Chris Hanley

Nicola Six (Amber Heard) has clairvoyant powers and discovers that she will die at the hands of one man. She begins an affair with three men to discover which of them is the killer. The story opens with Samson Young (Billy Bob Thornton), a terminally ill American writer who has come to London, apartment swapping with fellow writer Mark Asprey (Jason Isaacs). He is taken there by taxi driver Keith Talent (Jim Sturgess), a crude slob who despite not being very bright, excels at darts. After going to Mark's flat, Keith takes him to a pub called the Black Cross where he meets Guy Clinch (Theo James), the current head of his family's business empire, who is trapped in a loveless marriage with his wife Hope (Jaimie Alexander). Clinch has a disturbed son, who tries to destroy everything he can get his hands on, although he tries to be a good man, and is not crude unlike Keith, but for some reason is his friend. Keith keeps borrowing money from Guy, so he can pay of all the loan sharks he owes, including darts rival Chick Purchase (Johnny Depp). While at the pub, they meet Nicola Six, who has just arrived from a funeral. Keith starts flirting with her. Guy does not but does try to be a gentleman. Samson is fascinated by her. The next day in the park, Samson sees Nicola dump a few books in a bin. Samson picks them out and starts reading them; the books imply that Nicola has the power to see into the future but can only see people's deaths. It tells that she knew how her parents, sister, and best friend were going to die. Nicola knew that she would die a few moments after her 30th birthday on Guy Fawkes Day. In the discarded diary, her last entry was that she met her murderer that day (she met Samson, Keith and Guy) Samson takes the books back to her flat and asks Nicola if she would be the central character for his murder novel. Nicola looks annoyed but agrees. Samson discovers that Nicola lives in the apartment above him and places recording devices between the cracks. Keith tries to hit on Nicola, but she says she knows he is married and has kids. She asks Keith to tell Guy to call her. Nicola then asks Samson to find out how much Keith owes to the loan sharks. Nicola then plays the innocent naive woman with Guy who is trying to help her find her friend in Burma (Enola gay and her son Little Boy). Guy becomes overprotective of her and eventually makes love to her. She lies about being a virgin to Guy, whilst also being the Femme Fatale with Keith (with the promise that he will earn money to pay off his debts, if he goes along with her plans). She tells Guy she is teaching Keith to read and tells Keith it is all part of a con (on Guy) so Keith can pay off his debt. Chick Purchase has bought out all of Keith's debt and Keith has to pay him by Guy Fawke's day. She seduces and manipulates both of them by openly flirting with one in front of the other. Samson emails his novel, The Murderee, to his publicists, Missy and Mark. Missy responds by email that she will not publish it because she believes it is about her. He receives a phone call from Mark saying he admires Samson's nerve. Nicola, pretending to be from social services, visits Keith's flat where she meets Keith's wife Kath (Cara Delevingne) and their daughter. Nicola mocks the way they live and threatens to turn their daughter over to child services. Later that night, Keith goes to Nicola's flat to threaten her, but she has the money (Guy gave her the money, so that Nicola doesn't sell her grandmother's earrings in order to help her friend Enola) to pay off Chick (who paid off the other loan sharks, so now Keith owes it all to him), which he does. Nicola and Samson meet at a restaurant where Samson tells Nicola he thinks the reader will only ever see her as a male fantasy figure. Nicola then tells Samson she knows he is dying and begins to flirt with him. Samson initially rejects her, eventually giving in and making love. Guy breaks up with his wife, as demanded by Nicola, only to realize that there was no Burmese friend named Enola and that Nicola played Guy. At the darts world championship, Nicola rejects both Keith and Guy, kissing Chick in front of both of them. Samson finds photos in one of Mark's books showing his affair with Nicola, on Guy Fawkes Night. On Nicola's 30th birthday, it is revealed that Samson is the one to kill her. Although she knew she was going to die that night, she did not know who would kill her. She accepts her fate and Samson kills her. He then takes her body back to Mark's flat and prints his novel. He renames it London Fields and leaves a note on top of the novel, before placing it on Nicola. He then lies next to her and dies. The next morning, Mark returns home to find them dead. He picks up Samson's novel and starts reading it. He sells the novel under his own name, and it becomes a number-one bestseller. Keith and Kath watch him on television annoyed.

Having just served five years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Billy Brown (Gallo)'s first desperate post-incarceration action is to search for somewhere to relieve himself. Oddly enough, the first thing he does is try to go back into the prison he was released from and denied. Then, to impress his dunceish, thoroughly neglectful parents (Ben Gazzara & Anjelica Huston), Billy kidnaps a dance class student named Layla (Ricci) and forces her to pretend to be his wife. Layla allows herself to be kidnapped and it is clear she is romantically attracted to Billy from the start, but Billy all the while is compelled to deal with his own demons, his loneliness and his depression, and it is only at the end that he allows Layla to give him the love and comfort he has been needing all his life. The subplot of Billy seeking revenge on the man indirectly responsible for his imprisonment, Scott Wood, is a reference to a former Buffalo Bills kicker, Scott Norwood, who missed the game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants in 1991.

Tommy is an unemployed mechanic who spends most of his time in a bar (Trees Lounge) in a small blue collar town. He seems to always be thinking, "If only X then I could stop drinking". Things aren't going so well for Tommy Basilio. He lost his job because he "borrowed" money from the register, his girlfriend left him for his boss and is now pregnant, and he can't find work because of the incident. His life revolves around the Trees Lounge, a neighborhood bar over which he lives, full of the colorful eccentrics one finds in such places, like the estranged husband, or the old boozer drinking himself to death. He drunkenly wanders through his life, still in love with his ex, desperate for some sort of meaning beyond the bar, some sort of meaning to his life. —Gary Dickerson <slug@mail.utexas.edu> Tommy has lost his job, his love and his life. He lives in a small apartment above the Trees Lounge, a bar which he frequents along with a few other regulars without lives. He gets a job driving an ice cream truck and ends up getting involved with the seventeen year old niece of his ex-girlfriend. This gets him into serious trouble with her father. Tommy's life is an endless cycle of misery. —Jason Ihle <jrihl@conncoll.edu>