Breakable You

---

1

[]

[CHUCKLES]

Hello, Ellie.

[SIGHS]

You're looking well.

You too.

[SIGHS]

I'm glad we can do this.

Do what, Adam?

Get together

without hostilities.

Well, fine.

Let's get started.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

WAITER:
Can I get

anything for you, sir?

Um. Oatmeal, coffee.

WAITER:
Okay, great.

Be right back.

Yeah, fine. Fine, fine.

So...

How have you been?

What have you been up to?

- Busy. Very busy.

- Me too.

Ugh, I had to rush back

from Paris

to give a lecture

at the New School.

My little vacation

already seems like

a distant memory of poof.

Adam.

I didn't ask

what you've been doing.

I have no interest at all in

your wonderful time in Paris.

- [SPEAKS IN FRENCH]

- Fair enough.

WAITER:

Here's your oatmeal, sir.

I suppose the next time

we see each other

will be at

Maud's graduation.

Mm. I haven't had

the heart to tell her

that I have a commitment

in London.

The Gielgud is doing a revival

of Spanish Pipedream.

It opens that

same weekend, so

it's regrettable.

It's not regrettable.

It's unacceptable.

I don't need a dose of your

moral superiority, Ellie.

I'm totally

supportive of Maud.

She's at my apartment,

working in my office right now.

Are you that desperate

for applause, Adam?

You're gonna miss

the most important day

of your daughter's life for

a play you wrote 20 years ago?

I'm not even gonna

dignify that.

I have an obligation,

end of story.

Maybe you do, or maybe

it's like that opening in Prague

which was just an excuse for you

to bang Miss Czech Republic

at the Hotel Chodska

for two weeks.

For crying out loud, Eleanor,

would you please grow up?

I was wondering

why I ordered this.

Hey. Okay, all right.

Very nice.

Very, very

James Cagney.

Now let's just

get out of here.

Yes.

Let's.

[]

[GLASS CLANKING]

Do you mind

not watching me?

Why?

Do I make you nervous?

No.

This is very precise work.

Wow.

That's the most conversation

that I've gotten out

of you all week.

I was beginning to think

that you'd taken a vow

of silence or something.

Excuse me.

MAUD:
Okay, then. Back

on the chain gang.

Nice getting

to know you, Sam.

Until next time.

[GASPS]

[CRYING]

[PHONE BUZZING, RINGING]

[SNIFFS]

Hello, Ruthie.

How are you, dear?

RUTH [ON PHONE]:

Hi, Ellie.

- I-I-I've only got a sec.

- Have you spoken to Adam?

No, I haven't

spoken to him, but...

But I'll let him know

you need to talk.

- I've been leaving messages.

- [KETTLE WHISTLING]

Okay. I'll make sure

he gets back to you.

[]

[PHONE RINGING]

Yes, Elle,

what is it?

ELEANOR [ON PHONE]:

Ruth keeps calling me.

She's says been leaving

you messages.

Yeah, I know.

She's your best friend's wife.

Call the woman.

Vincent's been dead

for five years.

Well, she's alone,

and she's heartbroken.

ADAM:
No one ever died

of a broken heart.

Just call her back.

Okay, yeah. Fine.

Fine, fine.

I-I'm at the gym.

The ties that bind.

No escaping them.

ELEANOR:

Hi, Jenny.

He has no idea

what's going on inside of me.

And-and what do you think

is keeping you from telling him?

He doesn't respond well

to emotional needs.

He shuts down

and becomes sullen.

Can you afford to

be silenced because

he's uncomfortable

with intimacy?

I keep getting the urge

to stop using birth control,

just to punish him.

Well, we should discuss

how you feel

punishing him

would help you.

[ELEVATOR DINGS]

Hey.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

One second, one second.

Oh, my God. I finally had an

insight that sticks to the page.

- [LAUGHS]

- Yeah.

[SIGHS] I was beginning to worry

that I'm really a big fraud.

We're all frauds until

we come up with a good idea.

Then we're geniuses.

[LAUGHS]

- How was breakfast with Mom?

- ADAM:
Splendid.

These situations

are never easy,

but, uh, it went as well as

one could hope.

Good.

That's good.

I just, uh, hope that she lands

on her feet like you have.

Your mother's

an extraordinary woman.

We have a deep, deep connection,

and we always will.

Yeah. That's good.

Well, I have to go.

Because it's time for me

to whine to my thesis advisor.

[]

Do you have any big plans

for tomorrow night?

What's special about

tomorrow night?

It's Friday night.

Dining, dancing?

Hanging out with

that certain someone.

- I don't hang out.

- Oh.

What about

a certain someone?

You're right.

It has no teeth.

It's shallow.

That's not what

I was gonna say, Maud.

Morality matters.

How we treat each other matters.

Your faith in humanity

is inspiring.

But it doesn't add anything

to the conversation.

Listen, Maud,

I see this every year.

A student gets to

the end of their thesis,

suddenly becomes

their own harshest critic.

Don't go there.

Just stay focused and finish.

All right.

If you say so.

I say so.

I can get away

this weekend.

I miss you.

I ache for you.

Brian...

It's over.

I keep hoping

you'll change your mind.

I'm not going to.

All right?

I feel like

the worst kind of hypocrite.

I'm writing

a thesis on morality,

and having an affair

with a married man.

That's insane.

So...

It's over.

That's final.

Don't do it.

Don't f*** up your life.

But you didn't tell her that?

ELEANOR:
Of course

not, but, you know...

- Wh-wh...

- [SIGHING] I wanted to.

Yeah, but why are you so angry

with this patient?

Because she's weak.

Passive.

Uh-huh. Yeah. Go on.

And I have to work so damn hard

not to read my life into hers.

I keep rooting

for her to leave

like I should have left

Adam years ago.

Ugh.

Your life would've been

very different.

Pfft. It doesn't matter now.

We signed the papers

this morning.

It was all

very civilized.

Although I did try to smash

a grapefruit in his face.

- CHAZEN:
No.

- [LAUGHING] Yeah.

Good for you. Good for you.

He once told me that I was the

North Star of his moral life.

But he has a... a new muse.

A new fuckmate.

And at 58,

I get to start all over.

Very scary, huh?

Very scary in there.

I know.

But you're very alive right now.

Very alive.

Fabulous.

- [PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

- [INDISTINCT CHATTER]

ADAM:
Excuse me, is

this stool taken?

[IN FRENCH ACCENT] Uh,

yes, I'm afraid it is.

[CHUCKLES]

- Well, maybe it is free after all.

- [CHUCKLES]

- Can I buy you a drink?

- Yeah.

It's a lovely

Chteauneuf-du-Pape

from a village near Avignon,

just like me.

That's it.

That's our password.

We give this little prick

10 minutes.

When I throw you,

"This is a lovely Chteauneuf"

you look at your watch,

and say you have

to meet your cousins

from Avignon.

My cousins are from

Montpellier.

Montpellier it is.

Why exactly are we meeting

this little prick?

He is the most important critic

in American theater.

Word is

he's writing a book.

He asked to meet.

I don't know why.

He slammed

my last two plays.

Maybe he's writing

a chapter on me.

Mm, maybe the whole book.

- Yeah. Maybe an opera.

- Heh, heh.

There he is.

[WHISPERS]

A lovely Chteauneuf.

[WHISPERS] My cousins

are from Montpellier.

ADAM:

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes