Sunday, March 7, 2010

Classics: Early Edition 1:19 - The Cat

Plot Synopsis:

When Cat shows up sick one morning, an ad in the paper leads Gary to the veterinary practice of Dr. Robbin English. In the waiting room, Cat drops the sick act and immediately cuddles up to a colorfully dressed older woman who introduces herself as Eunice Fadiman. Eunice is Robbin's mother, and it is clear from the moment they begin speaking to one another that they are estranged.

Gary is forced to leave Cat at the vet for a night, but he is pretty confident that Cat will arrive, as he always does, with the paper the following morning. Come 6:30, however, neither the Cat nor the paper makes an appearance. An anxious Gary proceeds at once to the vet, where both he and Robbin discover that Cat somehow escaped his cage during the night. One phone call later, we discover that Cat is with Eunice.

Gary and Robbin head to Eunice's. While Gary retrieves both Cat and the paper (which Eunice didn't read), Robbin gets into another fight with her mother. Eunice, apparently, is planning a spontaneous trip to Rome, and Robbin doesn't approve. Robbin also doesn't approve of Louie De Fazio, her mother's current beau. Outside, she complains to Gary that her mother refuses to behave like a typical grandmother. Then she softens and tells Gary that she does love her mother but just can't bring herself to say so out loud.

The next day, Cat once again fails to deliver the paper to the Blackstone. Gary tracks down Eunice and again finds her cuddling Cat. Later, as she prepares tea for Gary, Eunice laments that her daughter hates her. Gary tries to suggest to her that perhaps Robbin needs her to make the first move towards reconciliation, but Eunice insists there's no time. Then she drops the bombshell: she's dying.

This declaration is confirmed when, the following day, Gary finds Eunice near collapse and rushes her to her doctor. Both Louie and Robbin arrive at the doctor's office and demand to know what's going on, but Eunice snubs them both, deciding to go to lunch with Gary instead. Over the meal, Eunice begs Gary to tell Robbin what is happening to her, as she doesn't feel emotionally ready to do it herself. She then shares with Gary the reason why she wants to go to Rome: forty years ago, she had a whirlwind romance with a man there who mysteriously vanished after a week of bliss. Gary doesn't quite know what to do with this information, but he firmly refuses to talk to Robbin, as he doesn't feel it's his place to do so.

When Gary reads Eunice's obituary in the paper, however, he can't sit by and do nothing. Heading to Eunice's, he runs into Louie out front and learns from Louie that Eunice's mystery beau from forty years ago was a man with a cat and a newspaper. Gary, realizing that it was Lucius Snow who courted Eunice in Rome, begs Louie to go to Robbin and convince her to come and mend the fences with her mother, and Louie reluctantly complies. In the meantime, Gary tries to convince Eunice to call the ambulance and fight a little longer. When Robbin arrives, she too urges Eunice to seek treatment for her illness and admits to her mother that she has, in fact, admired her spirit all these years. Eunice relents; she will hang on for at least one more year.

Meanwhile, after several false starts, Marissa signs up for classes at the community college.

Overall: 6.7

This one's okay, but I have a few objections.

Writing: 6.0

This story has its sweet moments, but -- I can't help feeling that Norman Morrill missed the chance to write a truly powerful tale of reconciliation. The pieces, after all, are all here. We have a mother who has spent her life flitting from husband to husband and a daughter who, as children do, probably resents the way in which her own father was tossed aside for the next adventure. We could've had some dialogue in which Robbin lashes out at Eunice for the emotional damage Eunice probably wreaked as she indulged in her addiction to excitement and novelty - but unfortunately, this dialogue is completely missing. Instead, we see Robbin bristle at inconsequential comments about her wardrobe, and that makes her look petty rather than legitimately angry.

To illustrate what I feel is lacking in this script, let me tell you a story: I know someone - someone very close to me - who was abused by her father as a child. The emotional repercussions of this were devastating: for years, she struggled with both an eating disorder and clinical depression. Recently, though, her now quite elderly father had to go into the hospital for an extended period, and she stayed with her mother - the woman who allowed the aforementioned abuse to occur - to help out in any way she could. Whenever she is asked why she would do this even though she has every right to be angry with both her parents, she replies, "They lost their son at a young age and haven't had contact with their other daughter - or their other grandchildren - in years. They've been punished enough already." THIS is a genuine, knock-you-on-your-butt story about forgiveness. There is no question here that this woman's parents committed terrible evils -- yet she has decided, through an act of will, to put it behind her. In The Cat, on the other hand, Morrill avoids acknowledging that Eunice might've done something wrong - and I think that renders the whole episode a little bloodless.

Acting: 7.5

Marion Ross and Jon Polito fit into their roles pretty well, but the same cannot be said of Talia Balsam. While Balsam does a nice job with the scene in which her character and Eunice finally connect, in the rest of the episode, she's very flat and rather whiny, which certainly does nothing to correct the aforementioned flaws in the writing.

Message: 6.5

Message-wise, I have mixed feelings. I do appreciate the emphasis on the importance of open communication between family members. No one should die without the knowledge that they were loved by their parents, children, and/or other relatives - and it's a tragedy that so many people do. However, Robbin's admission that she admires her mother's spontaneity rubs me the wrong way. Eunice's joie de vivre is endearing, but I hardly think her approach to marriage in particular should be held up as an ideal.

The Benevolent Hand:

I think Gary should find it comforting to know that, down the road, should Marissa and Chuck survive him, they will still be looked after - that God won't forget about Gary's own loose ends.

Highlights:

(At the vet.)
ROBBIN: How did you find me?
GARY: Your ad.
ROBBIN: Really? That ad isn't supposed to run until tomorrow.
GARY: (caught) Oh, well - it would - how does he look?
(Robbin takes a moment to look at Cat's eyes.)
ROBBIN: His eyes look good. How old is he?
GARY: Uh, old.
ROBBIN: What's his history?
GARY: Old. (LOL!)

ROBBIN: She's a grandmother, Mr. Hobson. Is this any way for a grandmother to behave?
GARY: Look, Doc... I-I-I don't mean to be rude or anything... but I don't think this is any of my business, so...
ROBBIN: You're right. I've been talking your ear off. Look, your cat is fine.
GARY: You didn't find anything, uh, odd or... peculiar about him?
ROBBIN: No.
GARY: Okay, well, uh, thank you, Doc. Thank you very much.
(Gary turns to leave.)
ROBBIN: Mr. Hobson.
(Gary stops.)
ROBBIN: I love her, you know.
GARY: Tell her.

GARY: Eunice, can I ask you something?
EUNICE: You want your cat back?
GARY: Oh, no, it's just... it's just that... uh... I need to know what's goin' on.
EUNICE: Of course you would. Fire away.
GARY: How long have you known.
EUNICE: Found out eight weeks ago. It has a name, but I can't pronounce it. Doesn't matter. The doctor wanted to tell my daughter, and I said no. This is mine to deal with - and I will deal with it. Anything else?
GARY: Why am I here?
EUNICE: She needs your help.
GARY: Who?
EUNICE: Robbin. I want you to tell her.
GARY: Me?
EUNICE: She'll listen to you.
GARY: Oh, no, I can't do that!
EUNICE: Mr. Hobson -
GARY: I can't do that, Eunice. You have to do that.

LOUIE: Doesn't have to be this way, you know.
GARY: What did you just say?
LOUIE: She didn't tell ya? I talked to the doctor. She could have treatments - she could hold on - but she's not gonna. Too much sadness.
GARY: What about her trip? I thought she was going on a trip so she could -
LOUIE: To visit a ghost - a guy like you with a cat and a newspaper who stood her up forty years ago.
GARY: (a realization dawns) What'd you just say?
LOUIE: What she needs is not in Rome. It's over there. It's at her daughter's house. But it's not gonna come to her, and she's not gonna go to it.
GARY: Look, Louie, you're gonna have to go to Robbin for her.
LOUIE: What? You're crazy!
GARY: Look, Louie, this is all very confusing, but I think I know what's going on here - and if you don't go talk to her - if you don't help her - she's not going to be able to forgive herself, and she's not going to be able to forgive you. So help her. Do it for Eunice, huh?

EUNICE: Isn't this a kick in the teeth?
GARY: Eunice, don't let this happen.
EUNICE: Where's Louie?
GARY: Louie, uh - Louie had somewhere he had to go, but he's gonna be back as soon as he can.
EUNICE: You know, it's - it's probably a good thing. I'm not taking the trip, you know. Things are never as you remember them - are they?
GARY: Well, I-I don't know. I think, uh... I think sometimes they are, Eunice.

ROBBIN: If she were sick, I'd know - wouldn't I?
LOUIE: There's a lot you don't know. Look, to you, I'm just a joke in a bad suit. Fair enough. I can't change your mind about that. But I can't stand here and listen to you tear down someone I care about.
ROBBIN: I'm not tearing her down -
LOUIE: In this case, I meant yourself. The worst things in life are not the... the mean things you say to each other. Those you get over. The worst things in life are those things that never get said. She need you to say them... and I think you need to hear them back.

EUNICE: She was such a happy child. Always smiling. Then... somehow... we got out of touch. How does that happen?
GARY: I guess people get lost all the time. Maybe the reasons don't matter as much as... how they find their way back.

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