READER: Joe Brislin

DATE:6/14/2012

TITLE:“Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage”

GENRE:Offbeat Dramedy/ Romance

AUTHOR:Mark Jude PoirierLOCATION:Iowa/ Chicago

FORM/ PP:SP/110CIRCA:Present

SUBMITTED TO: Liz GlotzerBUDGET: Low

LOGLINE:A teenage girl tricks her socially awkward nanny into a romantice-mail relationship with her dead-beat dad, only to have her joke backfire when the two fall for each other.

EXC.GOODFAIRPOOR

PREMISE X

STORYLINE X

CHARACTERIZATION X

DIALOGUE X

RECOMMENDATION: Pass (tentative)

SYNOPSIS:JOHANNA (30’s), a plain woman with potential for beauty, cares for a moribund old woman in a terse manner. After we see her routine, Johanna tries to wake the woman up and discovers that she has died. The oxygen tankdeliveryman comes by, unaware that the woman has died, and the two have an extremely odd interaction, establishing Johanna’s social awkwardness. She reveals she is going to Solon, Iowa for a new job, a “new everything”.

We go to Solon, where SABITHA and EDITH, 16-year-old girls and best friends, walk and talk about typical teenage girl things. KEN- Sabitha’s charming, handsome father- pulls up in his station wagon and picks the girls up. Meanwhile, Johanna drags her suitcase across town, having arrived by bus.

Ken brings the girls to Mr. McCaulley’s house (his father-in-law and Sabitha’s grandfather). We discover that this is where Sabitha lives. Ken briefly tries to pitch a business opportunity with his crappy motel to Mr. McCaulley, and the old man angrily rejects him. At this moment, Johanna walks up to the house with her suitcase. She will be living with Mr. McCaulley and Sabitha, serving as a nanny of sorts. She gets herself settled in the house, her discomfort with the technologies further revealing her sheltered existence.

Ken, Johanna, Sabitha and Edith go to a carnival, where Sabitha and Edith discuss the fact that Ken, only briefly visiting from Chicago, is on parole. A brief, awkward exchange between Edith and Johanna reveals that Sabitha’s mom/ Ken’s wife is dead.

Ken goes back to Chicago and Johanna grows more accustomed to her new job, which includes dealing with an often petulant and messy Sabitha. She goes to the bank, where the teller (EILEEN) tells her that Ken served jail time.

We go to Chicago, where Ken, outside of an AA meeting, picks up a fellow member named CHLOE.

Sabethareceives a letter from her father. Inside the letter is also a short note for Johanna, thanking her for looking after his daughter. He signs the note, Your Friend, Ken Boudreau, and this simple token of friendship has a great effect on Johanna. Days later, after handwriting her own letter for Ken, Johanna asks Sabitha for Ken’s address. Because Johanna also needs to help Sabitha clean her room, Edith suggests that she can drop the letter off in the mail. However, being cruel and conniving, Edith instead keeps the letter, showing it to Sabitha later that night for their enjoyment. Inspired by this, they break out the typewriter and write a flirtatiousletter in response, posing as Ken. They create a fake e-mail address for Ken to ensure this joke will continue.

Johanna, sadly, becomes consumed by this fake romantic correspondence, begins to dress and act differently because of it. She has a buildup of excitement when she, Mr. McCaulley and Sabitha go visit Ken for lunch in Chicago, but suffers total disappointment when he shows her no special attention. Even Sabetha begins to feel bad about the prank at this point.

Back in Iowa, Sabitha prepares for the class trip to Washington D.C. Edith comes by to pick up one of her sweaters but more so to yell at Sabitha for telling others that Edith couldn’t afford to come on the D.C. trip. “That’s the bitchiest thing you’ve ever done to me!” she yells at her friend. Later, with her boyfriend Stevie, Edith types out another love e-mail as Ken to Johanna, this one putting Johanna over the edge with excitement. She buys an elegant dress and wears makeup for what seems the first time. Later, she takes out $5,000 in cash from the bank and goes to a shipping warehouse, where she ships furniture to Ken’s address in Chicago.

The next morning, Johanna takes a bus to the gritty section of Chicago where Ken lives. (It is clear by now that Edith’s latest e-mail was an invitation from “Ken” to move in with him). With Ken’s door locked, Johanna crawls in through the window. Ken is obviously shocked to find Johanna in his kitchen, unloading groceries. They both realize that Sabitha and Edith caused this misunderstanding with their prank e-mails. Johanna is shocked and dismayed, but Ken is very understanding and sympathetic to her situation. He invites her to stay at his apartment for the time being.

Not wanting to return to Iowa, Johanna decides to stay in Chicago and take care of the sick Ken (the mess that he is, he needs all the help he can get). She learns of the side of Ken that he keeps hidden with his charm: his drug problems, his financial distress. She also has to deal with Chloe, Ken’s loser girlfriend with a harsh Chicago accent. The two open up to each other, with Ken revealing that he went to jail for crashing his boat while drunk, an accident that killed his wife. Johanna tells Ken about her time looking after Mrs. Willetts, a woman who barely allowed her to leave her house.

Back in Solon, Eileen (the bank teller) makes a seductive move for Mr. McCaulley and he succumbs. Meanwhile, Sabitha has some drunken friends at her house. One of her guy friends- Eileen’s son- burns the panda that Sabitha’s father had bought her at the carnival.

Things heat up between Ken and Johanna, and they have sex (Johanna’s inexperience very evident). In the coming weeks, they have sex more often, with Johanna becoming more comfortable with her sexuality. Ken has begun refurnishing his motel with Johanna’s help.

Sabitha is very unhappy at her home in Solon, especially with Eileen becoming more of an every day presence. She calls her father’s apartment, and is shocked to hear Johanna pick up.

Her cover blown, Johanna and Ken drive back to Iowa to return Mr. McCaulley’s furniture. Mr. McCaulley is waiting when they arrive, and is furious. Ken explains the misunderstanding, and asks if Sabitha can come live in Chicago for the summer. Sabitha is initially horrified at the idea of living with Johanna, but after Johanna tries to have a motherly conversation with her, she warms up to the strange woman. She decides to join them in Chicago.

In Chicago, Sabitha helps her dad and Johanna remodel the motel, becoming less and less of the spoiled brat that she had previously been. Johanna discovers that she is pregnant. Ken is not happy with the news, not prepared to have another child, but after an argument with Sabitha, decides he needs to do the right thing and marry Johanna. They have an unglamorous ceremony at town hall, with Sabitha in attendance. Sabitha returns to Iowa after a summer of hard work.

We cut to 9-months-later, as Ken and Johanna, visiting Solon for Sabitha’s graduation, bring their 6-month-old baby boy. After the graduation ceremony, Johanna confronts Edith. Edith is embarrassed/ashamed for the prank, but Johanna simply says, “I have what I want.” In the final shot, we see Johanna contentedly vacuuming the Chicago motel.

COMMENTS:

Part drama, part comedy, part romance, part anti-romance, “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” is a small tale told well. By the end, we have a vivid feel for each of the characters, an understanding of where they come from and why they act the way they do. Best of all, the development of these characters is very organic. There is a lot of background information surrounding these characters but writer Mark Poirier does an excellent job of slowly burning the necessary information into the script rather than forcing it in with unnatural exposition. This decision adds intrigue to the story, makes the reader wants to put the pieces together (why does Sabitha live with her grandfather? What happened to the mother?). The script has a dry wit, well-rounded characters and an uplifting, feel-good ending that somehow avoids over-sentimentality. And yet… Yet despite all the nice touches and subtleties, I have a hard time seeing this film make an impact on anything but the most niche of indie audiences.

This is a film that lives and dies with its main character, Johanna. Like the film itself, her character is difficult to pin down. Yes, she’s obviously very awkward and sheltered, but there aren’t any discernable tendencies or physical attributes that make Johanna stand out. When you think of all the iconic social outcasts in film-Napoleon Dynamite, Travis Bickle, Dawn Weiner from “Welcome to the Dollhouse”- you have a clear visual image, and more, a clear grasp of their personality. These characters are strange but also active, in control of their stories. It would be far more difficult to expect audiences to gravitate towards Johanna’s passive brand of awkwardness for a full 100 minutes.

I can’t cover this script honestly without mentioning that I’ve learned that Kristin Wiig is attached to play Johanna. This undoubtedly changes things. There is not a better actress for this role than Kristen Wiig, a woman who specializes in awkward. Wiig, with her ability to contort her face into anything, would more than compensate for the somewhat underwritten role of Johanna. It would certainly be an interesting choice for her, depending on how dramatic she plays it. However, if I had to predict whether this is the film that would put her on the A list or a film she would like to forget ever making, I would pick the latter.

As for the other aspects of the story, I found that the story lines involving Sabitha’s high school drama and Eileen needed more development. It was hard to decipher how these subplots related to the bigger themes of the story. I also felt the dealings with Chloe and her brother took up an unnecessary chunk of the story.

If this coverage seems conflicted, it’s because it is. I admire many aspects of Poirier’s story and how he has chosen to tell it. However, as someone who cannot picture this film doing much better than breaking even (even with Wiig attached), I’m going to have to mark this a tentative pass.