Richard Cordery

Odoriko are dancers of the dying art of Japanese strip theater. Once a popular form of entertainment alongside standup comedy, today all but 20 strip clubs have closed nationwide. Still, the women travel solo with their costume cases from one dressing room to another.

In 1958, Joan Archer (Annie Starke) meets Joseph Castleman (Harry Lloyd), a handsome young married professor at a women-only college. Although already an accomplished (if unpublished) writer, Joan is awed by Joseph's force of personality and advice that "a writer must write, as one must breathe". Joseph had the habit of cracking and eating Walnuts while in conversation. Joseph starts by inviting Joan to babysit his daughter while he takes his wife Carol on a date. Joseph demonstrates to Joan how miserable his life is in his own house. Gradually, Joan falls in love with Joseph. They begin an affair on the college campus. Joan meets a published alumni authoress Elaine Mozell (Elizabeth McGovern), whose cynical views on opportunities for female writers disheartens Joan. Elaine says that the public cannot stomach bold prose from a woman. Elaine tells Joan that female writers will never catch the attention of the editors and the publishers who make the decisions that make or break careers. Two years later, Joseph has been fired for having an affair with Joan, his marriage is failing, and his first attempt at writing a novel turns out very poor. Joan, a secretary at a publishing house, observes how the all-male editors dismiss women writers. When Joan criticizes Joseph's work, he threatens to end his relationship with her, claiming she cannot love "a hack". Joan agrees to fix Joseph's novel for him. The work, titled The Walnut, is published and becomes a bestseller. By 1968, Joseph and Joan are living in a large seaside home in Connecticut. Joan is hard at work writing a novel, to be published under Joseph's name, while Joseph supports her by cooking, cleaning, and caring for their first child, David (Max Irons). As Joseph and Joan converse, it is apparent that Joan's novel is a reflection of their life together, which bores Joan. A narcissist, over the next four decades Joseph has several adulterous affairs and tells everyone that Joan "does not write". By 1992, an elderly Joseph (Jonathan Pryce) has become a celebrated author. Jospeh and Joan are civil to each other and Joan still has sex with Joseph, even though it is unenthusiastic. Joseph is awaiting a call from the Nobel Prize committee. In the early hours of the morning, the long-awaited call arrives, and Joseph learns that he has won the Nobel prize in Literature, although Joan (Glenn Close) seems less than happy about the honor. The committee says that Joseph's career has a remarkable span to it, he writes with extraordinary intimacy, wit and depth, and has also challenged the novel form in many ways which would inspire authors for many generations to come. David, who idolizes his father, seeks Joseph's critique of and approval for his first short story, unaware that Joan has written all Joseph's books. Joseph, Joan, and David fly to Stockholm as Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater), a biographer with a taste for scandal, tries to embed himself into the Castleman's lives. Susannah, their daughter, is unable to travel as she is pregnant and is due anytime. Joseph is irritated with Nathaniel that somehow he got on the same flight as them and won't give him permission to write his biography. In Stockholm, Walter Bark (Johan Widerberg) is assigned to Joseph to take care of all his official engagements. Linnea (Karin Franz Korlof) is assigned as Joseph's personal photographer. Joseph can sense that Joan is not happy and is not enjoying the trip to Stockholm. Joan's unhappiness worsens as adulation is heaped on Joseph. Joseph enthralls his audience with snippets from his life and he enjoys basking in the spotlight. His attempts to publicly thank her for supporting him only embitter her further. Joan does not want Joseph to thank her in his speech. David is also feeling left out as Joseph continually refers to him as an "emerging writer" who is still trying to find his voice. David believes that he will never measure up to his father, who has a hit novel right out of the gate. David says that Joseph has not even read his short story, to which Joseph responds that it is a solid start, but not a work of genius which is what David wants to hear. Nathaniel, sensing Joan's emotional state, induces her to talk with him over drinks and says that he knows that Joan has ghostwritten a major portion or even all of each of Joseph's novels. Joan does not admit the truth, but Nathaniel is convinced by their conversation that he is correct. Meanwhile, Joseph tries to seduce the beautiful young photographer Linnea who is assigned to him. Joseph is unable to consummate the affair due to his cardiovascular disease. Joseph accuses Joan of abandoning him, while Joan expresses her outrage over Joseph's attempted affair. The argument ceases when they learn that their daughter Susannah (Alix Wilton Regan) has given birth to their grandson. The night of the Nobel Prize ceremony, David confronts his parents after being told by Nathaniel that Joan is the only writer in the family. Joseph and Joan deny everything. At the ceremony and banquet which follows, Joan becomes increasingly upset by the accolades showered on Joseph. At the ceremony and the banquet which follows, Joan feels increasingly humiliated because Joe praises her as his support, his muse, his soul. She flees and Joseph follows her. He demands that she take his Nobel Prize, but she refuses. At their hotel, Joan tells Joseph she is divorcing him. They argue violently, and Joseph has a heart attack. Prostrate on the bed, he begs for Joan's love, and she tells him she loves him; he replies, "You're such a good liar," and dies moments later. On the airplane back to the United States, Nathaniel offers his condolences to Joan. She tells him that if he tries to print anything that undermines Joseph's reputation as a writer, she will sue him. David overhears her. Joan says that she will tell David and his sister the truth when they get home. She then turns the page to the journal she had opened, runs her hand over a blank page, and looks up.

At the age of 21, Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) discovers he can travel in time. The night after another unsatisfactory New Year party, Tim`s father (Bill Nighy) tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. Tim cannot change history, but he can change what happens and has happened in his own life-so he decides to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend. When he accidentally erases the timeline, he must try and win her over again.