Goodbye Sunshine
Characters:
Gabriel — named after Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gabe is a writer who has failed repeatedly to publish his novel, Goodbye Sunshine. He recently turned down an offer of $50,000 to publish his novel, on the condition that he lets his main character, Sunshine, live.
Molly — is Gabe’s childhood friend. They were the couple everyone thought would hook up but never did. They had one miserable date. They remained close friends, however, even going to art school together. When Gabriel pulls one of his notorious pranks, Molly always come to the rescue.
Lucia — is Gabriel’s wife. They met in art school, where she immediately began pushing Molly out. She went as far as convincing Gabe to transfer to a writing program to finish his novel, but mostly to get him away from Molly. Lucia’s comes from money, although her family is suffering from financial problems. She recognizes his talent, and sees Gabe as a way back to the Big Time.
Josh — also met the rest of the gang in art school. He knew Lucia from high school, but is more of a fanboy, like Molly & Gabe. He’s known as a jokester with an insatiable libido.
The movie opens with a close up of a rope around someone’s neck. As the camera draws back, we see that it’s Gabe. He’s taking pictures of himself, pretending to be dead, like Sunshine, for a blog entry about his most recent failure to publish. While trying to get himself out of the noose, he slips, nearly choking himself, knocking his laptop over, and accidentally posting a picture where he appears to be dead with the title, “Goodbye.” The rope snaps, Gabe hits his head on the floor, and the laptop falls on his head. He is knocked unconscious.
Immediately, his post is broadcast all over the internet. We see Josh receive the news first. he’s at the airport, about to catch a flight to Hedonism. He’s shocked. He tries to call Gabe, but gets no answer. He calls Lucia. Lucia reluctantly checks the post and assumes the worst. She asks Josh to find out if its true, but he doesn’t want to cancel his flight. Josh tells her to call the police. Lucia doesn’t want police involved until they absolutely have to be. Josh tells Lucia to call Molly. She’s not far from the studio. Lucia refuses. Josh calls Molly.
During all this time, we see various people, Gabe’s readers, friends, media and the editor who was going to publish GS receive the post. At this point, people begin sending condolences to Lucia. Lucia, swept up in the overflow of sympathy becomes convinced Gabe is dead and begins planning a memorial service.
Molly doesn’t have a smartphone. Josh calls her, asking if she’s heard from Gabe. She tells him she hasn’t, but isn’t expecting to see him until the next day to shoot her “monster” movie. Josh tells her about the post. She thinks it must be a hoax. She agrees to check the studio.
Molly arrives at the studio and comes across Gabe’s body. She screams. He screams. She screams louder. Etc.
Molly begins throwing things at Gabe. They argue. Molly’s phone rings. Josh received an invite to Gabe’s memorial service and is calling Molly to find out what the fuck is going on. Molly, busy fighting with Gabe doesn’t hear the phone. Molly tells Gabe to call Lucia. Gabe picks up the phone and sees the invite to his own memorial service. Gabe decides not to tell anyone he’s still alive so he can attend the service, especially when he realizes that his would-be publisher is attending.
Gabriel convinces Molly not to call Lucia or Josh. He sits down to write a retraction and pretends to post it. Of course, because Molly’s phone sucks, she doesn’t realize he’s lying.
Act 2 begins with Lucia talking to Matt Frisby, the editor of Tanner House Books. He was the editor who offered to publish Gabe’s book if he agreed to change the ending. He calls to offer his condolences and to offer Lucia the advance for publishing GS with the new ending. She agrees, only if he will change the dedication. Frisby will meet Lucia at the memorial service with a check, a contract and a galley of the book, new dedication and ending included.
Meanwhile, Josh decides to miss his flight. He can’t get an answer from Molly, and Lucia is incomprehensible. He assumes Gabe must be dead. Josh tells all his monster cohorts to come in their costumes to honor Gabe. He heads home.
Gabe sees the alert about the costumes. He realizes he can get into the service unnoticed in costume, but decides that wearing Godzilla would be too risky. He decides to break into Josh’s place to steal his Gamera suit.
Molly gets home, checks her computer and realizes Gabe faked the retraction. She calls him. Angry words are exchanged. Gabe finally convinces her to let him talk to Frisby. He even gets her to agree to break into Josh’s place.
In Act 3, hilarity ensues as Gabe and Molly break into Josh’s. Lucia is calling a caterer. Josh gets home to realize his suit is gone.
Lucia is already at the service. Gabe arrives as Gamera. He runs into Lucia who thinks he’s Josh. Gabe runs off when he sees the real Josh come in. Lucia doesn’t even realize that Josh is out of costume one moment and in the next. Molly makes an entrance dressed as Mothra. Everybody’s entranced, even Gabe. Josh sees Gamera and gives chase.
Eventually, Gabe comes across a copy of the galley. At first, he’s excited, thinking Tanner House decided to publish his novel. Suddenly, he rifles to the end and realizes the ending has been changed. He tries to tear the book apart, rips off the front cover, drops the rest of the book. He bends down to pick it up and notices the dedication has been changed from his late mother to Lucia. He slumps down next to his Gamera head.
Molly enters, asks what’s wrong. Gabe tells her. Josh catches sight of Gamera. He sneaks up on it until he’s close enough and pounces. After a scuffle, Josh realizes Gabe is alive. He’s happy, until he finds out what Lucia did.
Josh goes back to the service to confront Lucia. Frisby is at the mic offering a remembrance and announcing the deal. Everyone applauds. When the rest of the applause stops, we see Gabe is still clapping. Gasp! He’s alive. Lucia runs to Gabriel. He rebuffs her. She tries to humiliate him before storming off.
Denouement: Cut to Monster Movie shoot. We find out that, based on the publicity his stunt garnered, a rival publisher agrees to publish GS. blah blah blah. Gabe & Molly hold hands. End
No comments:
Post a Comment