Untitled Bait

Authors: Jack
Location: Connecticut

“Untitled Bait”

Directed By Sydney Pollack
Written By Menno Meyjes
Music by James Horner

Principal Cast:

Conrad: Matt Dillon
Pollok von Blixen Hohenzollern: Kenneth Branagh
Millie: Grace Jones
Samuel: Laurence Fishburne
Nikita: Lena Olin
Kujo Chikako: Lucy Liu

Tagline: "Remember those movies that inspired a generation? Well this probably isn’t it, unless murder, blue-blooded but poor barons, peach farms, seaside retreats, James Dean fan clubs, alternate realities, dolls made of expensive fabric, homicidal geishas, and so-so television movies inspire you."

Synopsis: Nicholas and Mary Garret experience tragedy when their two teenage sons, Dave and Conrad, are involved in a murder. Buck is sentenced to death, and Conrad is so tormented by guilt that he attempts suicide by asphyxiation. When the film begins, Conrad has just returned home from a long stay in a psychiatric hospital, and he feels alienated from his friends and family. He meets the blue-blooded but poor Baron Pollok von Blixen Hohenzollern. They use some of Conrad’s money to purchase a peach farm in Georgia. There they meet Millie. Millie was forced to marry a man in town named Samuel. Samuel makes Millie feel she is unworthy of love and happiness. Millie helps them to plant the peaches, and keeps the farm together. Millie finds the strength to leave her husband, and together they start the most successful peach farm in Georgia. What the other two don’t know is that Conrad is still tormented by Buck’s death. He is still haunted by the lingering memory of his brother, which still controls him long after Buck’s death. Pollok and Millie find out, so all together they go to a seaside retreat in Kent, England. Among the people there, is a depressed woman, Nikita, who only talks about her membership of a James Dean fan club. After the retreat, they take Nikita to go to James Dean’s hometown where they are sucked into a vortex and dumped into an alternate reality. The reality is a hallway full of doors which all lead to different worlds. The worlds include: a boxing ring where Cabaret and the Godfather deck it out for Oscars, a never-ending bridge that goes over rivers, ponds, waterfalls and oceans from the tropics to the arctic, and a futuristic utopia inhabited by dolls made of silk, among others. They go into the futuristic utopia and find a dimension machine and are spit into Japan, where they meet Kujo Chikako, a geisha. Kujo Chikako soon falls in love with Conrad, but she is forbidden. Before they part, she gives him a kimono identical to the one she wears, which he doesn’t know is laced in toxin. She drinks a toxic cocktail, and the two both die. Millie, Pollok and Nikita see to his burial, and then move to Scotland and start a very profitable cashmere farming business. They all marry locals and have happy lives. They later sell their story and it is made into a
television movie that gets so-so reviews.

What the press would say:

An incredibly weird movie, with very good acting. Veteran singer and actress Grace Jones gives a fabulous performance as battered and funny Millie. The very distinct looking Jones ads a twist to a role that would otherwise be another “Color Purple” performance. She is best known for the Bond Flick “A View To Kill”, where during a love scene, she flipped Bond over, insisting on being on top. She is just as upfront and forceful in this performance. And, arguably the best performance of the movie: Lucy Liu as a murderess geisha. Lucy Liu echoes Gong Li in “Memoirs of a Geisha” and herself in “Kill Bill Vol. 1” But, she also loves him. If she cannot have him, no one can, so she kills him. You see her weeping, then drinking her poison cocktail. She dies with a smile on her face, as she knows she will see her love again. Otherwise the movie’s screenplay is very imaginative and original, although very odd.

Awards Potential:

Best Supporting Actress: Lucy Liu
Best Supporting Actress: Grace Jones
Best Original Screenplay