Hollywood Ending Page #11

Let's just... call it anight.

Cut!

Val, checkthe gate?

Thank you, everyone. See youtonight

at the wrap party.

You all did atremendous job. Please

use taxis or designated drivers.

I know you're happy

to be leaving New York.

What isthe thing you miss most

about L.A.?

Miss most about L.A.?

I miss my support group. They're

really helping emotionally.

I'm amember of a support group

of film executives...

...who can't affordtheir own G-5s.

- Have you seen Val?

- He's not here.

Great. A director

who misses his own wrap party.

I called him at home.

He's not there. I'm worried.

Hi! Hi, Ellie! Over here!

Oh, you have to meet them.

Excuse me. Excuse me. Hi.

This is Sandor.

Where's Val?

Uh, he didn't come.

Oh, my goodness. Everybody's

so sophisticated. I love it.

Your father's here.

- You're joking.

- Tony?

- Tony?

- Don't bump into anything.

I'll wait outside.

- What's wrong with you? Are you blind?

- Yeah.

- Psychosomatic.

- How did you know?

You never get any realthings.

I'lltake youto the couch.

Keep walking.

Okay, turn around.

There you go.

Sit down.

- Don't ask me why I came.

- I didn't.

Aren't you curious

after the last couple of years?

Are you going

to officially disown me?

I came for the exact opposite reason.

I want to make friends.

I was never mad at you.

What do you mean? You pushed me down

a flight of stairs.

I was high. Inthose years I did drugs.

I did acid and peyote.

Where did you learnto do drugs?

From you. Youtooktranquilizers

and mood elevators.

There's a difference between

that and breaking into a drugstore...

...so you can buy hashish.

That's over. That was stupid.

What happenedto us?

How did we grow so far apart?

You know, we used

to do thingstogether.

I played with you. I took you fishing.

I didn't want to go fishing.

I didn't take you against your will.

Then you wantedto go fishing.

You wantedto learnthe violin.

I got you a violin.

That led me to the drums.

How did violin go to the drums?

That I've never understood.

It's music.

An electronic band where

you rip off your shirt...

...and eat alive rat is not music.

We sold out that concert.

Don't call it a concert. Heifetz

at Carnegie Hall is a concert.

If there's abrownout, Heifetz will still

be on key, but your guitarist won't be.

You come here to knock me?

I came to...

...hold out an olive branch.

Olive branch? What isthis,

the Israeli parliament? I'm your son.

I know you're my son.

That's what I'm saying.

I want usto get backtogether again.

To, you know, to go fishing.

I hate fishing.

I don't mean literally go fishing

in water! I, I...

I'm sayingthat I love you,

despite the orange hair...

...and nose rings and nipple rings

andthe tattoos.

No wonder I went blind!

Can I help it if I took a quantum leap

from your values?

What's wrong with my values?

I don't understand.

I was nice to your mother.

I didn't steal anything.

I never consumed any rodents.

How is your mother, incidentally?

Great. They're in Rio.

She has no trouble accepting me.

Of course she doesn't. You're here

and she movedto the equator.

I want to be friends with you.

I respect what you do. You have

to respect my goals.

I did some dopey things. I apologize.

Let's not make abig deal.

We don't have to go fishing,

but we have alot in common.

We're bothtryingto do something

original. You with film...

...and me with alive rat.

Tony, Tony, Tony.

By the way, I changed my name.

It's not Tony anymore.

It's not? What is it?

Scumbag X.

Oh, that's nice.

It's much better than Tony Waxman.

I love you, Scumbag.

Events moved pretty rapidly once

the movie wrapped.

Ellie stayed in New York and helped

Val fake his way throughthe editing.

They spent alot of time together.

Andthen, suddenly, one day...

I can see!

Ellie!

I can see!

I can see!

I can see! I can see!

Everything looks so beautiful!

The city looks...

...incredible! I can...

- I can see!

- Are you sure?

You look so beautiful.

You look so great.

You look so beautiful.

I swear.

You're like a different person.

You mean I was never pretty?

You were always pretty!

But now you're beautiful.

I can see! I... I...

I can't believe this!

I can see! You look so beautiful.

I'm overwhelmed.

That's how it is when you go blind

for a while.

Oh, Val! Oh, my God!

Come on!

Call Dr. Kevorkian.

This isthe worst...

This looks like the work

of ablind man.

Come on. You're scaring me.

Hal meansto previewthis in 2 weeks

to get some audience reaction.

The audience will rush

into the projection booth...

...grab the print and hurl it

into the sea.

LOEWS THEATRES:

Here are the rest of the cards

the audience filled out.

They're practically unanimous.

"An incoherent, stupid waste

of celluloid. "

"Would you recommend

this filmto a friend?"

"Only if I was friendly with Hitler. "

They're alljust terrible.

"How would you improve

this movie?" "Arson. "

That'sthe audience,

not the critics.

The reviews will be good,

thenthe public will go.

"What would you callthe genre?"

"Early American garbage. "

I'm crushed over the reception

the movie got.

Some of the reviews

were particularly scathing.

- I hope Val's okay.

- That's not what I want to talk about.

I got an advance copy

of the story Andrea Ford wrote.

She hasn't turned it in.

She wanted comments from me.

I triedto talk her out of it.

Andrea Ford is

a cheap tabloid gossipmonger.

I thought it was abad ideahaving her

hang aroundthe set...

She said Val Waxman directed

the picture blind.

Throughout shooting he had psychosomatic

blindness. Was I wrongto deny that?

He shot the whole picture without

ever seeing it?

Otherwise, you'd have gotten

the movie you wanted.

She wrote that you knew

and helped him hide it.

Only the last few weeks.

I found out pretty much

after the boat had sailed.

And you didn't tell me.

I knew you'd be apoplectic and Val

couldn't affordto lose another job.

Under those circumstances, I...

You cared more about him

than you did about Galaxie.

I truly believed he could pull it off.

The two of you were seen kissing

passionately onthe set.

We were faking. We told his roommate

we'd gotten backtogether...

...so she wouldn't move back in

and find out he was blind.

Did you fall back in love

with your ex-husband?

No.

You cantell me the truth because it

really doesn't much matter now.

I think I never stopped loving him.

Whenthis story hits,

he'll never be employable again.

You don't needthe story.

I thinkthe reviewstook care of that.

Don't spend 30 seconds

on what those critics said.

They're the lowest level

of the culture.

Thistime they're right.

The movie is incoherent.

The performances are all over the place,

the camerawork is unfocused.

Worse has been said about my work.

Ijust eat another rat.

Jesus. I hope Ellie is okay.

I always liked Ellie.

Isn't she marryingthat Neanderthal,

Yeager?

Talk about blindness.

She was right under my nose for so long

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