Call Waiting

Two women: The impossible diva and the bed-ridden writer. One's an actress. The other, the character she plays. Both lives hijacked by fractured families, they discover the path to healing is on the other end of the phone. Call Waiting, is a one-woman, tour-de-force poignant comedy; the story of two women who never meet but impact each other profoundly. Judy Baxter is an author who's of the age where she is suffering from women's problems and suspecting her husband of searching out younger game. She is homebound by a debilitating and rare bladder infection, and so she depends on her phone for constant companionship. Judy's story is intermittently interupted by Carol Lane, the actress playing Judy Baxter. Carol Lane, too, is revealed through her one-sided phone conversations. Also a woman of a certain age, Carol is anxious about a career being sidelined by " younger game." She is put upon by a helpless ex-husband and her son's impending surgery. While Judy feels having multiple conversations on a single phone (even while in pain) is her emotional obligation, Carol's sense of survival demands that her own needs take priority over all other responsibilities including motherhood. In a climatic moment in the film the actress and the character merge. While Judy mourns for her fractured family, the actress, Carol, is undone by the realization that her family is also broken. —Jodi Binstock