Woman Wanted (1999) - full transcript
Story of a woman (Hunter) who comes to work as a housekeeper for a widower (Moriarty) and his grown son (Sutherland) and of their attachment to her to the point that she is asked by the father to marry... to the dismay of the son who also loves her. But the animosity of the two men toward each other is finally resolved when she becomes intentionally pregnant, possibly by one or the other as she goes to bed with both men within a matter of days, causing neither to win her for himself, but both to become bound together because of the child.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[PHONE RINGING]
MAN (ON PHONE): Hello?
WOMAN (ON PHONE):
Hello, I'm calling
from Boston about
your ad in the globe.
MAN (ON PHONE): Oh yes?
WOMAN (ON PHONE): It says
woman wanted live-in.
Why are you
advertising in Boston,
when you live in New Haven?
MAN (ON PHONE): Actually, I
grew up with an Irish nanny.
She was kind, and generous,
and pleasant to be with.
WOMAN (ON PHONE):
Are you married?
MAN (ON PHONE): I'm widowed.
I have a son in
his 20s, who's um
he's going through
some difficulties.
He lives at home
and we need someone
to put our house in order.
-Thanks for the lift.
-Thanks honey.
-Yeah.
-Take it easy.
-Thanks.
[KNOCK ON DOOR]
-How do you do I'm
Richard Goddard.
-Hello.
-I didn't think
you'd be so young.
My old nanny wasn't so young.
-Ever?
-I don't think so.
-Oh, I'll get that.
-Thank you.
-Come on in.
RICHARD: This is your kitchen.
-Oh.
RICHARD: I don't
know what we'll do
about dinner I'm not prepared.
-Well I'm sure I can
put something together.
-I should have been prepared.
[CLICK]
RICHARD: Why did you do that?
EMMA: The house is very dark.
RICHARD: Is it?
EMMA: Still is.
RICHARD: It has.
I guess it has.
EMMA: If I wanted
-One more hike and
then Wendy's room.
RICHARD: I'm afraid
this room is dark too.
-You need some hundred watters.
RICHARD: You're right,
that'll cure it.
-Is this you?
-Yes.
The day of my christening.
-Did you love her?
-Well I I suppose I did.
Yes I did.
I think you'll be
comfortable here.
Now there is a back stairs
route to the kitchen.
Bathroom's around the corner,
and the rest of the rooms
up here are used
for storage now.
We had five in help
in the old days.
One of them stole my father's
ties for her boyfriends,
and another one forged
his signature on checks.
Caught her tracing one day.
Well I'll uh leave you
to your priorities.
-My name is Wendell
Wharton Goddard.
-My name is Emma Rowena Riley.
-Other people's kitchens.
-It's a very large house but
you won't have to do it alone.
Lydia comes in once a week
to help with the heavy work.
I was born here.
I grew up here, and
when I went to college,
it was a very long trip,
three miles exactly I was six-
WENDELL: Generation Yale.
-Uh and when my father died,
I had to leave the dorms
and come home and tend to
my mother, an old nanny,
and entertain her
through the years,
and she was crippled
with arthritis,
so I pursued my doctorate
from here and then
of course, years later I tended
to Wendell's mother who died
three years ago, natural causes.
-This quiche is wonderful.
How on earth did you do it?
-I found some eggs and cheddar.
-Well you performed a miracle.
-Thank you.
-Welcome.
-Wendell that looks serious,
have you seen a doctor?
-Yesterday.
Eight stitches in all.
-Oh.
-Wendell snorted some
cocaine, and then he
drank a pint of vodka.
Probably was afraid to come
home in that condition,
so he crawled up into one of
those bins in a shopping mall
on Dexwell avenue.
-Salvation Army.
-While he spent the night
there sleeping it off, shortly
before dawn, some
suburban woman drove up
and hurled a broken
toaster down the chute.
Left a huge gash
on his forehead,
and required a trip
to the emergency room.
-Yes well I'm very popular
at the emergency room.
I find them most reliable
substitutions for family.
They provide 24-hour
service, they welcome you
with open arms, and
they never let you down.
[DISH SLAMMING]
[BOOK SLAMMING]
-Pick it up.
-I meant the book.
RICHARD: Oh uh may I see you
in my study at your leisure?
-This is nice isn't it?
Just a hint of orange.
-Michael my ex-husband
used to pour it on desserts
and light it, flambe.
-What did he do?
-He was an actor.
He dropped out of
Harvard junior year,
and joined a theater
group in Cambridge.
-Risky profession.
EMMA: Yes I worked
part-time as a stenographer.
We were able to buy
a little vacation
house in New Hampshire.
I got that in the settlement.
He became involved
with a director, a man.
He was bisexual.
-Oh my I'm sorry must have
been very difficult for you.
-Well, I had for a while, an
urge to become a statistic,
you know, just find a bridge
and jump into the Charles.
-How did you meet him?
EMMA: I was 19, I'd
never been to a play.
A friend took me to see Camino
Real by Tennessee Williams.
Michael played the
part of Kilroy.
He was very handsome
and very talented.
I had joined with the
Etta Rosa, property girl
and we were married
a year later.
-And there were no children?
-Oh no.
Things were too uncertain.
-I would like to provide as much
of a family, as sure as I can.
We never had that.
Because Wendell's mother was
mentally ill for many years.
She died when he was
in graduate school
and he left very
angrily, spent two years
hanging out in Berkley.
-He appears to be
rather hand full.
RICHARD: He is indeed.
Now I must ask your patience.
I'm very bad at handling
matters with the help,
and there are a few
things I must say,
and they seem to be mandatory.
I'd like it Understood
that on no occasion
are you to entertain men in
this house and on no occasion
are you to drink my liquor.
Also, although uniforms
aren't required
I'd appreciate it
if you wouldn't wear
excessive amounts of
jewelry or perfume.
And I expect you to
confine your social life
to Thursdays, your day off.
EMMA: Is there a curfew?
-Of course not.
Within reason.
[CHUCKLE]
-May I be excused?
-Certainly.
RICHARD: By the way
Wendell's mother's
old Volvo will be
at your disposal.
-What was Wendell's
mother's name?
-Mrs. Goddard
Marion
-My father who had
never loved my mother
-Buried her quickly in
Grove Street Cemetery.
-Laid her to rest in
most indecent haste.
RICHARD: I see your
customer's makeup.
-Dr. Goddard.
-Please call me Richard.
EMMA: What would you
like for breakfast?
-I uh think I'll skip
it this morning, Emma.
RICHARD: Emma, I went
to bed last night
very upset about our interview.
You spoke most
candidly and I didn't.
I skirted the truth.
Thank you.
I skirted the truth because I
wanted you to think well of me.
The truth is I have
failed my son, miserably.
-(SYMPATHETICALLY) Oh.
Well.
RICHARD: We have a uh severe
communication problem.
Now these are the house keys
and this is $200 for the market.
You can take the Volvo
and stock the larder.
This is the car key.
Transportation on the weekend
might be a bit of a problem.
Wendell has totalled
so many cars,
I refuse to buy him another one.
However, he often
travels up to Bennington,
where he has a um a lady friend.
Her name is Monica Donson
and I don't take the Volvo
because when my car, you
see, is in use, uh well Jesus
EMMA: Are you alright?
RICHARD: Um Thank you.
I also have a lady friend
-Oh?
-Yes in New York.
Her name is Ariadne Marchand.
I don't often travel
there on the weekend.
So the point is, you may not
have the Volvo on the weekend,
but you will have as
compensation, peace and quiet,
on the weekend.
RICHARD: Is
something the matter?
RICHARD: Oh they don't match.
Damn.
[EMMA LAUGHING]
RICHARD: Oh well Life's
little indignities.
But you know, I will actually
look forward to coming home
this evening.
-Bye.
EMMA: Bye.
EMMA: My God.
You'd think they were paupers.
-Mercy confirmation dresses.
[DOORBELL]
WENDELL: That would be Lydia.
[DOORBELL]
EMMA: Hi.
LYDIA: I always come
to the front door.
EMMA: Yes I see.
-Mail goes to the back.
EMMA: Come in.
-I'm already in.
EMMA: Lydia, we're practically
sticking to this kitchen floor.
Would you mind Starting in here?
LYDIA: I don't bends.
-You mean you don't do floors?
-Ms. Riley, I didn't bend
for Mrs. Goddard, who
was 50 and feeble, and
I don't bends for you.
-I see.
Then perhaps you
wouldn't mind starting
with the dining room windows.
[EMMA HUMMING]
WENDELL: See that you bends.
EMMA: Yes.
uh uh
WENDELL: Uh hunger.
I'd like two eggs over
easy, piece of this ham,
and a toasted english
muffin with jam.
-In your own palette
Wendell, fat fucking chance.
-A little cranky this morning.
A little hot under the collar?
Yes.
I observed a trickle of sweat
between your cheeky breasts.
-Ho hum
-Listen, just for
the record, I don't
know where you stand on
race, but I love Lydia.
So if you're one of
those Boston Irish nigger
baters you're gonna
have to answer to me.
-I'll ignore that.
-You familiar with
Virginia Wolfe?
EMMA: No.
Wendell, in the future,
when you cook jam like that,
would you mind
putting foil under it?
It gums up the machine.
WENDELL: Somewhere
in Virginia Wolfe,
she refers to a shopgirl,
she says she'd rather
have the history
of that shopgirl,
than the hundred
life of Napoleon,
the 70th studied in
Islamic conversion.
-So?
WENDELL: So I would
like to have the history
of the girl on
our kitchen floor.
It's very bad form
to drink with form
to drink with the
spoon in the cup.
You could lose an eye.
[OVEN RINGS]
WENDELL: Say, you're right.
Wow that's going to
be a bitch to clean.
[BACK DOOR RINGING]
LYDIA: I ain't getting that.
-Hi.
I'm Gracie Cesario, I'm
the live-in next door.
EMMA: Oh.
Hi.
-I just wanted to
come say, welcome.
EMMA: Oh think you.
Come on in.
-OK.
GRACIE: Yeah, so I come from
this big Italian family.
Dinner was just square.
And I got a son,
Raymond he's 13.
-You divorced?
-No never married.
I got pregnant in 12th grade
-(SYMPATHETICALLY) Oh yeah.
-Some high school
quarterback called Dominick.
Listen, I gotta say you're
not what I expected.
-What?
-I mean you're
young and white and-
-Do you get Thursdays off?
-Uh huh.
-Me too.
-Great.
-I always go down to Pub
Vincent on Waley Avenue.
They've got good
music and all you
can eat for $3.95
Do you want to come?
-Great.
GRACIE: It's a date.
-Yeah.
WENDELL: You can't
come in here, ever,
it's not to be aired or cleaned.
-Must need an occasional vacuum.
WENDELL: It has no such need.
I write poetry in here.
My honorable father Dickie
isn't allowed a glimpse
and nor is Lydia.
You'll find that I'm
an acutely sensitive
person frequently
given to seizures.
-That a warning or a pledge?
-What are you doing Thursday?
-Wendell, please.
WENDELL: I heard the
plumbing this morning
when you were showering.
A wonderful way to
wake up thinking
of a naked woman in a stall.
Where did you get those eye?
-My parents, Kevin and Peg.
Truly you realize if
we went out Thursday,
your father would
fire me on the spot.
-Not at all, he wants
to keep her for me.
Relieves him of
the responsibility.
-Boy, I never imagined
this would happen.
-Neither did I, but
can I be responsible
because you inherited
such gorgeous peepers.
-Are you responsible
for anything?
Do you even attempt
to behave responsibly?
-That's it, Get out!
-Wendell!
Wendell!
this is infantile.
WENDELL: I'm going to Vermont.
-To see Monica?
WENDELL: Yes for my five
monthly Monica fuck!
-I will not allow you talk
to me that way, Wendell.
-Then don't fuck with me lady!
-Wendell
WENDELL: Tell the Dick he'll
see me when he sees me!
EMMA: Wendell!
You can't do this I
have to go shopping.
EMMA: You're a self
indulgent inconsiderate brat!
[ENGINE STARTING]
RICHARD: Did he say why
he had to see Monica?
-No I'm afraid I
got angry with him.
I felt his manner was
a little too familiar.
-I hope you mean verbally.
-I suggested he
was irresponsible
and that sent him into a rage.
-Well you're absolutely right,
and you handled it superbly.
Did Liam call by any chance?
-Mm mm
-Ariadne?
EMMA: Not while I was here.
-This Ms. Marchand
work in New York?
-God, this is good.
No Ariadne doesn't have to
work, she has private means.
She occupies herself by
making mobiles and seashells.
She sells them out
of a gallery in Soho.
You'll enjoy of course.
-Well I-
-Nonsense I am not going to
sit in that dining room alone.
-Have you known
Ms. Marchand long?
RICHARD: Oh about
four years actually.
I But better tell you
this before he does.
I uh I met Ne
before my wife died.
It was the first moral
lapse of my life.
It was um well adultery.
your face is determinedly
blank, no judgment, no opinion?
-Do you expect to be condemned?
-Yes I suppose I do.
-Do you remember the Bee Gees?
-Uh no.
-They had a hit song
called, Stay Alive,
it's all about survival.
That's what Ms. Marchand
must have been to you.
-Exactly.
Thank you.
-It's Wendell.
-Oh dear.
WENDELL: I owe Emma an apology.
I was rude to her this morning.
I felt lousy all day.
RICHARD: Well that's very nice
but Emma had to shop with a cab
so it's up to her, really.
-Will you accept my apology?
-I will
-Good.
Dad I was kind of wondering
maybe I could take Emma
out Thursday show her the town.
RICHARD: You certainly may.
I'm sure it would help
her get her barrings.
-Well I just wanted
your permission.
-You have it.
-Bye.
RICHARD: Good night.
WENDELL: Now I
will introduce you
to 300 years of Puritan work
ethic and rigorous repression.
Lyman Beecher is here, father
of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Samuel Morse's widow is
over there, he had the code.
Noah Webster is here,
of Webster's dictionary,
has his homestead in Loomis.
They were trusted to
discover Halley's Comet.
-Charles Goodyear
isn't he the guy
who invented vulcanized rubber?
-He is.
My eternal gratitude Sir
for a long and dependable
tradition in condoms.
-Tomb of The Unknown Mother.
-She didn't really die of
natural causes you know.
She died at
Silverhill Sanatorium.
She died because
she was a nuisance,
because he had her committed.
God, I loved her.
He said they had a non-marriage.
She said she wanted a divorce.
He said, Jesus Christ Marion
and what about Wendell?
He stayed away after
that, hiding in his study
with his pressure solitude.
She withdrew to her room.
I didn't say much after that.
When I did see him, I
always wanted to look at him
and say Hey man
what about Wendell?
When I moved onto campus, I
couldn't visit her everyday.
One day she let
someone in, a Jehovah's
Witness and all those
goddamn religious magazines.
Her name was Rayann Wilkes.
Soon she and my mother
became best friends.
When my mother passed away she
left $80,000 to the church.
-Why did he have her committed?
-Why don't you ask him since
you're so palsey-walsey.
I'll tell you one thing,
I will never forgive him
for what he did it was a
score I intend to settle.
-Settling scores is direct.
-Well if you think you can
come in here like Mary fucking
Poppins and kiss
everything better
your head is
squarely up your ass.
-You're dragging all this crap
around like a ball and chain
and it makes you crippled
and you love that
-I do not.
-You gotta get
yourself a bullhorn
so you can walk around town
announcing my name is Wendell
Wharton Goddard
and I am miserable.
WENDELL: Emma!
Emma!
Look I don't know why I
came back from Berkeley.
I know you are not
going to believe me
but I didn't wear this
ball and chain out there
and I don't wear either.
-Are you in love with Monica?
-I love no one but Lydia.
However, you are finally
most susceptible.
-Oh Wendell get a grip.
WENDELL: Emma um here,
here are a couple
poems for your perusal.
-Oh no not me.
-Come on take them.
The will either reach
you or they won't.
It's all a poem
can do for anybody.
Just take your time.
Read them when you can.
RICHARD: Hello.
-I wonder if I can
have the crossword.
-You most certainly may.
-Here it is.
-Thank you.
RICHARD: Emma, you
know you don't have
to spend the evenings
in your room.
Please sit down.
-Well I-
RICHARD: Please.
Two people civilize a room.
My that's bright.
-It's a hundred watts.
Pang the expensive.
RICHARD: I imagine
that your life used
to revolve around
theater people.
-Almost entirely.
-So this must seem
very conventional.
Oh I'm quite content.
I've had a bellyful
of the unconventional.
-How beautiful.
-It's bone China.
This is so thoughtful of you.
Thank you.
RICHARD: You're very welcome.
Um How about today for
a visit to the lab?
-Well I'd be up for that.
-And I promise not to
be too predictable.
Finish your egg and we'll go.
RICHARD: You see all these
categories, optical physics,
plasma physics, particle
physics, solid-state physics,
they're all just
methods of measure.
We're trying to calculate the
interactions between matter
and energy, because that's
all we have in the world,
is matter and energy.
-You certain of that?
RICHARD: Absolutely.
-What about us?
RICHARD: Us?
-Yeah, humans like you
and me, and this piece
of work over here.
RICHARD: Oh yes right
well we scientists
learned early on, that
human interactions are
impossible to calculate
so we left that up
to the philosophers
and the poets.
You know there's something
about you that requires,
well it really demands,
honesty and that
tends to blur the delicate line
between employer and employee.
EMMA: Oh I hope you don't feel
an obligation to entertain me.
-An obligation?
Not at all.
I uh a desire perhaps.
What I do feel now
is a compulsion
to share my thoughts,
to be understood.
I was brought up to be obedient.
it's been the course of my life.
My family thought poetry a fine
hobby but a stupid profession.
So I obeyed and they opted for
physics, then my family summers
near Marion's on
Martha's Vineyard.
Now Marion never dated.
She was still a virgin at 25.
I felt very sorry for her.
So when I saw that our families
selling a match I obeyed
the game and then
after Wendell was born
her mind just deteriorates.
She retreats inside herself.
she took Wendell
with her as an Alli
and over the years they
effectively shut me out.
But you know the worst time?
When Wendell ran
away to Berkeley.
I was middle aged, my life
felt totally unorganized
and everything was still
unresolved between Wendell
and me.
But you know, if
he hadn't come home
I never would have
placed that ad
and you wouldn't be sitting
here listening to me drone on.
EMMA: And that's how
Michael was my education.
I sort of absorbed
him by osmosis.
That's a good word osmosis.
He was an armiferous reader.
-(SLURS) armiferous
reader is another
good word if you can say it.
He was a hell of a knock wood.
[WOOD KNOCKING]
-That man came on
just took the stage.
-Oh I shouldn't.
[EMMA CRYING]
He wanted to have a baby
very badly and so did I
but I didn't dare because,
you know, our problem.
My this is certainly
tasty, was it?
-Woodbridge California.
-Well I believe I'm
over speaking myself.
-Not at all.
[EMMA LAUGHING]
EMMA: I locked myself in the
apartment for three days.
My dad came and hollered at
the door, are you dead Emma?
I told my dad to bugger
off and he replied,
poor choice of words
Em in the circumstance.
-What are you doing?
-I'm taking her up.
-(SADLY) Oh will I be
fired in the morning?
-No you will not.
-That's good.
I'm so tired of being
booted out of places.
EMMA: Richard?
Regarding the light
Bill, Thomas Alvin Edison
wanted us to use the hundred
watters, more profit that way.
-Go to sleep now.
EMMA: Richard?
RICHARD: Yes?
-Isn't slumber a lovely word?
-Lovely.
Goodnight.
[CLICKING]
EMMA: Oh no no don't.
Don't close the
door all the way.
RICHARD: Alright.
WENDELL: Morning.
Finished reading the poems yet?
EMMA: Not yet.
I'm terrified.
-No worry, just take your time.
Listen did you do something
weird to the sheets?
There's a giant welt
down the middle of mine.
-It's my mother's old trick.
You cut them in
two and flip them.
That way you get the
thin parts at the edges.
-Some trick.
-Oh what a night.
I was almost flayed to death.
What did you do to the sheets?
It's Ambrosia what is it?
EMMA: Apricots, prunes,and
figs, with a stuffing.
-You have the most
extraordinary eyes.
-Thanks.
Taste?
RICHARD: Please.
Oh is that good.
EMMA: Hi.
Taste?
[SCOFF]
[DOOR SLAMS]
EMMA: Richard.
Why did Marion have
to be committed?
RICHARD: Well it was either
Marion or all three of us.
I was walking around like
some kind of muted hound,
and Wendell was
seeing psychiatrists
with alarming regularity.
-Well Surely you
considered divorce?
RICHARD: No Goddards don't.
Goddards keep their contracts.
You know there's a need in
all families to wear blinders,
occasionally, but
in extreme cases,
the occasion becomes
frequently, then
frequently becomes
the status quo.
And you keep adjusting
the level of tolerance,
and things keep
deteriorating, we finally
realized that life
is unbearable.
-Ditto.
RICHARD: WIth Michael?
-Yes.
But there's always a straw
that breaks the camel's back.
RICHARD: Always.
After Wendell left for Yale,
she never ventured out.
She was living in a
kind of lithium stupor,
and she spent her days Bible
thumping with Rayann Wilkes,
but then one day she
found a letter from me.
She rolled her
hair up in curlers,
and painted her toenails.
She put on a yellow robe and
she walked that way barefoot
down St. Moman to
the physics building,
she stunt into
one of my lectures
and started screaming
obscenities.
The doctors suggested
Silverhill Sanatorium.
She died a month later.
RICHARD: Oh God this is good.
Sunday home with a
bird in the oven.
-Wendell give me two poems.
-He did?
-He wants me to read them.
-He does?
-That's wonderful.
It's a breakthrough.
EMMA: I'm scared.
I'm terrified, but
I can't keep putting
it off and putting it off.
This will take three hours.
May I take the Volvo?
-Of course you can.
EMMA: They're good.
RICHARD: (WHISPERING) Oh yes!
-I think.
-So that's it, you liked them.
EMMA: I liked them.
I liked them very, very much.
WENDELL: Why?
EMMA: Because of what they
convey about your feelings.
WENDELL: Jesus, Emma
that is so tepid.
Look if you had to use one
word to describe both poems
what would it be?
-I would have to
think about that.
-Don't think!
React.
-Coastal.
-Coastal?
EMMA: Yes, east and west.
-Look you had a word in my
mind and I didn't hit on it.
-Hit on it?
Jesus Christ, Emma you're not
even in the fucking ballpark!
How about poignant,
or piffy, or searing,
anything but fucking coastal!
You will not take
me seriously lady
you are causing
freakin' torment!
EMMA: I believe you're suing
for damages from the grave.
WENDELL: You changed my life.
EMMA: Bye.
Have a good weekend.
RICHARD: Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
EMMA: Oh you will.
Just Marion and me.
-Marion.
[FOOT STEPS]
[DOOR SLAM]
[FOOT STEPS]
RICHARD: Emma?
I love you.
I do.
I know in my bones.
It's a revelation.
RICHARD: I remember watching
other mothers nuzzling
their babies and
wondering why Marion
didn't do that to Wendell.
I never known how to
compensate for that.
-Richard.
Richard.
It's about time Marion's
room is cleared.
-I haven't the stomach for it.
-Maybe the three of us
could do it together.
Maybe we could.
-Terrible task.
But I suppose that
it has to be done.
[DOORBELL RINGS]
RICHARD: Who is that?
-I don't know.
-Who could it be?
-Nobody.
-Hi.
-We got married
-Excuse me.
RICHARD: Wendell?
are you all right?
WENDELL: I'm fine.
MONICA: I think Wendell's
caught a little bug.
RICHARD: What made you
decide so suddenly?
-Oh I'm not pregnant.
WENDELL: We were tired
of all the travelling
and there's no
privacy at the dorm.
MONICA: And there's no need
for me to be in school.
And all I want to do is paint
and talent can't be taught,
I can paint anywhere.
-She can paint in the sunroom.
MONICA: Is the light good there?
-Yes.
RICHARD: You know kids,
this just may be a mistake.
I think we all need a nice rest,
and a good honest evaluation
in the morning.
WENDELL: Listen Dick, I
proposed, I found her father,
I bought the rings, I've
got a goddamn certificate
this is not a fucking mistake.
MONICA: Wendell your father has
a right to ask a few questions.
I'll paint, and we'll get
part-time jobs, and paper work,
and you won't have to
worry about any extra mess,
I mean I'll take charge
of Wendell's room.
-No one goes in my room.
-Wendell don't be silly.
[PHONE RINGING]
RICHARD: Excuse me.
-It might be my dad.
-Wendell listen to me, are
you in love with this girl?
-What the fuck does that matter?
-To thine own self be true.
-I better get her bags upstairs.
RICHARD (ON PHONE):
But oh I think
we can manage for a while.
Yes yes she's
right here hold on.
- (ON PHONE): Hello.
why do I have to go to
the most expensive school
in the country, when all
I want to do is paint.
But I don't need a degree.
Did Rembrandt have a degree?
Did Van Gogh?
I ask you did Grandma Moses have
a de- You know what you are?
Your middle aged, middle
class, Middle West, bushwazee.
[CRYING]
-What the hell is this?
-She's crying.
So I suggest that we all sit
down and talk this through.
-Look I tried to do
the responsible thing,
but the truth is I don't
know what I've done.
I'm so confused.
-It's all right
Wendell I think you've
just caught a little bug.
WENDELL: No.
This is one of my seizures.
Look I have to go and spend
some time alone in my room.
Maybe you could stay
in mother's room.
Shit, I think I'm going to
have to go to the hospital.
Look all I do know
is that under any
circumstances I cannot cohabit.
-Wendell what's happened?
WENDELL: Monica.
Sit.
Stay.
Night.
[WENDELL RUNNING]
[MONICA CRYING]
[EMMA CRYING]
[BLOWS NOSE]
[MONICA CRYING]
EMMA: Wendell.
[KNOCKS ON DOOR]
-Wendell?
[TYPEWRITER]
-Wendell, lunchtime.
[TYPEWRITER]
MONICA: Wendell?
Wendell.
[TYPEWRITER]
MONICA: Some people
think my work is morbid.
I really want it to sell.
But I paint boats and barns.
But what I'm obsessed
with is nuclear Holocaust.
See I want to
paint the wasteland
after they've
pushed the buttons.
I mean do you find them morbid?
EMMA: Oh no not really.
I would not say morbid.
MONICA: See, what sells with
certainty in all the arts
is escapism, but I won't let
them off the hook that easily.
I want them to hear
a kind of keening,
from the souls of the dead.
Can you hear it?
RICHARD: Oh yes,
quite so audibly.
RICHARD: (WHISPERING)
We have to call a shrink
EMMA: (WHISPERING) No.
There's no mystery to any of
this he's done a dumb thing
and he doesn't know
how to save face.
-Emma.
-Yes?
I want to make love to you.
-We mustn't
[SIGHS]
-No.
Night.
[KISSES HAND]
EMMA: Richard.
Richard.
We mustn't.
We mustn't.
-What are we supposed to do?
Go to a motel?
They're both asleep.
-I am so-
[EMMA GASPS]
EMMA: Afraid.
[FOOT STEPS]
[KNOCKING ON DOOR]
EMMA: Monica?
WENDELL: No it's me Wendell.
EMMA: You're talking.
WENDELL: Yeah.
I'm looking for dad, I
can't find him anywhere.
EMMA: I think he went
down for a snack.
WENDELL: I already looked there.
OK thanks.
WENDELL: Oh there you are.
Um I want you to call Alex Bloom
I need to get an annulment.
RICHARD: Why on earth
did you marry her?
-Well, because I fell
in love with Emma.
-I am very sorry to hear that.
-Well, I tried to tell her,
but she refused to take me
seriously, she thinks I'm
infantile, but I'm not,
I'm a grown man.
RICHARD: No you're not.
You are certifiably
married and I
think you're certifiably
out of touch.
Last weekend I fled Ne's
apartment I had fallen in love
with Emma, and the
feeling is mutual.
And when I got here, the
feeling was confirmed.
-Confirmed?
-Consummated.
-We were waiting to tell you.
To ask for your blessing.
You were with her
just now, weren't you?
-Yes.
-You son of a bitch!
You were paid to take care of
this house not fuck my father!
MONICA: Is Wendell talking?
Wendell is it over?
-Monica we have to
get an annulment it's
the only responsible
thing to do.
MONICA: (CRYING)
You sleazy bastard!
Why did you marry me and then
fold up your fucking tent?
-You're right, I'm a bastard.
I'm no good.
-(CRYING) I'm being treated
like a goddamn leper.
WENDELL: Monica I've got
no confidence I can't even
put a fucking poem
in an envelope.
I'm on an allowance
for Christ's sake,
do you really want to
be married to that?
MONICA: (CRYING) Yes.
WENDELL: You need to go back
to school and take some time
and just try and heal.
Sorry I have to go.
[MONICA CRYING]
MONICA: Thank you for
liking my paintings.
[PHONE RINGING]
EMMA (ON PHONE): Hello
WOMAN (ON PHONE): Ms. Riley?
EMMA (ON PHONE): Yes?
LYDIA (ON PHONE): This is Lydia.
I got Wendell sleeping here
just now on my hidey bed.
Ms. Riley, he say you
be in bed with Dr. G.
EMMA (ON PHONE): Yes
Lydia that's right.
LYDIA (ON PHONE): Now you
have to Come and get Wendell
because I ain't sleeping
on this barcalounger
one more night hear?
RICHARD: I've taken
Monica back and I've
called Alex Bloom to
work on the annulment.
I would like you to
come home, but only
if you stop this
fancy about Emma.
Understood?
WENDELL: Yes.
RICHARD: And I have to
say, I could no longer
abide your bolted
door or your attitude.
LYDIA: Now Dr. G., you
go easy with they boy.
RICHARD: Lydia, some
things just must be said.
Agreed?
-I agree Lyd, thank you.
RICHARD: Thanks.
LYDIA: You're welcome Dr. G.
-Well that's it.
-I love your thrift, and
I love your $1.99 mascara.
| love you.
RICHARD: Lets talk
about the future.
EMMA: OK.
RICHARD: I would like
us to be permanent.
EMMA: So would I.
-Now this may seem unreasonable,
but your being shut up
in the house all
day disturbs me.
Is there something
that you'd like to do,
some aspiration that got
tabled along the way?
EMMA: Maybe motherhood.
I'd like to have a child.
-I mean beyond the biological.
-Richard, I've worked,
and I've been married,
and I think the most
important thing in life
is loving someone completely.
-Are you really
that traditional?
-I am now.
-Well then maybe you
could join the lawn club.
-I've move down to his room.
-Oh my God.
-I think I can
accept him as he is.
I mean him and his past.
-I sense a fleeting doubt.
-I'm not sure he can do the
same for me, but if he can
I think I would like
to, well this is heavy.
-What?
You want to get married?
-Yeah.
But only if we can be
a real partnership.
We have to get
Wendell settled first.
Listen, let's go to
church some time.
-What?
Like Catholic Church?
-Yeah it's what we know.
-Yeah all right.
Oh Emma.
WENDELL (ON PHONE): Partner
and Harris Pediatricians.
No mam they close at
five, is it an emergency?
Richard Cosgrove.
four years old, ate three
gold- gold fish, fish,
three goldfish, Three
fan-tailed goldfish.
Wow, yes mam, right away.
-So I'm going to be
bringing home $300 a week.
Figure I can use $100
for room and board.
$50 for spending.
I'd like to bank $150 I'd
like to get my own car.
-When are you going
to start submitting?
-What poems?
-Yeah poems.
-If you knew what was out
there you wouldn't ask.
-Isn't there in
the act of writing
a desire to have
your voice heard?
You are going to have to
try again with the mailbox.
-Well OK I can't.
-No or you're saying you won't.
-Wendell will have
to start submitting.
-May I read his poems?
-I don't think so.
-It would betray his trust.
-You're fond of him aren't you?
-Yes.
But why did he write, my father
who had never loved my mother,
laid her to rest in
most indecent haste.
-Oh for Christ's sake,
that's what he's writing?
-What's it mean?
-Obviously me.
I'm going downstairs.
-Why was Marion buried in haste?
-You want a cup of tea?
-Why was the haste indecent?
RICHARD: It was terrible.
Reprehensible.
When she died, they
called me at the office.
Then I phoned
Wendell at his dorm.
Then I phoned the funeral
home, and then I got on a train
and I went to see Ne.
-For how long?
-Two days.
-And Wendell was alone.
-Why?
Why?
-I needed to cry.
-I'm sure he did too.
-We did it separately.
That's the way we've lived.
It was this big
chasm between us.
Marion.
-Come here.
-Nope.
The funeral was at 1 o'clock.
I was late.
I didn't get off the
train 'til 10 to,
and when they lowered
her into the ground,
there we stood on either
side of the grave.
Absolute strangers.
And I went back to New York.
I left him alone again.
And he left for Berkeley.
-Richard come here.
-No
RICHARD: Actually,
laser is an acronym
but it was almost called loser.
Accurately, it's
like oscillation
by stimulated emission
of radiation, loser.
-He reminds me,
a little, of what
I've read about a
young Robert Lowell.
-And you like his stuff?
-Very much.
But he doesn't know
where to begin.
He really needs, you know, a
connection with a professional.
-However they changed
it I think stupidly
into light amplification
by stimulated division
of radiation.
-You know I hate
to impose but he
would benefit tremendously
from your opinion.
-I'd be glad to
read his sampling.
Ask him to bring
them over tomorrow.
-It's been a thrill
to speak with you.
-My pleasure.
-You were quite
ensconced with the boss.
-I went to work for Wendell
with smashing results.
-I think you look smashing.
[KISSES]
WENDELL: Oh Jesus Christ,
what have you done?
You got to phone him you
got to make an excuse.
EMMA: I won't.
Select four or five
right now and take
them over to Martin Martin.
WENDELL: Martin Martin?
EMMA: Yeah.
Choose them.
Now!
WENDELL: OK, I'll choose them
but you've got take them over.
-Deal.
WENDELL: Shit.
[DOOR BELL]
MARTIN: You again.
EMMA: Yes.
MARTIN: Thank you.
EMMA: Thank you.
[PHONE RINGING]
WENDELL: You get it.
EMMA (ON PHONE): Hello.
Oh yes.
Thank you for
calling so quickly.
Yes.
I do to.
Actually, he is
not well just now,
I think he's caught
a little bug.
Oh yes.
uh huh.
Yes.
I'll tell him.
Martin, we appreciate
this very much.
Thanks again.
EMMA: He says, You have
a very distinctive voice
and he'll try to help.
He's submitting the
poems to three magazines
with a letter of introduction.
Here they are.
He says there's no guarantee and
you must be patient because you
won't hear anything
for at least a month.
-Bucko now you're
running a race.
EMMA: Nothing but
bills and flyers.
EMMA: It's chilly tonight.
-Yes brisk.
What are those for?
-Aroma, perfume the whole house.
RICHARD: Nice little touches.
EMMA: What are those for?
-Something quite vital.
Put another log on the fire.
EMMA: Oh please don't,
let's go to bed.
Wendell will be home any moment.
-I want to show you these.
Please, come here.
And no objections until
I've finished my shpeal.
BIL offers a B.L.S. Degree.
It's a bachelor of
liberal studies,
and it is created
for working people
who want to augment
their education.
Ancient and Modern Lit.,
History of Civilization,
I think it's ideal for you,
cause you're out of the house
and you have a
focus to your life
and we could convert Marion's
bedroom to a study for you.
-You're up late.
-I'm advocating B.L.S. For Emma.
-Why?
-Keep in mind occupied.
-Her mind is fine the way it is.
-Goodnight
-Richard, I'm tired.
Think I'll turn in.
-You'll think about
this though, won't you?
EMMA: Um maybe after
my birthday or maybe
when you get back
from Washington.
Goodnight.
-Goodnight
[SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY]
-Emma Rowena Riley,
happy birthday.
-It's Waterford
Crystal from Ireland.
Ms. Timberman says
it's very good stuff.
-This must've broke the bank.
This will be a brilliant
memorable birthday,
because you know what?
The ring is somewhere
in this house.
-Wendell do your turkey.
WENDELL: What turkey
would that be?
-The one you learned
at that camp.
-Oh yes.
Happy to oblige.
[IMMITATES TURKEY SOUNDS]
[LAUGHTER]
RICHARD: Emma.
This is from me.
-They're beautiful.
Thank you Richard.
They're so lustrous, so
beautifully lustrous.
RICHARD: Do want me to
help you put them on?
-Yes please.
RICHARD: I surely hope
it's a productive meeting,
but, God, I hate grubbing
for money at the Pentagon.
-You're study is rearing
to go Emma so please.
Take another look at that
B.L.S. Stuff will you?
-I will.
Godspeed.
-You don't really want to go
back to school day, do you?
-I don't think I'd be happy.
-Well kiddo, to thine
own self be true.
-If you're dad and I were
legit, I'd like to have a baby.
-He wouldn't.
-Does he think he's too old?
-He's already had his kid,
Ahab's appointment is with me.
EMMA: Annie, Annie I
don't think I can stay.
May I take these?
This
WENDELL (ON PHONE):
Homebased answering service.
EMMA (ON PHONE): It's
right here in my hand.
-(ON PHONE): Well well.
Judgement day.
-(ON PHONE): Should I open it?
WENDELL (ON PHONE): God no.
EMMA (ON PHONE):
Should I bring it down?
-(ON PHONE): Leave it
on the stairs for me.
I'll open it when I get home.
-(ON PHONE): Bye.
-(ON PHONE): OK bye.
WENDELL: They're going to do it.
They're going to publish
two $2.00 per line.
I cannot believe that
this is happening.
-This is for you.
-Thank you.
-I don't even know
how to celebrate.
[KISSES]
WENDELL: Thank you.
EMMA: I'm fixing tea.
Would you like some?
-I'll tell him in the car.
-OK.
-I want you to be
here when we get home.
-Jesus Christ, Emma, How can I?
-Please.
RICHARD: God, I missed you.
How's Wendell?
-Richard.
I have to leave.
-Leave, where?
-I've broken faith with you.
I went to bed with Wendell.
-He raped you?
-No.
-He must have.
This is lunacy.
EMMA: Please let's
not hall insults.
RICHARD: (YELLING) He's
cuckolded his father,
he's got me wearing
horns for Christ's sakes.
RICHARD: I should
think that you would
be your fucking knees,
begging for mercy.
RICHARD: How do
you explain this?
She attacked you?
Big brawny Emma overwhelmed you?
Or did you have one of
your convenient seizures?
WENDELL: I was
very, very lonely.
-Lonely?
Try it for a quarter
of a century buddy.
Try it for three solid decades.
-Why didn't you ever talk to me?
-You were a boy.
You were her child.
-I was your child too.
-And why in God's name are
you talking about Marion?
I come home to the
vilest news of my life
and you've got
Marion on the brain.
Loneliness.
That's a feebling excuse.
-You son of a bitch!
You got on a train
and you went to see Ne
before mother was
even fucking cold!
I spent two days here alone.
All I saw were
the hours tick by.
Two days alone here,
man, all her fucking
religious magazines, her
curlers, her nail polish.
I fucking despise you Dick.
RICHARD: Listen to
me you little twerp.
For 20 years you've
walked around this house
like I goddamn
specter faulting me
somehow for your
mother's condition.
You thought me some kind of
self-absorbed ineffectual man.
Well you were
fucking wrong buddy.
I was out there functioning.
I was putting on the tie, hiring
the help, paying the bills,
and putting the roof
over your adult head.
And you were never
ever there for me.
Now I know it was horrible
terrible leaving you alone
like that, but you
were so hostile.
And I was so desperately lonely.
WENDELL: I asked people
to come visit her.
The women from the lawn
club, Mrs. Silverman.
[WENDELL CRYING]
-Emma, Naomi Silverman
comes over here,
Marion assuming, she picks up
her scissors and walks over
and cuts slash in the
hymn of Naomi's skirt.
-(CRYING) Why?
Why did you have to
have her committed?
[CRYING]
-Because she was dangerous.
She wanted to die Wendell,
she has for many years.
The only reason she got up in
the morning was because of you.
And most of the time,
you were the only reason
I had to get up.
And then, when Emma
came into our lives
I thought, you know, now there's
a chance, but not anymore.
I swear, if I had a
gun I'd shoot you.
I want you out of my house.
Take the Volvo don't
ever come back.
I want you out of my house.
Please come with me.
No.
-What was he like?
Was he good?
-Richard.
I won't do this.
A letter came from
Poetry Review,
they accepted two poems.
-Oh Jesus.
-Please don't go to a hotel,
just please stay with me.
-I can't.
-Oh.
[RICHARD CRYING]
RICHARD: Emma.
I'd like to explain why
I gave you the pearls.
EMMA: Please don't.
-I went to Sykes Levy to buy
a ring, but when I got there,
the cold panic came
over me and the rings
just blurred in their cases.
And I waned to
runaway in the Volvo.
I remember as boy, being
confused about what I believed
in, and my father
said, well what
would you be
prepared to die for?
It seemed like such a crucial
question, so I left Sykes Levy
and went back to the office
and I thought about that.
What would I Richard Goddard
be prepared to die for?
The answer was Wendell.
-Yes.
-I do love you,
but at that moment
I didn't want anything
resembling marriage.
I'd see your face and reposed
you were sad about Michael.
I wondered if these moods would
eventually require Lithium.
I have done you a
terrible injustice.
Please don't go.
-How can I stay?
How?
[PHONE RINGING]
-(ON PHONE): Hello.
WENDELL (ON PHONE):
Are you all right?
-(ON PHONE): Where are you?
-(ON PHONE): I want to see you.
-(ON PHONE): I'm afraid
that's not possible.
-Let me talk to him.
RICHARD (ON PHONE:
Congratulations.
I'm proud of you Wendell.
I'm very proud of you.
I'll buy a dozen copies.
Oh well.
-(ON PHONE): I
-(ON PHONE): Congratulations.
[HANGS UP PHONE.]
[DIAL TONE]
-I'll sleep in Lenny's room.
EMMA: Hi.
-St. Mary's Church please.
[EMMA PRAYING]
EMMA: (PRAYING) Please
let me be with child.
[EMMA PRAYING]
EMMA: (PRAYING) Please
let me be with child.
[EMMA PRAYING]
EMMA: (PRAYING) Please
let me be with child.
-(ON PHONE): Hey dad,
I changed my mind.
I'm moving to the
house in New Hampshire.
I want my kitchen
stuff, my dishes,
pots and pans from the attic.
Will you send them to me?
Great.
[EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS BY
BILLY ECKSTINE]
[PHONE RINGING]
MAN (ON PHONE): Hello?
WOMAN (ON PHONE):
Hello, I'm calling
from Boston about
your ad in the globe.
MAN (ON PHONE): Oh yes?
WOMAN (ON PHONE): It says
woman wanted live-in.
Why are you
advertising in Boston,
when you live in New Haven?
MAN (ON PHONE): Actually, I
grew up with an Irish nanny.
She was kind, and generous,
and pleasant to be with.
WOMAN (ON PHONE):
Are you married?
MAN (ON PHONE): I'm widowed.
I have a son in
his 20s, who's um
he's going through
some difficulties.
He lives at home
and we need someone
to put our house in order.
-Thanks for the lift.
-Thanks honey.
-Yeah.
-Take it easy.
-Thanks.
[KNOCK ON DOOR]
-How do you do I'm
Richard Goddard.
-Hello.
-I didn't think
you'd be so young.
My old nanny wasn't so young.
-Ever?
-I don't think so.
-Oh, I'll get that.
-Thank you.
-Come on in.
RICHARD: This is your kitchen.
-Oh.
RICHARD: I don't
know what we'll do
about dinner I'm not prepared.
-Well I'm sure I can
put something together.
-I should have been prepared.
[CLICK]
RICHARD: Why did you do that?
EMMA: The house is very dark.
RICHARD: Is it?
EMMA: Still is.
RICHARD: It has.
I guess it has.
EMMA: If I wanted
-One more hike and
then Wendy's room.
RICHARD: I'm afraid
this room is dark too.
-You need some hundred watters.
RICHARD: You're right,
that'll cure it.
-Is this you?
-Yes.
The day of my christening.
-Did you love her?
-Well I I suppose I did.
Yes I did.
I think you'll be
comfortable here.
Now there is a back stairs
route to the kitchen.
Bathroom's around the corner,
and the rest of the rooms
up here are used
for storage now.
We had five in help
in the old days.
One of them stole my father's
ties for her boyfriends,
and another one forged
his signature on checks.
Caught her tracing one day.
Well I'll uh leave you
to your priorities.
-My name is Wendell
Wharton Goddard.
-My name is Emma Rowena Riley.
-Other people's kitchens.
-It's a very large house but
you won't have to do it alone.
Lydia comes in once a week
to help with the heavy work.
I was born here.
I grew up here, and
when I went to college,
it was a very long trip,
three miles exactly I was six-
WENDELL: Generation Yale.
-Uh and when my father died,
I had to leave the dorms
and come home and tend to
my mother, an old nanny,
and entertain her
through the years,
and she was crippled
with arthritis,
so I pursued my doctorate
from here and then
of course, years later I tended
to Wendell's mother who died
three years ago, natural causes.
-This quiche is wonderful.
How on earth did you do it?
-I found some eggs and cheddar.
-Well you performed a miracle.
-Thank you.
-Welcome.
-Wendell that looks serious,
have you seen a doctor?
-Yesterday.
Eight stitches in all.
-Oh.
-Wendell snorted some
cocaine, and then he
drank a pint of vodka.
Probably was afraid to come
home in that condition,
so he crawled up into one of
those bins in a shopping mall
on Dexwell avenue.
-Salvation Army.
-While he spent the night
there sleeping it off, shortly
before dawn, some
suburban woman drove up
and hurled a broken
toaster down the chute.
Left a huge gash
on his forehead,
and required a trip
to the emergency room.
-Yes well I'm very popular
at the emergency room.
I find them most reliable
substitutions for family.
They provide 24-hour
service, they welcome you
with open arms, and
they never let you down.
[DISH SLAMMING]
[BOOK SLAMMING]
-Pick it up.
-I meant the book.
RICHARD: Oh uh may I see you
in my study at your leisure?
-This is nice isn't it?
Just a hint of orange.
-Michael my ex-husband
used to pour it on desserts
and light it, flambe.
-What did he do?
-He was an actor.
He dropped out of
Harvard junior year,
and joined a theater
group in Cambridge.
-Risky profession.
EMMA: Yes I worked
part-time as a stenographer.
We were able to buy
a little vacation
house in New Hampshire.
I got that in the settlement.
He became involved
with a director, a man.
He was bisexual.
-Oh my I'm sorry must have
been very difficult for you.
-Well, I had for a while, an
urge to become a statistic,
you know, just find a bridge
and jump into the Charles.
-How did you meet him?
EMMA: I was 19, I'd
never been to a play.
A friend took me to see Camino
Real by Tennessee Williams.
Michael played the
part of Kilroy.
He was very handsome
and very talented.
I had joined with the
Etta Rosa, property girl
and we were married
a year later.
-And there were no children?
-Oh no.
Things were too uncertain.
-I would like to provide as much
of a family, as sure as I can.
We never had that.
Because Wendell's mother was
mentally ill for many years.
She died when he was
in graduate school
and he left very
angrily, spent two years
hanging out in Berkley.
-He appears to be
rather hand full.
RICHARD: He is indeed.
Now I must ask your patience.
I'm very bad at handling
matters with the help,
and there are a few
things I must say,
and they seem to be mandatory.
I'd like it Understood
that on no occasion
are you to entertain men in
this house and on no occasion
are you to drink my liquor.
Also, although uniforms
aren't required
I'd appreciate it
if you wouldn't wear
excessive amounts of
jewelry or perfume.
And I expect you to
confine your social life
to Thursdays, your day off.
EMMA: Is there a curfew?
-Of course not.
Within reason.
[CHUCKLE]
-May I be excused?
-Certainly.
RICHARD: By the way
Wendell's mother's
old Volvo will be
at your disposal.
-What was Wendell's
mother's name?
-Mrs. Goddard
Marion
-My father who had
never loved my mother
-Buried her quickly in
Grove Street Cemetery.
-Laid her to rest in
most indecent haste.
RICHARD: I see your
customer's makeup.
-Dr. Goddard.
-Please call me Richard.
EMMA: What would you
like for breakfast?
-I uh think I'll skip
it this morning, Emma.
RICHARD: Emma, I went
to bed last night
very upset about our interview.
You spoke most
candidly and I didn't.
I skirted the truth.
Thank you.
I skirted the truth because I
wanted you to think well of me.
The truth is I have
failed my son, miserably.
-(SYMPATHETICALLY) Oh.
Well.
RICHARD: We have a uh severe
communication problem.
Now these are the house keys
and this is $200 for the market.
You can take the Volvo
and stock the larder.
This is the car key.
Transportation on the weekend
might be a bit of a problem.
Wendell has totalled
so many cars,
I refuse to buy him another one.
However, he often
travels up to Bennington,
where he has a um a lady friend.
Her name is Monica Donson
and I don't take the Volvo
because when my car, you
see, is in use, uh well Jesus
EMMA: Are you alright?
RICHARD: Um Thank you.
I also have a lady friend
-Oh?
-Yes in New York.
Her name is Ariadne Marchand.
I don't often travel
there on the weekend.
So the point is, you may not
have the Volvo on the weekend,
but you will have as
compensation, peace and quiet,
on the weekend.
RICHARD: Is
something the matter?
RICHARD: Oh they don't match.
Damn.
[EMMA LAUGHING]
RICHARD: Oh well Life's
little indignities.
But you know, I will actually
look forward to coming home
this evening.
-Bye.
EMMA: Bye.
EMMA: My God.
You'd think they were paupers.
-Mercy confirmation dresses.
[DOORBELL]
WENDELL: That would be Lydia.
[DOORBELL]
EMMA: Hi.
LYDIA: I always come
to the front door.
EMMA: Yes I see.
-Mail goes to the back.
EMMA: Come in.
-I'm already in.
EMMA: Lydia, we're practically
sticking to this kitchen floor.
Would you mind Starting in here?
LYDIA: I don't bends.
-You mean you don't do floors?
-Ms. Riley, I didn't bend
for Mrs. Goddard, who
was 50 and feeble, and
I don't bends for you.
-I see.
Then perhaps you
wouldn't mind starting
with the dining room windows.
[EMMA HUMMING]
WENDELL: See that you bends.
EMMA: Yes.
uh uh
WENDELL: Uh hunger.
I'd like two eggs over
easy, piece of this ham,
and a toasted english
muffin with jam.
-In your own palette
Wendell, fat fucking chance.
-A little cranky this morning.
A little hot under the collar?
Yes.
I observed a trickle of sweat
between your cheeky breasts.
-Ho hum
-Listen, just for
the record, I don't
know where you stand on
race, but I love Lydia.
So if you're one of
those Boston Irish nigger
baters you're gonna
have to answer to me.
-I'll ignore that.
-You familiar with
Virginia Wolfe?
EMMA: No.
Wendell, in the future,
when you cook jam like that,
would you mind
putting foil under it?
It gums up the machine.
WENDELL: Somewhere
in Virginia Wolfe,
she refers to a shopgirl,
she says she'd rather
have the history
of that shopgirl,
than the hundred
life of Napoleon,
the 70th studied in
Islamic conversion.
-So?
WENDELL: So I would
like to have the history
of the girl on
our kitchen floor.
It's very bad form
to drink with form
to drink with the
spoon in the cup.
You could lose an eye.
[OVEN RINGS]
WENDELL: Say, you're right.
Wow that's going to
be a bitch to clean.
[BACK DOOR RINGING]
LYDIA: I ain't getting that.
-Hi.
I'm Gracie Cesario, I'm
the live-in next door.
EMMA: Oh.
Hi.
-I just wanted to
come say, welcome.
EMMA: Oh think you.
Come on in.
-OK.
GRACIE: Yeah, so I come from
this big Italian family.
Dinner was just square.
And I got a son,
Raymond he's 13.
-You divorced?
-No never married.
I got pregnant in 12th grade
-(SYMPATHETICALLY) Oh yeah.
-Some high school
quarterback called Dominick.
Listen, I gotta say you're
not what I expected.
-What?
-I mean you're
young and white and-
-Do you get Thursdays off?
-Uh huh.
-Me too.
-Great.
-I always go down to Pub
Vincent on Waley Avenue.
They've got good
music and all you
can eat for $3.95
Do you want to come?
-Great.
GRACIE: It's a date.
-Yeah.
WENDELL: You can't
come in here, ever,
it's not to be aired or cleaned.
-Must need an occasional vacuum.
WENDELL: It has no such need.
I write poetry in here.
My honorable father Dickie
isn't allowed a glimpse
and nor is Lydia.
You'll find that I'm
an acutely sensitive
person frequently
given to seizures.
-That a warning or a pledge?
-What are you doing Thursday?
-Wendell, please.
WENDELL: I heard the
plumbing this morning
when you were showering.
A wonderful way to
wake up thinking
of a naked woman in a stall.
Where did you get those eye?
-My parents, Kevin and Peg.
Truly you realize if
we went out Thursday,
your father would
fire me on the spot.
-Not at all, he wants
to keep her for me.
Relieves him of
the responsibility.
-Boy, I never imagined
this would happen.
-Neither did I, but
can I be responsible
because you inherited
such gorgeous peepers.
-Are you responsible
for anything?
Do you even attempt
to behave responsibly?
-That's it, Get out!
-Wendell!
Wendell!
this is infantile.
WENDELL: I'm going to Vermont.
-To see Monica?
WENDELL: Yes for my five
monthly Monica fuck!
-I will not allow you talk
to me that way, Wendell.
-Then don't fuck with me lady!
-Wendell
WENDELL: Tell the Dick he'll
see me when he sees me!
EMMA: Wendell!
You can't do this I
have to go shopping.
EMMA: You're a self
indulgent inconsiderate brat!
[ENGINE STARTING]
RICHARD: Did he say why
he had to see Monica?
-No I'm afraid I
got angry with him.
I felt his manner was
a little too familiar.
-I hope you mean verbally.
-I suggested he
was irresponsible
and that sent him into a rage.
-Well you're absolutely right,
and you handled it superbly.
Did Liam call by any chance?
-Mm mm
-Ariadne?
EMMA: Not while I was here.
-This Ms. Marchand
work in New York?
-God, this is good.
No Ariadne doesn't have to
work, she has private means.
She occupies herself by
making mobiles and seashells.
She sells them out
of a gallery in Soho.
You'll enjoy of course.
-Well I-
-Nonsense I am not going to
sit in that dining room alone.
-Have you known
Ms. Marchand long?
RICHARD: Oh about
four years actually.
I But better tell you
this before he does.
I uh I met Ne
before my wife died.
It was the first moral
lapse of my life.
It was um well adultery.
your face is determinedly
blank, no judgment, no opinion?
-Do you expect to be condemned?
-Yes I suppose I do.
-Do you remember the Bee Gees?
-Uh no.
-They had a hit song
called, Stay Alive,
it's all about survival.
That's what Ms. Marchand
must have been to you.
-Exactly.
Thank you.
-It's Wendell.
-Oh dear.
WENDELL: I owe Emma an apology.
I was rude to her this morning.
I felt lousy all day.
RICHARD: Well that's very nice
but Emma had to shop with a cab
so it's up to her, really.
-Will you accept my apology?
-I will
-Good.
Dad I was kind of wondering
maybe I could take Emma
out Thursday show her the town.
RICHARD: You certainly may.
I'm sure it would help
her get her barrings.
-Well I just wanted
your permission.
-You have it.
-Bye.
RICHARD: Good night.
WENDELL: Now I
will introduce you
to 300 years of Puritan work
ethic and rigorous repression.
Lyman Beecher is here, father
of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Samuel Morse's widow is
over there, he had the code.
Noah Webster is here,
of Webster's dictionary,
has his homestead in Loomis.
They were trusted to
discover Halley's Comet.
-Charles Goodyear
isn't he the guy
who invented vulcanized rubber?
-He is.
My eternal gratitude Sir
for a long and dependable
tradition in condoms.
-Tomb of The Unknown Mother.
-She didn't really die of
natural causes you know.
She died at
Silverhill Sanatorium.
She died because
she was a nuisance,
because he had her committed.
God, I loved her.
He said they had a non-marriage.
She said she wanted a divorce.
He said, Jesus Christ Marion
and what about Wendell?
He stayed away after
that, hiding in his study
with his pressure solitude.
She withdrew to her room.
I didn't say much after that.
When I did see him, I
always wanted to look at him
and say Hey man
what about Wendell?
When I moved onto campus, I
couldn't visit her everyday.
One day she let
someone in, a Jehovah's
Witness and all those
goddamn religious magazines.
Her name was Rayann Wilkes.
Soon she and my mother
became best friends.
When my mother passed away she
left $80,000 to the church.
-Why did he have her committed?
-Why don't you ask him since
you're so palsey-walsey.
I'll tell you one thing,
I will never forgive him
for what he did it was a
score I intend to settle.
-Settling scores is direct.
-Well if you think you can
come in here like Mary fucking
Poppins and kiss
everything better
your head is
squarely up your ass.
-You're dragging all this crap
around like a ball and chain
and it makes you crippled
and you love that
-I do not.
-You gotta get
yourself a bullhorn
so you can walk around town
announcing my name is Wendell
Wharton Goddard
and I am miserable.
WENDELL: Emma!
Emma!
Look I don't know why I
came back from Berkeley.
I know you are not
going to believe me
but I didn't wear this
ball and chain out there
and I don't wear either.
-Are you in love with Monica?
-I love no one but Lydia.
However, you are finally
most susceptible.
-Oh Wendell get a grip.
WENDELL: Emma um here,
here are a couple
poems for your perusal.
-Oh no not me.
-Come on take them.
The will either reach
you or they won't.
It's all a poem
can do for anybody.
Just take your time.
Read them when you can.
RICHARD: Hello.
-I wonder if I can
have the crossword.
-You most certainly may.
-Here it is.
-Thank you.
RICHARD: Emma, you
know you don't have
to spend the evenings
in your room.
Please sit down.
-Well I-
RICHARD: Please.
Two people civilize a room.
My that's bright.
-It's a hundred watts.
Pang the expensive.
RICHARD: I imagine
that your life used
to revolve around
theater people.
-Almost entirely.
-So this must seem
very conventional.
Oh I'm quite content.
I've had a bellyful
of the unconventional.
-How beautiful.
-It's bone China.
This is so thoughtful of you.
Thank you.
RICHARD: You're very welcome.
Um How about today for
a visit to the lab?
-Well I'd be up for that.
-And I promise not to
be too predictable.
Finish your egg and we'll go.
RICHARD: You see all these
categories, optical physics,
plasma physics, particle
physics, solid-state physics,
they're all just
methods of measure.
We're trying to calculate the
interactions between matter
and energy, because that's
all we have in the world,
is matter and energy.
-You certain of that?
RICHARD: Absolutely.
-What about us?
RICHARD: Us?
-Yeah, humans like you
and me, and this piece
of work over here.
RICHARD: Oh yes right
well we scientists
learned early on, that
human interactions are
impossible to calculate
so we left that up
to the philosophers
and the poets.
You know there's something
about you that requires,
well it really demands,
honesty and that
tends to blur the delicate line
between employer and employee.
EMMA: Oh I hope you don't feel
an obligation to entertain me.
-An obligation?
Not at all.
I uh a desire perhaps.
What I do feel now
is a compulsion
to share my thoughts,
to be understood.
I was brought up to be obedient.
it's been the course of my life.
My family thought poetry a fine
hobby but a stupid profession.
So I obeyed and they opted for
physics, then my family summers
near Marion's on
Martha's Vineyard.
Now Marion never dated.
She was still a virgin at 25.
I felt very sorry for her.
So when I saw that our families
selling a match I obeyed
the game and then
after Wendell was born
her mind just deteriorates.
She retreats inside herself.
she took Wendell
with her as an Alli
and over the years they
effectively shut me out.
But you know the worst time?
When Wendell ran
away to Berkeley.
I was middle aged, my life
felt totally unorganized
and everything was still
unresolved between Wendell
and me.
But you know, if
he hadn't come home
I never would have
placed that ad
and you wouldn't be sitting
here listening to me drone on.
EMMA: And that's how
Michael was my education.
I sort of absorbed
him by osmosis.
That's a good word osmosis.
He was an armiferous reader.
-(SLURS) armiferous
reader is another
good word if you can say it.
He was a hell of a knock wood.
[WOOD KNOCKING]
-That man came on
just took the stage.
-Oh I shouldn't.
[EMMA CRYING]
He wanted to have a baby
very badly and so did I
but I didn't dare because,
you know, our problem.
My this is certainly
tasty, was it?
-Woodbridge California.
-Well I believe I'm
over speaking myself.
-Not at all.
[EMMA LAUGHING]
EMMA: I locked myself in the
apartment for three days.
My dad came and hollered at
the door, are you dead Emma?
I told my dad to bugger
off and he replied,
poor choice of words
Em in the circumstance.
-What are you doing?
-I'm taking her up.
-(SADLY) Oh will I be
fired in the morning?
-No you will not.
-That's good.
I'm so tired of being
booted out of places.
EMMA: Richard?
Regarding the light
Bill, Thomas Alvin Edison
wanted us to use the hundred
watters, more profit that way.
-Go to sleep now.
EMMA: Richard?
RICHARD: Yes?
-Isn't slumber a lovely word?
-Lovely.
Goodnight.
[CLICKING]
EMMA: Oh no no don't.
Don't close the
door all the way.
RICHARD: Alright.
WENDELL: Morning.
Finished reading the poems yet?
EMMA: Not yet.
I'm terrified.
-No worry, just take your time.
Listen did you do something
weird to the sheets?
There's a giant welt
down the middle of mine.
-It's my mother's old trick.
You cut them in
two and flip them.
That way you get the
thin parts at the edges.
-Some trick.
-Oh what a night.
I was almost flayed to death.
What did you do to the sheets?
It's Ambrosia what is it?
EMMA: Apricots, prunes,and
figs, with a stuffing.
-You have the most
extraordinary eyes.
-Thanks.
Taste?
RICHARD: Please.
Oh is that good.
EMMA: Hi.
Taste?
[SCOFF]
[DOOR SLAMS]
EMMA: Richard.
Why did Marion have
to be committed?
RICHARD: Well it was either
Marion or all three of us.
I was walking around like
some kind of muted hound,
and Wendell was
seeing psychiatrists
with alarming regularity.
-Well Surely you
considered divorce?
RICHARD: No Goddards don't.
Goddards keep their contracts.
You know there's a need in
all families to wear blinders,
occasionally, but
in extreme cases,
the occasion becomes
frequently, then
frequently becomes
the status quo.
And you keep adjusting
the level of tolerance,
and things keep
deteriorating, we finally
realized that life
is unbearable.
-Ditto.
RICHARD: WIth Michael?
-Yes.
But there's always a straw
that breaks the camel's back.
RICHARD: Always.
After Wendell left for Yale,
she never ventured out.
She was living in a
kind of lithium stupor,
and she spent her days Bible
thumping with Rayann Wilkes,
but then one day she
found a letter from me.
She rolled her
hair up in curlers,
and painted her toenails.
She put on a yellow robe and
she walked that way barefoot
down St. Moman to
the physics building,
she stunt into
one of my lectures
and started screaming
obscenities.
The doctors suggested
Silverhill Sanatorium.
She died a month later.
RICHARD: Oh God this is good.
Sunday home with a
bird in the oven.
-Wendell give me two poems.
-He did?
-He wants me to read them.
-He does?
-That's wonderful.
It's a breakthrough.
EMMA: I'm scared.
I'm terrified, but
I can't keep putting
it off and putting it off.
This will take three hours.
May I take the Volvo?
-Of course you can.
EMMA: They're good.
RICHARD: (WHISPERING) Oh yes!
-I think.
-So that's it, you liked them.
EMMA: I liked them.
I liked them very, very much.
WENDELL: Why?
EMMA: Because of what they
convey about your feelings.
WENDELL: Jesus, Emma
that is so tepid.
Look if you had to use one
word to describe both poems
what would it be?
-I would have to
think about that.
-Don't think!
React.
-Coastal.
-Coastal?
EMMA: Yes, east and west.
-Look you had a word in my
mind and I didn't hit on it.
-Hit on it?
Jesus Christ, Emma you're not
even in the fucking ballpark!
How about poignant,
or piffy, or searing,
anything but fucking coastal!
You will not take
me seriously lady
you are causing
freakin' torment!
EMMA: I believe you're suing
for damages from the grave.
WENDELL: You changed my life.
EMMA: Bye.
Have a good weekend.
RICHARD: Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
EMMA: Oh you will.
Just Marion and me.
-Marion.
[FOOT STEPS]
[DOOR SLAM]
[FOOT STEPS]
RICHARD: Emma?
I love you.
I do.
I know in my bones.
It's a revelation.
RICHARD: I remember watching
other mothers nuzzling
their babies and
wondering why Marion
didn't do that to Wendell.
I never known how to
compensate for that.
-Richard.
Richard.
It's about time Marion's
room is cleared.
-I haven't the stomach for it.
-Maybe the three of us
could do it together.
Maybe we could.
-Terrible task.
But I suppose that
it has to be done.
[DOORBELL RINGS]
RICHARD: Who is that?
-I don't know.
-Who could it be?
-Nobody.
-Hi.
-We got married
-Excuse me.
RICHARD: Wendell?
are you all right?
WENDELL: I'm fine.
MONICA: I think Wendell's
caught a little bug.
RICHARD: What made you
decide so suddenly?
-Oh I'm not pregnant.
WENDELL: We were tired
of all the travelling
and there's no
privacy at the dorm.
MONICA: And there's no need
for me to be in school.
And all I want to do is paint
and talent can't be taught,
I can paint anywhere.
-She can paint in the sunroom.
MONICA: Is the light good there?
-Yes.
RICHARD: You know kids,
this just may be a mistake.
I think we all need a nice rest,
and a good honest evaluation
in the morning.
WENDELL: Listen Dick, I
proposed, I found her father,
I bought the rings, I've
got a goddamn certificate
this is not a fucking mistake.
MONICA: Wendell your father has
a right to ask a few questions.
I'll paint, and we'll get
part-time jobs, and paper work,
and you won't have to
worry about any extra mess,
I mean I'll take charge
of Wendell's room.
-No one goes in my room.
-Wendell don't be silly.
[PHONE RINGING]
RICHARD: Excuse me.
-It might be my dad.
-Wendell listen to me, are
you in love with this girl?
-What the fuck does that matter?
-To thine own self be true.
-I better get her bags upstairs.
RICHARD (ON PHONE):
But oh I think
we can manage for a while.
Yes yes she's
right here hold on.
- (ON PHONE): Hello.
why do I have to go to
the most expensive school
in the country, when all
I want to do is paint.
But I don't need a degree.
Did Rembrandt have a degree?
Did Van Gogh?
I ask you did Grandma Moses have
a de- You know what you are?
Your middle aged, middle
class, Middle West, bushwazee.
[CRYING]
-What the hell is this?
-She's crying.
So I suggest that we all sit
down and talk this through.
-Look I tried to do
the responsible thing,
but the truth is I don't
know what I've done.
I'm so confused.
-It's all right
Wendell I think you've
just caught a little bug.
WENDELL: No.
This is one of my seizures.
Look I have to go and spend
some time alone in my room.
Maybe you could stay
in mother's room.
Shit, I think I'm going to
have to go to the hospital.
Look all I do know
is that under any
circumstances I cannot cohabit.
-Wendell what's happened?
WENDELL: Monica.
Sit.
Stay.
Night.
[WENDELL RUNNING]
[MONICA CRYING]
[EMMA CRYING]
[BLOWS NOSE]
[MONICA CRYING]
EMMA: Wendell.
[KNOCKS ON DOOR]
-Wendell?
[TYPEWRITER]
-Wendell, lunchtime.
[TYPEWRITER]
MONICA: Wendell?
Wendell.
[TYPEWRITER]
MONICA: Some people
think my work is morbid.
I really want it to sell.
But I paint boats and barns.
But what I'm obsessed
with is nuclear Holocaust.
See I want to
paint the wasteland
after they've
pushed the buttons.
I mean do you find them morbid?
EMMA: Oh no not really.
I would not say morbid.
MONICA: See, what sells with
certainty in all the arts
is escapism, but I won't let
them off the hook that easily.
I want them to hear
a kind of keening,
from the souls of the dead.
Can you hear it?
RICHARD: Oh yes,
quite so audibly.
RICHARD: (WHISPERING)
We have to call a shrink
EMMA: (WHISPERING) No.
There's no mystery to any of
this he's done a dumb thing
and he doesn't know
how to save face.
-Emma.
-Yes?
I want to make love to you.
-We mustn't
[SIGHS]
-No.
Night.
[KISSES HAND]
EMMA: Richard.
Richard.
We mustn't.
We mustn't.
-What are we supposed to do?
Go to a motel?
They're both asleep.
-I am so-
[EMMA GASPS]
EMMA: Afraid.
[FOOT STEPS]
[KNOCKING ON DOOR]
EMMA: Monica?
WENDELL: No it's me Wendell.
EMMA: You're talking.
WENDELL: Yeah.
I'm looking for dad, I
can't find him anywhere.
EMMA: I think he went
down for a snack.
WENDELL: I already looked there.
OK thanks.
WENDELL: Oh there you are.
Um I want you to call Alex Bloom
I need to get an annulment.
RICHARD: Why on earth
did you marry her?
-Well, because I fell
in love with Emma.
-I am very sorry to hear that.
-Well, I tried to tell her,
but she refused to take me
seriously, she thinks I'm
infantile, but I'm not,
I'm a grown man.
RICHARD: No you're not.
You are certifiably
married and I
think you're certifiably
out of touch.
Last weekend I fled Ne's
apartment I had fallen in love
with Emma, and the
feeling is mutual.
And when I got here, the
feeling was confirmed.
-Confirmed?
-Consummated.
-We were waiting to tell you.
To ask for your blessing.
You were with her
just now, weren't you?
-Yes.
-You son of a bitch!
You were paid to take care of
this house not fuck my father!
MONICA: Is Wendell talking?
Wendell is it over?
-Monica we have to
get an annulment it's
the only responsible
thing to do.
MONICA: (CRYING)
You sleazy bastard!
Why did you marry me and then
fold up your fucking tent?
-You're right, I'm a bastard.
I'm no good.
-(CRYING) I'm being treated
like a goddamn leper.
WENDELL: Monica I've got
no confidence I can't even
put a fucking poem
in an envelope.
I'm on an allowance
for Christ's sake,
do you really want to
be married to that?
MONICA: (CRYING) Yes.
WENDELL: You need to go back
to school and take some time
and just try and heal.
Sorry I have to go.
[MONICA CRYING]
MONICA: Thank you for
liking my paintings.
[PHONE RINGING]
EMMA (ON PHONE): Hello
WOMAN (ON PHONE): Ms. Riley?
EMMA (ON PHONE): Yes?
LYDIA (ON PHONE): This is Lydia.
I got Wendell sleeping here
just now on my hidey bed.
Ms. Riley, he say you
be in bed with Dr. G.
EMMA (ON PHONE): Yes
Lydia that's right.
LYDIA (ON PHONE): Now you
have to Come and get Wendell
because I ain't sleeping
on this barcalounger
one more night hear?
RICHARD: I've taken
Monica back and I've
called Alex Bloom to
work on the annulment.
I would like you to
come home, but only
if you stop this
fancy about Emma.
Understood?
WENDELL: Yes.
RICHARD: And I have to
say, I could no longer
abide your bolted
door or your attitude.
LYDIA: Now Dr. G., you
go easy with they boy.
RICHARD: Lydia, some
things just must be said.
Agreed?
-I agree Lyd, thank you.
RICHARD: Thanks.
LYDIA: You're welcome Dr. G.
-Well that's it.
-I love your thrift, and
I love your $1.99 mascara.
| love you.
RICHARD: Lets talk
about the future.
EMMA: OK.
RICHARD: I would like
us to be permanent.
EMMA: So would I.
-Now this may seem unreasonable,
but your being shut up
in the house all
day disturbs me.
Is there something
that you'd like to do,
some aspiration that got
tabled along the way?
EMMA: Maybe motherhood.
I'd like to have a child.
-I mean beyond the biological.
-Richard, I've worked,
and I've been married,
and I think the most
important thing in life
is loving someone completely.
-Are you really
that traditional?
-I am now.
-Well then maybe you
could join the lawn club.
-I've move down to his room.
-Oh my God.
-I think I can
accept him as he is.
I mean him and his past.
-I sense a fleeting doubt.
-I'm not sure he can do the
same for me, but if he can
I think I would like
to, well this is heavy.
-What?
You want to get married?
-Yeah.
But only if we can be
a real partnership.
We have to get
Wendell settled first.
Listen, let's go to
church some time.
-What?
Like Catholic Church?
-Yeah it's what we know.
-Yeah all right.
Oh Emma.
WENDELL (ON PHONE): Partner
and Harris Pediatricians.
No mam they close at
five, is it an emergency?
Richard Cosgrove.
four years old, ate three
gold- gold fish, fish,
three goldfish, Three
fan-tailed goldfish.
Wow, yes mam, right away.
-So I'm going to be
bringing home $300 a week.
Figure I can use $100
for room and board.
$50 for spending.
I'd like to bank $150 I'd
like to get my own car.
-When are you going
to start submitting?
-What poems?
-Yeah poems.
-If you knew what was out
there you wouldn't ask.
-Isn't there in
the act of writing
a desire to have
your voice heard?
You are going to have to
try again with the mailbox.
-Well OK I can't.
-No or you're saying you won't.
-Wendell will have
to start submitting.
-May I read his poems?
-I don't think so.
-It would betray his trust.
-You're fond of him aren't you?
-Yes.
But why did he write, my father
who had never loved my mother,
laid her to rest in
most indecent haste.
-Oh for Christ's sake,
that's what he's writing?
-What's it mean?
-Obviously me.
I'm going downstairs.
-Why was Marion buried in haste?
-You want a cup of tea?
-Why was the haste indecent?
RICHARD: It was terrible.
Reprehensible.
When she died, they
called me at the office.
Then I phoned
Wendell at his dorm.
Then I phoned the funeral
home, and then I got on a train
and I went to see Ne.
-For how long?
-Two days.
-And Wendell was alone.
-Why?
Why?
-I needed to cry.
-I'm sure he did too.
-We did it separately.
That's the way we've lived.
It was this big
chasm between us.
Marion.
-Come here.
-Nope.
The funeral was at 1 o'clock.
I was late.
I didn't get off the
train 'til 10 to,
and when they lowered
her into the ground,
there we stood on either
side of the grave.
Absolute strangers.
And I went back to New York.
I left him alone again.
And he left for Berkeley.
-Richard come here.
-No
RICHARD: Actually,
laser is an acronym
but it was almost called loser.
Accurately, it's
like oscillation
by stimulated emission
of radiation, loser.
-He reminds me,
a little, of what
I've read about a
young Robert Lowell.
-And you like his stuff?
-Very much.
But he doesn't know
where to begin.
He really needs, you know, a
connection with a professional.
-However they changed
it I think stupidly
into light amplification
by stimulated division
of radiation.
-You know I hate
to impose but he
would benefit tremendously
from your opinion.
-I'd be glad to
read his sampling.
Ask him to bring
them over tomorrow.
-It's been a thrill
to speak with you.
-My pleasure.
-You were quite
ensconced with the boss.
-I went to work for Wendell
with smashing results.
-I think you look smashing.
[KISSES]
WENDELL: Oh Jesus Christ,
what have you done?
You got to phone him you
got to make an excuse.
EMMA: I won't.
Select four or five
right now and take
them over to Martin Martin.
WENDELL: Martin Martin?
EMMA: Yeah.
Choose them.
Now!
WENDELL: OK, I'll choose them
but you've got take them over.
-Deal.
WENDELL: Shit.
[DOOR BELL]
MARTIN: You again.
EMMA: Yes.
MARTIN: Thank you.
EMMA: Thank you.
[PHONE RINGING]
WENDELL: You get it.
EMMA (ON PHONE): Hello.
Oh yes.
Thank you for
calling so quickly.
Yes.
I do to.
Actually, he is
not well just now,
I think he's caught
a little bug.
Oh yes.
uh huh.
Yes.
I'll tell him.
Martin, we appreciate
this very much.
Thanks again.
EMMA: He says, You have
a very distinctive voice
and he'll try to help.
He's submitting the
poems to three magazines
with a letter of introduction.
Here they are.
He says there's no guarantee and
you must be patient because you
won't hear anything
for at least a month.
-Bucko now you're
running a race.
EMMA: Nothing but
bills and flyers.
EMMA: It's chilly tonight.
-Yes brisk.
What are those for?
-Aroma, perfume the whole house.
RICHARD: Nice little touches.
EMMA: What are those for?
-Something quite vital.
Put another log on the fire.
EMMA: Oh please don't,
let's go to bed.
Wendell will be home any moment.
-I want to show you these.
Please, come here.
And no objections until
I've finished my shpeal.
BIL offers a B.L.S. Degree.
It's a bachelor of
liberal studies,
and it is created
for working people
who want to augment
their education.
Ancient and Modern Lit.,
History of Civilization,
I think it's ideal for you,
cause you're out of the house
and you have a
focus to your life
and we could convert Marion's
bedroom to a study for you.
-You're up late.
-I'm advocating B.L.S. For Emma.
-Why?
-Keep in mind occupied.
-Her mind is fine the way it is.
-Goodnight
-Richard, I'm tired.
Think I'll turn in.
-You'll think about
this though, won't you?
EMMA: Um maybe after
my birthday or maybe
when you get back
from Washington.
Goodnight.
-Goodnight
[SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY]
-Emma Rowena Riley,
happy birthday.
-It's Waterford
Crystal from Ireland.
Ms. Timberman says
it's very good stuff.
-This must've broke the bank.
This will be a brilliant
memorable birthday,
because you know what?
The ring is somewhere
in this house.
-Wendell do your turkey.
WENDELL: What turkey
would that be?
-The one you learned
at that camp.
-Oh yes.
Happy to oblige.
[IMMITATES TURKEY SOUNDS]
[LAUGHTER]
RICHARD: Emma.
This is from me.
-They're beautiful.
Thank you Richard.
They're so lustrous, so
beautifully lustrous.
RICHARD: Do want me to
help you put them on?
-Yes please.
RICHARD: I surely hope
it's a productive meeting,
but, God, I hate grubbing
for money at the Pentagon.
-You're study is rearing
to go Emma so please.
Take another look at that
B.L.S. Stuff will you?
-I will.
Godspeed.
-You don't really want to go
back to school day, do you?
-I don't think I'd be happy.
-Well kiddo, to thine
own self be true.
-If you're dad and I were
legit, I'd like to have a baby.
-He wouldn't.
-Does he think he's too old?
-He's already had his kid,
Ahab's appointment is with me.
EMMA: Annie, Annie I
don't think I can stay.
May I take these?
This
WENDELL (ON PHONE):
Homebased answering service.
EMMA (ON PHONE): It's
right here in my hand.
-(ON PHONE): Well well.
Judgement day.
-(ON PHONE): Should I open it?
WENDELL (ON PHONE): God no.
EMMA (ON PHONE):
Should I bring it down?
-(ON PHONE): Leave it
on the stairs for me.
I'll open it when I get home.
-(ON PHONE): Bye.
-(ON PHONE): OK bye.
WENDELL: They're going to do it.
They're going to publish
two $2.00 per line.
I cannot believe that
this is happening.
-This is for you.
-Thank you.
-I don't even know
how to celebrate.
[KISSES]
WENDELL: Thank you.
EMMA: I'm fixing tea.
Would you like some?
-I'll tell him in the car.
-OK.
-I want you to be
here when we get home.
-Jesus Christ, Emma, How can I?
-Please.
RICHARD: God, I missed you.
How's Wendell?
-Richard.
I have to leave.
-Leave, where?
-I've broken faith with you.
I went to bed with Wendell.
-He raped you?
-No.
-He must have.
This is lunacy.
EMMA: Please let's
not hall insults.
RICHARD: (YELLING) He's
cuckolded his father,
he's got me wearing
horns for Christ's sakes.
RICHARD: I should
think that you would
be your fucking knees,
begging for mercy.
RICHARD: How do
you explain this?
She attacked you?
Big brawny Emma overwhelmed you?
Or did you have one of
your convenient seizures?
WENDELL: I was
very, very lonely.
-Lonely?
Try it for a quarter
of a century buddy.
Try it for three solid decades.
-Why didn't you ever talk to me?
-You were a boy.
You were her child.
-I was your child too.
-And why in God's name are
you talking about Marion?
I come home to the
vilest news of my life
and you've got
Marion on the brain.
Loneliness.
That's a feebling excuse.
-You son of a bitch!
You got on a train
and you went to see Ne
before mother was
even fucking cold!
I spent two days here alone.
All I saw were
the hours tick by.
Two days alone here,
man, all her fucking
religious magazines, her
curlers, her nail polish.
I fucking despise you Dick.
RICHARD: Listen to
me you little twerp.
For 20 years you've
walked around this house
like I goddamn
specter faulting me
somehow for your
mother's condition.
You thought me some kind of
self-absorbed ineffectual man.
Well you were
fucking wrong buddy.
I was out there functioning.
I was putting on the tie, hiring
the help, paying the bills,
and putting the roof
over your adult head.
And you were never
ever there for me.
Now I know it was horrible
terrible leaving you alone
like that, but you
were so hostile.
And I was so desperately lonely.
WENDELL: I asked people
to come visit her.
The women from the lawn
club, Mrs. Silverman.
[WENDELL CRYING]
-Emma, Naomi Silverman
comes over here,
Marion assuming, she picks up
her scissors and walks over
and cuts slash in the
hymn of Naomi's skirt.
-(CRYING) Why?
Why did you have to
have her committed?
[CRYING]
-Because she was dangerous.
She wanted to die Wendell,
she has for many years.
The only reason she got up in
the morning was because of you.
And most of the time,
you were the only reason
I had to get up.
And then, when Emma
came into our lives
I thought, you know, now there's
a chance, but not anymore.
I swear, if I had a
gun I'd shoot you.
I want you out of my house.
Take the Volvo don't
ever come back.
I want you out of my house.
Please come with me.
No.
-What was he like?
Was he good?
-Richard.
I won't do this.
A letter came from
Poetry Review,
they accepted two poems.
-Oh Jesus.
-Please don't go to a hotel,
just please stay with me.
-I can't.
-Oh.
[RICHARD CRYING]
RICHARD: Emma.
I'd like to explain why
I gave you the pearls.
EMMA: Please don't.
-I went to Sykes Levy to buy
a ring, but when I got there,
the cold panic came
over me and the rings
just blurred in their cases.
And I waned to
runaway in the Volvo.
I remember as boy, being
confused about what I believed
in, and my father
said, well what
would you be
prepared to die for?
It seemed like such a crucial
question, so I left Sykes Levy
and went back to the office
and I thought about that.
What would I Richard Goddard
be prepared to die for?
The answer was Wendell.
-Yes.
-I do love you,
but at that moment
I didn't want anything
resembling marriage.
I'd see your face and reposed
you were sad about Michael.
I wondered if these moods would
eventually require Lithium.
I have done you a
terrible injustice.
Please don't go.
-How can I stay?
How?
[PHONE RINGING]
-(ON PHONE): Hello.
WENDELL (ON PHONE):
Are you all right?
-(ON PHONE): Where are you?
-(ON PHONE): I want to see you.
-(ON PHONE): I'm afraid
that's not possible.
-Let me talk to him.
RICHARD (ON PHONE:
Congratulations.
I'm proud of you Wendell.
I'm very proud of you.
I'll buy a dozen copies.
Oh well.
-(ON PHONE): I
-(ON PHONE): Congratulations.
[HANGS UP PHONE.]
[DIAL TONE]
-I'll sleep in Lenny's room.
EMMA: Hi.
-St. Mary's Church please.
[EMMA PRAYING]
EMMA: (PRAYING) Please
let me be with child.
[EMMA PRAYING]
EMMA: (PRAYING) Please
let me be with child.
[EMMA PRAYING]
EMMA: (PRAYING) Please
let me be with child.
-(ON PHONE): Hey dad,
I changed my mind.
I'm moving to the
house in New Hampshire.
I want my kitchen
stuff, my dishes,
pots and pans from the attic.
Will you send them to me?
Great.
[EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS BY
BILLY ECKSTINE]