Never let reality get in the way of a fantasy.
Logline
Freddy has always lived in the shadow of his father, a famous stage actor, and his older brother, a successful investment banker. He is also constantly reminded by strangers that he is the doppelgänger of a leading Hollywood actor, which serves only to emphasis his lack of achievement. When his father receives a cancer diagnosis, Freddy is spurred to double down on his dream to write and direct a feature film in a desperate attempt to prove to the world, his family, and most importantly himself, that he is not a failure.
Synopsis
Freddy, 35 years old, runs frantically to the Eurostar train station hoping to stop Debra, the woman he loves, from moving to Paris. With minutes to spare he finds her and produces an engagement ring to propose. she is delighted but then can’t remember what to say and swears - the director shouts cut and it is revealed this is a film shoot for a jewellery advert. On the way to his trailer, Freddy is stopped by three fans of Hugo Bonnard, a Hollywood leading actor. Despite denying he is Hugo they insist they want his autograph.
Running late, Freddy turns up at his mum and dad’s house for a dinner party to celebrate his birthday. Present are his dad, a famous Shakespearean actor who frequently performs at the National, his older brother, an investment banker, his wife Theresa, a successful hard working advertising executive, and his beloved 10 year old daughter, Eva.
His father and brother tease Freddy on his lack of work and dream of making a film, while his mother defends him. At the end of dinner party, James reveals he has a medical scan in the morning.
Freddy takes Eva to her primary school and returns home to do domestic chores as well as writing a film script. He picks Eva up from school, makes her dinner and helps with her homework. His wife Theresa calls to stay she is working late so he takes Eva rollerblading in Battersea park. Eva asks why he wants to make films and he explains it is to make his dad and Eva proud of him.
Freddy meets his best friend Danny, who owns a data company, on the Southbank to play a game of chess. Freddy tells him about a film script he wrote that was almost the same as Momento and written before it was released. Danny relates the plot of a Russian film called Stalker in which the protagonists have to find a special room that will make their dreams come true, but when they find it there’s nothing there. Danny says it’s a metaphor for Freddy’s aspirations and urges him to give up on his dream of making films and come and work at his company. Freddy refuses. He receives a phone call from his mum telling him that his dad has cancer.
Freddy takes his dad to the hospital to receive chemotherapy. Later that night, he remembers the story of Stalker and an idea hits him. To Danny’s disappointment, Freddy is so inspired by Stalker to write a screenplay with a similar storyline. He sends his script to multiple film agents from whom he receives extremely negative critiques.
He visits his dad at home who is resting after having his latest dose of chemotherapy. His dad tells him he loves him very much but tells him his own successful acting career was more down to luck than anything else and believes Freddy should get a normal job.
Undeterred, Freddy gets the opportunity to pitch the film to three film companies. All three pitches are an unmitigated failure. In a moment of desperation he finds the number for Stephen Spielberg’s company, Dreamworks, and is told in no uncertain terms that any unsolicited scripts will be destroyed. He retires to bed, humiliated.
In the morning Freddy is told by his mum that his dad is fading fast, so he heads over to spend the night holding his dad’s hand. At the funeral he is distraught as his father’s ashes are poured into the ground. In the aftermath, Theresa is annoyed at Freddy’s depression and lack of drive. He gets a phone call from his acting agent saying he is wanted for another jewellery advert. He reluctantly agrees.
Tamsin, the make up woman for the advert, takes a shine to Freddy and they flirt. When Debra, the other actor, stops filming because she has a migraine, Freddy and Tamsin go to the pub. They head to a club and end up at her place and have sex. When Freddy returns to work in the morning Tamsin has called in sick. He writes a text for Tamsin to tell her how great last night was but inadvertently sends it to Theresa, revealing his affair. She discloses to Freddy, she has feelings for a colleague and they agree to separate.
Freddy moves into his mum’s house where he unexpectedly receives feedback from a film company saying they thought it was a brilliant script but that they are too busy to produce it. Excited by this response he decides to finance the film with some money his dad left him and his mum also agrees to remortgage the family home. His older brother is furious that his inheritance is tied to Freddy’s fantasy.
Freddy employs Michelle, an experienced production manager, and sets up his film company in his mother’s dining room. As Freddy has never directed a film before, Michelle insists he goes on a short directing course run by the renowned film tutor Frank Harris. On the course, the film tutor invites his students to a gathering of agents and actors. At the event Freddy meets his doppelgänger Hugo Bonnard who mocks and ridicules him for looking like him. Humiliated, Freddy leaves the party but waiting for a taxi he talks to a personal assistant of an agent that has his favourite French actress, Suzanne Painoire, on her books.
Freddy comes up with a plan to engage Suzanne’s services. He finds out the route the agent takes to work and ensures that she sees a fake poster showing Freddy on the cover of Vogue magazine with a picture of Freddy and the headline ‘FILM DIRECTOR FREDDY BEAUMONT: THE ONE TO WATCH’. When the agent arrives at work and gets in the lift, Freddy ambushes her by stalling the lift. With Suzanne not having any offers of work and a cocaine habit to fund the agent agrees to contact Suzanne.
Freddy and his family go to the gardens at Golders Green Crematorium to remember his dad. Elated, Freddy tells his family that he has managed to secure the services of Suzanne, but, as they stand over the ashes, Freddy’s brother asserts that the film will be a disaster. In the ensuing row, Freddy storms off, angry and hurt.
Freddy and Michelle scout for a location for the film which needs to be a hill with a house built on it. After tense negotiations with a farmer they secure the location. Michelle informs Freddy that the cost of the location, prop house, and the wages of Suzanne have made them go over budget. Freddy successfully pretends to be Hugo Bonnard and raises money from a film finance company that has funded several of his doppelgänger’s films.
On the first day of filming, the farmer threatens to let loose his bull unless Freddy pays double for renting the location. Having no choice, Freddy pays the farmer, sacrificing half the wages of Suzanne to do so. Suzanne is furious and threatens to quit. Freddy contacts his brother to plead for money to make up the shortfall, who, feeling guilty over his recent row, agrees to provide the finance.
With everything in place they get ready to film the first scene in the house, which for the opening scene has no roof on it. Just as the assistant director shouts action for the first take, a thunderstorm breaks and all the cast and crew take shelter on the ground floor of the prop house. Freddy realises the set will be ruined by the thick rain unless they put the roof on. With the crane operator not present, Freddy attempts to get the roof on himself but it smashes into the side of the house, damaging its structure. Michelle informs Freddy that to keep the film in budget they couldn’t afford insurance, but a crew member tells Freddy there is tarpaulin at the back of the house. Freddy and the cast and crew grab the tarpaulin in a desperate attempt to protect the house from the pelting rain. Just as they about to get the house covered, a small but powerful tornado appears and sweeps the tarpaulin out of their hands and carries it off into the horizon. With his last card played, Freddy furiously smashes the props in the house. Just as the house is about to collapse, Freddy jumps for safety, lands in the mud and slides all the way down to the bottom of the hill. With the set and location a disaster zone, he goes home and decides he’d better get a job.
To pay off the debt to his mum, Freddy works at Danny’s data company and enrols in a part time script-writing course. His film tutor likes his latest screenplay so much he recommends Freddy to an agency which subsequently introduces him to Chuck Freidmann, a development producer at Dreamworks. The film he sells and goes on to direct is a fictionalised version of his own attempt to make a film in which everything went wrong. And he even manages to cast Hugo Bonnard to play himself.
