Split Screen

INT. APARTMENT - TORONTO

"What is the highest human aspiration?"

Two men are trying to co-write a screenplay. GIL is typing at the computer and KENAN lays length-wise across the couch. They're listening to a classical piano recording; something ominous and brooding. Gil is loving it, Kenan is not.

"I think we need something more bluesy."

"Really? For me that kills the mood."

"It would work better if she were stripping to a sexy song."

"But it's - It's not - It's not about sex. It's about intimacy."

"She kisses the piano! It's not supposed to be intimate!"

"I don't like her kissing the piano."

"Why?"

"The piano is, like, her enemy. He spends too much time with the piano and not enough time with her, right? Why would she kiss her enemy?"

"It's - I think it's just something cool for her to do."

"You shouldn't think like that."

"I just - I think it needs to be more bluesy."

"See, for me, that destroys it."

They listen to the song and don't speak for a long moment.

"What if she pours herself a glass of water? That implies that, at the party, she's had too much to drink and she knows it."

"That's good. That's nice."

Gil begins typing.

"Her black heels click against the hard-wood floor... What about 'high-heels?' "

"It's a bit wordy."

"But wordy is specific, and specific is good."

Gil admires his sentence, then, dissatisfied, he deletes it.

"What about Jerry Lee Lewis?"

"Stop!"

"I think it would be so much better!"

"It works against what we're trying to say."

"Classical piano is so... It's been done. I've seen it before."

"But it's high class. We need him to be high class."

"Why?"

"Because, if he's low class, that's not him masturbating."

"What?"

"Like in Fight Club he says 'Self-improvement is masturbation. Now self-destruction...' "

"What does that mean?"

"It means he learned piano to improve himself, to masturbate, but he's ignoring his wife and she strips in front of him to try and impress him, to get his attention. And that's it. That's the idea."

"What does that have to do with self-destruction?"

"She breaks his fingers at the end."

Kenan can't find the words to articulate his dissatisfaction.

"It's... It's boring."

Gil's never seen it that way. He considers, but doesn't agree.

"All that matters is that this movie says exactly what we want it to say."

"I think all that matters is that it is a girl, dancing in front of a piano. That's the basic idea."

"But we need to know all this. It's a slice of life - "

"I just don't want to stray too far from that spark."

"And we're not! We're giving it depth!"

"We're killing it."

Another long silence passes. They stare at the empty document on the computer monitor.

"But you never answered my question, from before. What is the highest human aspiration?"

"I don't think I could answer that question."

"For me it's - "

He talks, but Kenan doesn't hear him.

FADE TO:

BLACK