakingly packaged and stacked on the bed.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

Rob turns from the bedroom and goes to Laura, putting his arms around her.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

Rob is standing shelves. A very pretty young woman, CAROLINE, comes through the door and looks around. She sees Rob.

Rob looks up and takes her in like a dish in a window.

Rob realizes what he must be sounding like. He blushes and retreats.

Rob looks around: there is absolutely nothing going on in the store. He nods. She pulls out a pad and pencil.

He winces immediately.

Rob is aghast, humiliated, quietly outraged.

She scribbles and writes.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

Rob sits Indian-style on the floor in front of the stereo.

He has a pad of paper with scrawled titles and cross-outs, and is surrounded by piles of CDs and records.

Rob winces, turns. He's busted.

Laura turns and walks out of the room.

Rob is tucked into the corner, on the phone.

ROB IN HIS CHAIR

Rob to camera.

Rob sits at a table in the bar, nervous. He watches the door, sits up straight when it opens, and follows someone with his eyes, all the way to his table. She sits. It's Laura.

Rob says nothing.

He plays with his drink.

He plays with his drink some more.

She leans over and takes his hands in hers, smiles at him.

TWO TURNTABLES

with the mixer in the middle. "Just Begun" by Jimmy Castor spins on turntable #1. A hand reaches in, and begins to draw the slides down, quieting the music.

Rob looks up from behind the deejay table, set up amongst the instruments. The place is packed with people, and everyone seems to be having a great time.

Almost everyone -- Rob sees Barry, who pretends to nod off when Rob catches his eye, and Justin, who looks back at him and mocks a bulimic act. Rob gives him the finger. He sees Laura, and she beams at him. He comes to the front of the stage, and taps a microphone.

Good-natured applause. Rob steps down and bee-lines to Laura. Barry and his crew mount the stage. Rob takes a big gulp of beer.

Barry stands in front of the mic, surveying the crowd with a smile. He and the band all wear suits and ties.