By Si Dunn
The screenplay for Criminal Conversations explores several areas that intrigue me. (Here's the logline: A man meets up again with his ex-wife while his current spouse is dying and his ex-wife's current husband is suing her for divorce and trying to prove she is guilty of adultery.)
First, I am interested in what can happen when two people who have had a previous, unhappy history together suddenly need each other again, yet they are constrained by forces both inside and outside their new circumstances.
The youthful marriage of Ted and Alexandra ended badly several decades ago, and the two of them moved on to separate, successful lives and new marriages.
Now, they are in their fifties, and happenstance has brought them back together just at the time when their current lives are crumbling.
They could try to be friends or lovers again. They both need someone who understands them and they are increasingly are aware of their own mortality and how time is beginning to run out in their lives. But both of them are still married. There are strict limitations on teacher-student relationships. They have the feelings of their own families to consider, and they are being spied on Alexandra’s estranged husband, Frank.
One wrong move could cause them both to be sued for “criminal conversation,” an old legal term for adultery.
How can they be close again and helpful to each other while maintaining what the law and society would consider a “respectable” distance?
Secondly, I am interested in exploring how two people who once loved each other can find enough forgiveness to overcome the transgressions that tore apart their marriage. They cannot go back and change the past -- anyway, they would not want to give up their children and the careers they have formed since they went their separate ways.
Yet, their new circumstances have thrown them together in a way that causes them both to face a choice: Can the one who was wronged forgive the one who bears the most blame? And, can forgiveness, contrition and the healing passage of time lead to a renewed relationship--one that can succeed this time?
In a third area of interest, the Criminal Conversations story examines how sudden new realities in peoples’ lives can turn their lives in unexpected – and sometimes unwanted – directions that ultimately prove beneficial. At the same time, these changed directions may be limited or misinterpreted or exploited by others outside the new relationship.
Fourth, Criminal Conversations also explores greed and deceit in a divorce setting. It looks at student-faculty relationships in a college or university setting. And it deals with the process of teaching and imparting knowledge.
As all of this unfolds, the major characters in Criminal Conversations confront matters that include their feelings about life, life after death, faith, courage, and love in the face of death.
I think you’ll be surprised at how it all turns out.
The project's one-sheet is available at: http://bit.ly/9JNu6N.
A recent draft of the script can be read at: http://bit.ly/c4VEAX.
A video about the screenplay can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4sPZasOf1o.
Donations of any size can be made via PayPal to si@sagecreekproductions.com. Donors will receive on-screen thanks in the movie's ending credits. It is not necessary to have a PayPal account to donate.
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