Christine Lahti

NO, A Flamenco Tale is a fictional musical film, an urban, contemporary flamenco opera in which the action is expressed through dance and the original text is narrated through song.

Taken from The movie opens with a African-American family moving into their new home. The family consists of Derek Charles (Idris Elba), his wife Sharon (Beyonce Knowles) and their baby, Kyle (Nathan and Nicholas Myers). The drive up to their new home and Sharon removes the sold sign and they go inside. While the baby sleeps, Derek and Sharon play a game of hide and seek in the empty rooms; this includes a tour of the attic, which is only beams and insulation. The game ends in their bedroom where the two enjoy a quickie while awaiting the moving van. When the movers arrive, Sharon directs the layout of the furniture and Derek heads into his office. Arriving at his office, he jumps into a crowded elevator and notices a white, blond hot chick (Ali Larter) carrying a stack of files. She remains in the elevator after everyone else gets off. She checks him out when hes not looking and he does the same. He asks if shes a client, she says shes a temp and this surprises him. When she drops all the files, he bends to help her and their hands touch. Derek looks uncomfortable and she smiles. When he gets off on his floor, she does the same. He asks her whom shes there to see and she says 'Derek Charles'. He tells her to watch out because he heard Derek Charles is a real asshole and tells her good luck. She later realizes his little joke and drops the files off with his assistant. Derek is a very successful asset manager with a large firm. As Derek leaves for the day he tells good luck on her next assignment and she says the company is actually keeping her for a few days, but he doesnt hear her, as he never stopped walking. She looks a little sad and turns back to her computer. The next day Derek arrives at work to find the temp, who introduces herself as Lisa Sheridan sitting at the desk of his assistant, Patrick (Matthew Humphreys). He asks what happened to Patrick and she replies, stomach flu. He says, "Well grab a pen and pad and lets get to work." Lisa sits across from Derek and he rattles of a list of to dos, many of which she has already taken care of. He asks if hes going to fast and she says, "No, I'm waiting for you to catch up". She proves to be very efficient and attracts the attention of most of the men in the office including Dereks best friend Ben (Jerry O'Connell) and his boss Joe Gage (Bruce McGill). Both of who comment on Dereks good luck. It seems, his wife was the last hot chick working in the office and Derek snatched her up and married her and now he has the new hot chick working for him. Over the course of the next few days, Lisa proves to be a creepy but very capable assistant. She even listens in on Derek and Sharon's conversations. When Derek and Sharon are talking one night, she asks why he didnt return her call and he says I didnt get the message. He then tells her the new girl got the message wrong and gave him the wrong name, (I think she said Cheryl). His wife asks him where is Patrick and he tells her out sick, she asks, I thought we agreed no female assistants? and tells him to get rid of her. She asks what does Lisa look like and he replies, "plain". Patrick returns and he breathes a sigh of relief that Lisa is gone, but then he sees her at the desk of Marge (Bonnie Perlman) who is Joe's assistant. It appears Marge also has the stomach flu. Derek looks like he feels just as sick when he sees her. At home he and Lisa are discussing her future and her desire to go back to school and finish her degree. He would rather Sharon stay home with Kyle, but she reminds him that he promised after the baby was born that she could go back to school. A few days later, Sharon brings Kyle to the office and is sitting in Derek's office talking when Lisa comes in for a report Joe is requesting. She comes over and introduces herself to Sharon who calls Lisa by the wrong name. She corrects Sharon and begins to coo and fawn over Kyle before heading back to work. Sharon says theres one thing that girl aint and its plain. Derek says he wouldn't know because the only woman he notices is Sharon. She rolls her eyes and they take Kyle around the office. Lisa goes into Derek's office, looks at a photo of his family and opens his CD case and looks at the music inside and notices one labeled Credo. The next day theres a CD on his desk and he inserts it to find its a live recording of the band. Lisa sends him an IM saying she knew he liked the group and its a bootleg copy. He tells her the band rocks and get back to work. She smiles as she watches him bop to the beat. The next day at work, Derek walks into the break room and finds Lisa in tears. He says "hi" and makes his way to the refrigerator for his lunch. As he turns to walk out and almost makes it out of the door before turning and asking if shes okay. She tells him she was just dumped and wonders if theres something wrong with her. He tells her that she is a smart and beautiful woman and if he was single He cuts himself off and pats her arm and says everything is going to be okay. As hes leaving Ben walks in and looks at the two of them questioningly. Patrick and Lisa have bonded and he asks her how often did she listen in on Derek's conversations. She laughs and says we need to have cocktails and clue her in on all the office gossip. The office Christmas party approaches and no spouses are allowed. Sharon reminds Derek to remember to eat something before drinking and have fun. At the party Derek dances with Marge for a little while before Lisa cuts in. She maneuvers them to the mistletoe and tells Derek that if he doesnt kiss her the staff will talk more than if he did kiss her. He says well Ill have to take that chance, laughs and walks away heading to the mens room. When he walks into the stall, Lisa suddenly appears and follows him inside. She is all over him, trying to kiss him, pulling his shirt out of his pants as he tries in vain to avoid her. They hear a drunken guy at the urinal whos trying to peek into the stall to see whos inside making out. He keeps shushing Lisa and she keeps trying to get into his pants. When the guy leaves he forcefully pushes her away as she asks, "What's wrong?" He tells her to stop and leaves the mens room. He grabs his jacket and hurriedly leaves the party. As Lisa returns to the party smoothing down her dress, Patrick who saw Derek leave first, makes a catty remark and Lisa says, "Oh, dance with me you queen." They both laugh as they dance. That night as he slips into bed Sharon asks how was the party and he says the same old same old. She asks, Did anything exciting happen? He says nope and pulls her close as she goes back to sleep. The next day Derek sees Lisa at the office and she acts like nothing happens. He gives her a wide berth the entire day. Later that day she comes into his office and apologizes for her behavior. Derek tells her dont worry about it. She smiles and leaves. Derek later confides to Ben about what happened at the party. Ben jokes that he is so jealous and Derek tells him its not funny. He tells Ben that hes going to HR to get rid of Lisa and Ben tells him to be careful; she may turn it around on him. He goes to see the HR Manager Hank (Rick Ruccolo) and says he needs to talk to him about Lisa. Hank tells him Lisa has resigned. Derek breathes a sigh of relief and tells Hank that he thought she might have been in over her head. That evening in the parking garage, Derek gets into his car to leave. As he turns to fasten his seatbelt, Lisa jumps into the car wearing a trench coat. He asks her what the hell is she doing and she opens the coat to reveal a sexy bra/panty outfit complete with fish net stockings. She tells him, its okay now that they no longer work together. He tells her to get out of his car. She continues to squirm in the seat and he yells louder to get out of his car. She asks, "Why are you being this way?" He reaches over her, opens the door and starts to push her out. She screams, "you are an asshole!" and gets out of the car enraged. He peels away with her standing there. That night, he vows to tell Sharon whats going on. He walks into the house and Sharon is sitting at the dining room table holding the phone and a glass of wine. He sees the sad look on her face and asks whats wrong. She says "I just spent the last hour and a half talking my sister off the ledge". It seems her husband had confessed to having an affair and is leaving her. Well of course, he doesnt tell her about Lisa. Big Mistake. After a New Years Eve party, Derek and Sharon return home when his email beeps. Derek sees its from Lisa and tries to ignore it. Sharon says it may be word on the big account Derek has been working on and he should open it. When she goes into the bathroom, he opens the email and its a sexy picture of Lisa, which multiplies into countless windows that cover his screen. As he frantically tries to close them all, he tells Sharon its just spam. At work the next day he e-mails Lisa, saying simply, "leave me alone". The message goes right past her as she responds with a big happy face that winks at Derek. A few days later, Derek is packing for a work retreat. Its being held at a local hotel and the guys at the office are all looking forward to it. She tells him to behave and dont get too drunk doing all that male bonding. At the retreat, Derek, Joe and Ben and another co-worker are sitting around the pool drinking when they decide to visit a mens club for some adult entertainment. The waitress brings Derek a drink and says its from the woman at the bar. As he turns he can only see a partial view of the woman. Dereks phone rings and he answers telling the guys its Sharon. As he walks away to talk to her, he sees Lisa approaching him. He quickly hangs up, leaving Sharon puzzled. He asks, "What the hell are you doing here?" She tells him well of course, Im here to see you. He tells her shes crazy and needs help. She tells him how much fun they can have, and he looks at her as if shes sprouted another head. She tells him to come up to her room and tells him "I'm in 610". He informs her that he is not coming to her room. She says sweetly, "or should I come to yours?" He tells her flat out that nothing is going to happen between them and to get some help. His phone rings and when he turns to answer Lisa slips a powdered substance in the glass. He turns to leave and comes back and grabs the glass saying goodbye for good Lisa. He heads back to the table and says hes in for the club with the rest of the guys. Later that night, Ben and Derek are walking down the hall. Derek is visibly drunk, swaying into the walls and everything. He tells Ben the last drink did him in. He goes into his room as Ben reminds him of their 9:00 meeting. Derek falls across the bed moaning. He turns over to see Lisa hovering over him. Hes incapable of fighting her off as she rubs and massages and kisses him. Derek passes out with Lisa astride him. The next morning he wakes up in obvious hang over hell. He looks at the clock and realizes its already 9:30. He jumps out of bed and makes it to the meeting by 10:15. His boss Joe tells him hes glad he could make it as Derek slinks into his seat muttering about oversleeping. Two hours later, the meeting is still dragging on when the desk clerk interrupts to tell Derek his wife is in the lobby. Derek excuses himself and the man says shes right over there. Of course its Lisa. Now, NOW hes getting angry. She says, "I know youre bored in there so I thought Id rescue you, Wanna go have lunch?" Derek tells Lisa she really is insane. She starts rambling again about how he wants her, how he told her if he was single theyd be together and on and on. She then threatens to go into the meeting and tell them everything. He grabs her arm and yanks her toward the meeting telling her to do it, tell them the truth I want you to. Of course she hesitates and again asks, "Why are you being this way? " He says I dont want you! She then heads toward the room asking, "Who do you think they would believe?" He tells her in no uncertain terms that there will NEVER be anything between them and she needs to leave him alone. He turns and goes back into the meeting. Later on, Derek enters his room and lo and behold, Lisa is in his bed. He says, "Aw, hell no" and tries to yank her out of the bed. He then notices an empty pill bottle and the fact that shes unconscious. He calls 911. We later see Lisa on a gurney and Derek telling Ben hell explain it all later. That night, the phone awakens Ben. It's Sharon asking where Derek is, as hes not answering his cell and she hasnt heard from him. He tells her that maybe she should talk to Derek at the hospital. Of course she freaks out and heads over to the hospital. As she skids around the corner she sees Derek and runs to hug him. Before he can tell her what has happened, the doctor approaches him and tells him that it was a close call but Lisa will be all right. Sharon says, "Lisa, what the hell is going on?" Derek tries to calm her down when Detective Reese (Christine Lahti) walks up and asks to talk to Derek. The detective is asking questions and Sharon is asking questions and Derek looks constipated. When the detective asks why Lisa tried to overdose in Dereks bed, Sharon comes unglued. Derek is trying to calm her down and the detective keeps asking one loaded question after another. Derek tries to tell her that Lisa is crazy, but this falls on deaf ears. Lisa even gave Derek as her emergency contact. Sharon has heard enough and walks away with Derek following her. The ride home is tense and Sharon explodes as soon as the sitter leaves. She accuses Derek of sleeping with Lisa, which he of course denies. He tells Sharon about all the things that Lisa did and she asks "why in the hell am I just hearing all this?" She reminds him about their vow to always tell each other the truth. He says hes so sorry and orders him out of their house. Plates are thrown and tears are shed before he finally leaves. The next day at work Joe advises Derek that what happened at the retreat could open them up to a huge lawsuit and he takes Derek off the big account. Detective Reese visits Lisa in the hospital and questions her about their relationship. Lisa tells her that Derek is going to divorce Sharon and they will be together. She asks if Derek is there to see her. Detective Reese tells her that she doesn't think Derek wants to see her; as a matter of fact she knows he doesn't. Lisa asks, "well why did he send those flowers?" There is a huge bouquet on the table with a card reading, "I'm so sorry about yesterday, I love you. Derek." Detective Reese looks at the card and Lisa very skeptically. After talking with Lisa, Detective Reese meets with Derek and tells him about the flowers. He tells her he never sent Lisa flowers. Derek says that Lisa must have taken the credit card info when she worked in his office and sent the flowers to herself to make it appear to everybody that he cares for Lisa. Detective Reese also reveals a journal Lisa kept detailing all the intimate details of their romance, which of course never happened. Derek again stresses that Lisa is crazy and he's worried about what she might do. Detective Reese reassures him that he doesn't have to worry as Lisa is now in San Francisco with her sister. The next few scenes are of Derek in his hotel room, playing with his son and Sharon alone at home. We later find out that he has been out of the house for a few months. One day he drops his son off at home and tells Sharon that his birthday is approaching and asks if he can spend it with her. She agrees to go to dinner with him. She tells him she has a gift but will give it to him once she sees how the evening goes. During dinner he begs Sharon to let him return home. He tells her she and Kyle are his world and he wants his family back. She slides the box over to him and its his house key. Back at the house, the babysitter Samantha (Scout Taylor-Compton) is texting and listening to music as the doorbell rings. She opens the door and it's Lisa. She waltzes in saying she's a friend of Sharon's and she has a present for Kyle and heads upstairs. Samantha tries to stop her when Lisa says, "You mean Sharon didn't tell you I was coming?" She pulls out her cell phone and has a pretend conversation with Sharon. When she finishes, Lisa offers the phone to Samantha and asks if she needs to speak to Sharon, of course she doesn't or the movie would end here. She turns and says it will only be a second. Lisa heads to the nursery and stands looking down at Kyle. The next scene shows Lisa rocking Kyle and kissing his head. Lisa then leaves without Samantha even noticing. Derek and Sharon arrive home and ask Samantha how did things go. She says "fine and your friend stopped by". Sharon respons by saying "Friend? What friend?" They both bolt up the stairs and find the nursery empty. Sharon screams call 911 as they frantically search for Kyle. Derek runs for the car to search for him and sees Kyle in his car seat with a huge lipstick kiss on his forehead. Cut to the hospital and the doctor telling Sharon and Derek that the baby is fine. Detective Reese offers Derek and Sharon police protection and Derek asks if he should by a gun. Instead he opts for installing a security system. At the office, Patrick gets a surprise call from Lisa who he hasnt heard from in months. He tells her he could get fired for talking to her. She tells him dont worry you wont get fired and asks him hasnt he heard the news. He asks what news? She tells him Derek is divorcing Sharon to be with her. He laughs and says that cant be true because they are planning a big weekend visiting Sharons parents. Motor-mouth spills the beans that Kyle is with Sharons sister, Sharon is driving to her parents and Derek will travel by plane the following day. Lisa abruptly hangs up. Back at the house Sharon is preparing to leave for the weekend. She gets into her car and calls Derek to tell him she is heading out. He asks did she turn on the security system, she remem+E77479bers that she didnt and heads back to the house. Cut to the house and Lisa breaking in through the back door and entering the house carrying a bottle of champagne and two glasses. She goes into their bedroom and takes off her clothes. Wearing Lisa's nightshirt, she sprinkles rose petals all over the bed. Downstairs, Sharon enters the house and is entering the alarm code when she hears the pop of the champagne bottle up stairs. She slowly climbs the stairs to investigate the noise. When she enters the bedroom Lisa is in their bed. Sharon says, "Oh, you really are crazy." Lisa tells her that she's sorry that their family is breaking up but she and Derek are in love and are going to be together. Sharon tells her to get out of their house. When Lisa approaches her, Sharon grabs E25581her and slings her toward the door. At this moment the phone rings. Both women make a mad dash for the phone and Sharon grabs it first. It's Derek making sure she is okay. She tells him that she found Lisa in their house and then simply says, "I'm going to have to call you back," and then hangs up. Sharon turns towards Lisa, and a climatic and very brutal cat-fight begins. The two women kick, slap, punch, head butt and finally tumble their way down a staircase. While Sharon is stunned, Lisa gets up and runs back upstairs. Sharon is right on her heels and the women end up in the attic. Arming herself with a 2-by-4 piece of wood, Lisa proceeds to use Sharon's legs as batting practice. Balancing herself on some badass four-inch heels, Sharon backs up along a strip of wood, taunting Lisa to come and get her. Lisa swings and falls onto a weak portion of flooring and falls through. Hanging on for dear life, Lisa dangles from the ceiling and we get a view of the floor below and the huge glass coffee table below. Suddenly having a change of heart over letting Lisa fall to her death, Sharon suddenly grabs Lisa's hand and tries to pull her up. And in return the psychotic Lisa tries to pull Sharon with her. Sharon finally finds her cajones and pries Lisa's fingers apart and Lisa drops, crashing into the table below. Lying amidst the glass and twisted metal, Lisa slowly opens her eyes and tries to move. But the swinging chandelier gets her attention, weakened by her fall through the ceiling; it is hanging on by a cord. When it stops swinging, it suddenly falls spearing Lisa beneath it, killing her at last. Sharon slowly walks out the front door as Detective Reese drives up asking what happened. Sharon says, "You know what happened", and she walks into Derek's arms.

Family man Hatch Harrison gets a special resuscitative medicine after "dying" in a car accident. Afterwards, he starts having strange nightmares such as killing a teen girl. Is it just dreams? Hatch Harrison had a traffic accident with his car. At first the doctors said he was dead but then they succeeded in bringing him back to life after two hours. In no time, Hatch starts to have strange sensations and discovers that he is now united with a mad killer who had entered his mind during his death. —Volker Boehm While traveling on the road with his wife Lindsey and his daughter Regina, Hatch Harrison has a car accident, hitting a truck and falling with his wife in a river. He dies for more than two hours, but the specialist Dr. Jonas Nyebern successfully brings him back to life. Hatch has some weird premonitions and becomes able to see through the eyes of the psychopath serial killer Vassago, a young man that killed his mother and his sister and committed suicide and was also brought back to life and now is killing young women and teenagers. When he foresees that Vassago is trying to capture his daughter, Hatch tries to find the criminal first, in spite of Lindsay, Regina and the detective in charge of the investigation believe that he needs psychiatric help. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Two contrasting women, one optimistic and the other cynical, embark on a life-changing road trip to Alaska, where an unexpected inheritance awaits one of them, leading to a series of adventures that challenge their perspectives. For her entire life, 27-year-old Marianne Johnson has been on the move; the decisions she's made as an adult have been total failures, such as her second-most-recent marriage to Curtis Johnson, which brought her to Normal, Wyoming. However, she has an optimistic view of life, always believing that each decision she makes will be the right one. She is a linear thinker and despite being bright in this regard, she has no life or job skills and has never had a paying job besides a short stint in the Army, where she met Curtis. Conversely, 38-year-old Darly Peters wears her failures openly on her sleeve, bulldozing her way through life. Currently a cocktail waitress in Normal, Darly receives news that her ex-husband, whom she left 18 years ago, has died and has deeded the house which they were building at the time in remote Palmer Valley, Alaska to her. She believes this house will be the first time in her life she will feel settled. Seeing in Marianne a stranger in need, Darly offers her a ride to Portland, where she will be staying with her judgmental sister and brother-in-law. As that move to Portland also proves to be another disaster in Marianne's life, she decides to accept Darly's invitation to go to Alaska with her. Along the way, they get into one adventure after another, meeting people who may affect their view of life. What will also affect their lives is Darly's Alaska past which leads to life in Alaska not quite what they were expecting. —Huggo A female buddy picture whose initial run was handicapped by being released after "Thelma and Louise." The film chronicles Marianne and Darly's cross-country adventure and, the hardships and characters they encounter. Where "Thelma and Louise" was about keeping control until the very end, "Leaving Normal" is about knowing when to stop. —Robert B. Young Marianne is a child at heart while everyone around her is mad at the world and taking it out on her for not being "mature" like them. She runs away and joins "hardened by life" Darly on her trip to claim land in Alaska. Its a classic "iron sharpens iron" road-trip movie. —Hannah Hudson < inferno_ears@hotmail.com >

NYC cartoonist Duffy meets the bad cappuccino maker, chef Meg, and falls in love. She moves in with him, marries him - but they have problems having a baby. When New York City cartoonist Duffy Bergman meets gourmet chef Meg Lloyd, he discovers the love of his life and they marry, yet love alone isn't enough to make them happy. Meg decides she wants to have a baby, which at first panics Duffy but soon becomes his top priority too. When they're unable to conceive, Meg concentrates on her career and the two drift apart and eventually separate. When Duffy later speaks at a convention of the Delta Gamma sorority, he reveals that Delta Gamma girls have always been his dream girls, then meets one of them, the uninhibited Daphne Delillo. When Daphne moves to New York City to work as a network sports reporter, their mutual attraction, and Daphne's spontaneity spark an adventurous new relationship for Duffy. Now Duffy must decide which is more valuable to him: the relationship he has given up, or the relationship he has always dreamed of having.

The film begins in the 1940's, when Ruth ("Ruthie") and her little sister, Lucille, two young girls living in a city apartment, are taken for a drive by their unstable yet prim and beautiful mother to the rural small town of Fingerbone, a place situated in the mountains. A narrative by an older Ruth reveals that their grandfather, as a boy, came to Fingerbone looking to visit the mountains; a luxury train crash occurred in Fingerbone which later killed him. Ruth and Lucille are dropped off at their kindly old grandmother's house, a cozy and quite large place constructed by their grandfather. The girls' mother then leaves and never returns. Ruth and Lucille spend time talking with a nice police officer and the elderly friends of their grandmother, as the police officer tries night and day to locate their mother. Meanwhile, their mother parks the car in a private field, and requests that three passing boys aid her in getting it unstuck from the mud. The boys kindly offer to help, but are shocked when she insists that they use a beautiful plaid blanket and a good autumn coat to wedge under the tires in order to get the car unstuck. When they finally do, the mother offers the boys her purse, and the boys, thinking she is offering them money as a return for their help, take it, only to then watch in horror as she drives straight through the field and over the edge of a large cliff, sinking into the lake. This lake is the same lake where all the deceased passengers of the luxury train, including Ruth and Lucille's grandfather, drowned in, their bodies mostly never recovered. Ruth and Lucille grow up with their grandmother, never being told that their mother died by suicide in the lake. In fact, after their grandmother's funeral, they skate on the lake's frozen ice with a number of other schoolchildren, oblivious to it. Lucille barely remembers her mother, while Ruth has vague memories, trying to hold onto her family by clinging to her grandmother's old photographs hidden in a small box in a drawer near the floor. They continue to live in their grandparents' house with two elderly great aunts, both of whom are paranoid about the cold weather and detest living in Fingerbone. Although the great aunts are kind-hearted and treat the girls well, Ruth and Lucille feel out of place, having grown up with old people for years and knowing no other children their own age. The much younger, ditzy and eccentric Aunt Sylvie, stops by to see the girls. As Sylvie is taken to peculiar rituals such as eating with the lights out, hanging around with hobos at the train station, and wandering around outdoors at odd hours, Ruth and Lucille take an instant liking to her as a person closer to their age range, and also as their mother's sister. After the two elderly aunts move away and leave the girls in Sylvie's guardianship, the girls begin to ask many questions about their mother; Sylvie is uncomfortable about this, and refrains from breaking the news to either of the girls that their mother died by suicide. Sylvie is perpetually cheerful, except once, when Lucille hounds her with questions about pregnancy and Sylvie's absent husband; she tells Lucille that some questions are impolite and should not be asked, although she does mention that her husband was a soldier in the Pacific War; a domestic violence situation is implied that Sylvie fled from. At first, Ruth and Lucille fear that Sylvie will leave them, but Sylvie decides to stay. A disastrous flood hits the house, destroying most of the objects on the lower floors (including many of the grandmother's photos, much to Ruth's upset), but they quickly get the house cleaned up, putting the sofa out on the lawn to dry and scraping mud from the porch and walls. Sylvie shows the girls some old wallpaper that their mother wrote on, as well as the mountain paintings that their grandfather did. The house takes on a visibly dirty appearance though, and as Sylvie's eccentric habits take root there, it quickly falls into a state of squalor. Sylvie has a particular affinity for animals, and cats and dogs quickly fill the face. The sofa, now dingy and sun-faded, remains on the lawn. The white picket fence collapses, the bush surrounding the house becomes overgrown, and Sylvie's hoarding leads to stockpiles of old newspapers and tin cans being kept. Ruth and Lucille initially see this as a kind of rebellion, taking advantage of the fact that Sylvie's absent-minded eccentricity allows them to ditch school every day, since they both hate going. Embarrassed by their dated, well-worn clothing, the girls find solace by the lake, spending hours there every day near the train bridge, reading and playing. As this goes on, however, and the school fails to notice that they're missing for the entire semester, the novelty quickly wears off. Lucille mentions that she can't wait to go to Boston, hoping that escaping to a big city will get her out of Fingerbone. Ruth dreads the thought of Lucille leaving, and doesn't see the point in trying to. That summer, when the girls catch Sylvie walking straight past them as she searches for them, they realize that she may be mentally ill. This is further suggested when she behaves recklessly atop the train bridge. The girls, believing she is going to jump, tell her that everybody will think she's committed suicide. Reminded of the girls' mother, Sylvie assures them that this was not the case, although again, she hasn't got the heart to mention to them that their mother died by suicide. It is hinted at that Sylvie had run away years ago from the family homestead to marry her (now-estranged) husband, leaving her sister, and that both women went separate ways in their adolescence. Her sister, the more proper of the two, led a more conventional life as the mother of Ruth and Lucille after leaving for the big city until her suicide. Sylvie simply stops speaking of her after a certain point, taking on a more sisterly role than a motherly one with Ruth and Lucille. After Sylvie is found sleeping on a park bench with a book on top of her face, Lucille becomes more and more embarrassed by their aunt's quirky behavior. She chastises her for talking to "trashy" people down at the train station, and finds that she cannot fit in with any of the preppy girls she knows in town. When Ruth and Lucille both return to school, this is only heightened further. Ruth refuses to style her hair or wear appropriate clothing, and during a trip into town, when the girls stop at a soda fountain and Ruth won't speak or look anybody in the eye, Lucille begins to take notice that her older sister is beginning to exhibit the same odd and subversive behavior as Sylvie. Lucille, wanting to fit in with a circle of girls from school who use sewing patterns, makes an effort to sew a two-piece for school, but refuses to concede to the fact that she doesn't know how to sew because she missed the offered home economics class during the semester that she ditched school. She instead blames Ruth, angry that Ruth has used the dictionary with sewing terms in it for pressing flowers. Lucille and Ruth become increasingly distant. Upon returning to school, Lucille puts down Ruth in front of the principal, and when Ruth still refuses to make an effort to fit in, Lucille abandons her entirely. Lucille begins to dress like the preppy girls, stays in a clique (while never inviting any of them over to the house after school), and chooses to eat in her bedroom, avoiding Ruth and Sylvie at any cost. Ruth, lonely and desperate for the companionship with her sister she once had, makes repeated attempts to talk with her, to no avail. Instead, Ruth becomes closer to Sylvie, reveling in her eccentric whimsy and chaos. Lucille attends her first school dance, wearing a stylish silver gown with gloves and a pink ribbon. Upon returning home, she is disheartened to find that while Ruth is studying, the house is still a mess and Sylvie is asleep with a book covering her face. Lucille tells Ruth, "somebody should really cover that up" (pointing to Sylvie) before fleeing; she goes to her home economics teacher's house, claiming to be homeless, after which she is taken in by the teacher and moves away completely, disassociating herself from her aunt and sister. Depressed, Ruth opts to start ditching school again, and goes with Sylvie to the lake to visit a secret house on a deserted island across from Fingerbone. The pair steal an angry fisherman's canoe and row across the water, in a trip that takes up the whole day. Sylvie shares that she has seen small children living on the island they are visiting, but Ruth secretly doubts this. Upon arriving at the island, Sylvie shows Ruth the collapsing remains of an old house with nothing in it but an old Singer sewing machine. It is implied that the house was there when the train bridge was being built, but was abandoned when it no longer became convenient to live so far away from town. Ruth watches for the children that Sylvie claims to have seen, concluding that she "feels" them there like Sylvie does, even if she can't see them. The pair roast marshmallows over an open fire, and by the time they row home, it's already the middle of the night. Lucille wishes to speak to Ruth after school the next day, wondering why she didn't attend for an important test. When Ruth suggests they talk at the drugstore, Lucille, not wanting to be seen with her, goes to the lake with her instead. She urges Ruth to leave Sylvie, but Ruth refuses, insisting that the trip to the island the previous day was perfectly safe. Unbeknownst to her, Lucille tells her teacher, who then calls the police. A police officer arrives and, concerned for Ruth's well-being, sends his wife and two women from church to the dilapidated house for a visit. The women are horrified by the spectacle; one woman winds mushrooms growing in a dead potted plant, another woman nearly sits on a large pine cone that's been brought into the house, and piles of newspapers block the windows. The women are even more disturbed when Sylvie innocently remarks that she can see the girls' mother in Ruth. They urge Sylvie to give up her niece to a new guardian, and later on, the police officer returns, declaring that there will be a hearing to determine Ruth's guardianship the next day. Sylvie and Ruth know that Sylvie will never be able to hold up to the standards of a proper guardian if she's examined in a courtroom. They work instead on dressing Ruth properly, styling her hair, and burning all the old newspapers, as well as a racy sex book that Ruth had in the house. They then go to play a game of hide and seek, but unfortunately for them, the police officer arrives and takes Ruth's absence to mean that she is missing. When Ruth finally does appear, the police officer urges her to come back to his house where she can stay with him and his wife, but she refuses, choosing to stay with Sylvie. Unprepared for the court hearing, Sylvie and Ruth light fires all around the house to burn it down, packing only two small suitcases as they flee. Knowing that they'll be caught, Sylvie insists that they'll have to walk across the lake on the train bridge rather than waiting with the hobos until morning. Despite Ruth's fear that they might both fall into the lake or be hit and killed by a train, she follows Sylvie as Sylvie promises that another train won't be coming until morning. The ending is left ambiguous as the pair cross the tracks, with only a voice-over by Lucille from earlier in the film remarking that Sylvie is always running away.

A woman finds romance when she takes a job at an aircraft plant to help make ends meet after her husband goes off to war. Jack and Kay Walsh are typical of many couples of the 1940s, where he is the breadwinner and she the housewife dependent upon him to do the man's duties around the house. Jack believes one of their neighbors in the housing complex in which they live in Los Angeles is white trash - he letting her know so at every opportunity, while Kay is quietly curious about her. That neighbor is streetwise Hazel Zanussi, an aspiring singer who does get a chance to sing on occasion at the club managed by her casual boyfriend, Biscuits Toohey, although he relegates her to being one of the taxi dancers more often against her wants, while he cheats on her behind her back despite truly having feelings for her. Hazel just wants to make an honest living. Their worlds are turned upside down on December 7, 1941 when the US enters WWII with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Jack immediately enlists in the Navy, and while he will send money home, his decision leaves Kay largely to fend for herself. Against what she knows are Jack's wishes, Kay decides to follow the request made by the government to the female population to do their part in the war effort by getting an assembly line job at a factory, in Kay's case as a riveter at Santa Monica-based MacBride, a military aircraft manufacturer. Hazel, too, gets a job there. Despite a rocky start based on how Hazel knows Jack feels about her, Kay and Hazel become best friends in the process, largely in their and their fellow female employees needing to stand up to the taunts by their less than enthusiastic male colleagues. Working for a living and having Hazel as a friend results in Kay standing on her own two feet for the first time, including making important decisions on her own. Kay is pursued romantically by their line leadman, Lucky Lockhart, who sees himself more as a musician, a trumpeter, than a factory worker. Kay has to decide how far to go with Lucky, to whom she is admittedly attracted, but she does not want to betray Jack, especially due to the reason for his absence. With all these issues going on in Kay's life, she will be tested to see if she can go back to her previous life in all its aspects if and when Jack makes it home, especially after the war. —Huggo In 1941 America Kay and her husband are happy enough until he enlists after Pearl Harbor. Against his wishes, his wife takes a job at the local aircraft plant where she meets Hazel, the singer from across the way to whom she hadn't previously been all that nice. The two soon become firm friends and with the other girls become increasingly expert workers able to ride the jibes of the male workforce. As the war drags on, Kay finally goes on a date with her trumpet-playing foreman, and life inevitably starts to get complicated. —J-26

Corrine Burns (Diane Lane) is a 17-year-old girl whose mother has recently died from lung cancer and father was killed fighting in Vietnam over 10 years ago. Working in a fast food restaurant to help support herself and her younger sister in the small steel mill Pennsylvania town of Charleston, Corrine is interviewed by a local television station for a story about her small town's dwindling economy among the early 1980s recession. During the interview, Corrine becomes angry and hostile towards the reporter, eventually lashing out at her overbearing and condescending boss and getting fired. The segment resonates with the station's teenage viewers, who see Connie as a kindred spirit. The station does a follow-up interview, which primarily consists of Connie acting flippant and making sarcastic remarks to the reporter. However, she does manage to slip in a plug for her garage band "The Stains", which consists of her, her sister Tracy (Marin Kanter), and their cousin Jessica (Laura Dern). Emboldened by appearing on television, Corrine attends a concert organized by small-time promoter, a hip Jamacian named Lawnboy (Barry Ford), featuring the washed-up metal band The Metal Corpses and their opening act, an up-and-coming British punk band called The Looters. Eager to end the hostilities between the exhausted Metal Corpses and the hedonistic Looters, Lawnboy signs the Stains without having heard them perform. Corrine, Jessica and Tracy join the tour, witnessing firsthand the bands' animosity towards each other, largely the result of the conflict between the aging Lou (Fee Waybill), the frontman of the Metal Corpses, and Billy (Ray Winstone), the volatile lead singer of the Looters. At their first show, the Stains prove to be completely incompetent as a band: Neither Jessica nor Tracy can play their instruments, and Corrine sings in an off-key monotone. The audience reacts angrily, prompting Corrine to lash out at them for a variety of real and perceived mistakes. After the show, the Metal Corpses guitar player Jerry (Vince Welnick) has fatally overdosed in the bathroom, and the band leaves the tour. Soon after, Lawnboy makes the Looters the new headliners with the Stains as their opening act. However, a dissatisfied Billy asks Lawnboy to replace the Stains with another band as soon as possible. At their next show, Corrine debuts a more extreme punk look, with her hair dyed to resemble a skunk and see-through blouse worn over a pair of bikini briefs. Announcing that she "never puts out", she goes on another angry speech, grabbing more media attention. While male reporters focus on Corrine's antisocial attitude and the band's need of talent, female reporters understand Corrine's criticisms as calls for female empowerment and hail the Stains as a new voice of feminism. The Stains soon become a national sensation, with girls all over the country emulating Corrine in every way possible, from dyeing their hair to running away from home. During a stop at a motel, Billy attempts to seduce Corrine by sharing his feelings about the band and his alleged private shame of being illiterate. Over the course of their conversation, Billy recites the lyrics to a song, "Join the Professionals" which sums up his most personal feelings about the state of the world. Corrine responds to his advances in which she and Billy have sex for the first time. At their next stop, the band is met by Lawnboy's agent, Dave Robell (David Clennon), with the intended replacement act for the Stains (Black Randy and the Metrosquad). Although Billy tells Corrine that he only wanted her replaced early on for the tour, Corrine lashes out at him, and at the Stains' next show, they play a cover version of Billy's song, which skyrockets the band to even further stardom. With Robell's encouragement, Corrine signs a new contract, cutting Lawnboy out of any royalties and making the Stains the new headliners of the tour. At the next show, Billy delivers a speech to the crowd about how the Stains have betrayed their "never put out" mantra by becoming corporate sellouts. When the Stains come onstage, the fans raise an uproar and Corrine is attacked by a girl with a tube of hair dye. The tour becomes a financial disaster and Robell cancels the Stains' contract. Corrine responds by threatening him with a bottle opener and taking the money he's been withholding from her; Corrine then gives the money to Lawnboy an an apology. The next morning, Corrine appears on television, where a hostile male reporter chastises her for being a poor role model to her fans. Billy apologizes for ruining Corrine's career and asks her to come back as the Looters' opening act for the tour. Corrine refuses; as she wanders the streets, she overhears a radio broadcast identifying the Stains' first song as a hit record. In the final scene, set sometime in the future, the Stains made their debut on MTV, having become a successful act on Lawnboy's new record label.

A young 12-year veteran lawyer battles not only one-on-one injustices in the courts, but the whole system as well.