You Are Alone

As human beings we are social creatures. We need the company of others of our own kind. Only the most pathological of people are completely content in the absence of the company of others. With this need for social interactions also comes numerous side emotions, at the top for most is the desire to be accepted. Shame occurs when you are forced to do something that may not be socially acceptable but still out of overriding necessity you must. In the film ‘You Are Alone’, written and directed by Gorman Bechard, the audience is given a fly on the wall view of two people as their inner most feelings are bared. This film provides the audience with a new look at what true intimacy is; how two damaged people given the right time and place, can profoundly affect each other. It is an extremely verbal film, but the words are well crafted and excellently presented. While dark in its fundamental nature this is a very well done piece.

Daphne (Jessica Bohl) is a girl in her mid to late teens who is just trying to make her way in the world. High school is unbearable and primarily out of boredom and financial need she turns to prostitution. As the film opens we see Daphne in her professional guise of Brittany, a Lolita in a school girl outfit. Her client inquires if her panties are white cotton and she assures him that they are regulation. He wants her to urinate on him but his instructions are grossly specific. She then goes out of the seedy hotel on to her next job. In another seedy room she meets up with Buddy (Richard Brundage). This room holds special significance for him; he used to use it for between class assignations with his wife before they were married back in college. She offers to change into her school girl outfit, Buddy tells her it isn’t necessary but Daphne goes into the bathroom. When she comes out wearing her outfit Buddy offers her compensation but Daphne is surprised. She thought that this was payoff for Buddy not telling her parents about her secret life. As she lies on the bed waiting for the moment that she has experienced all too often Buddy fixes a drink and we go into flashbacks of their lives.

Instead of going right to the sex Buddy asks Daphne/Brittany how things usually get started, how she could do this, have sex with strangers,. At first the answers are superficial, she tells him that she just likes sex but doesn’t like having sex with boys her own age. They are too fast and then tell everyone in school. At least with her clients they don’t brag about having sex for money. Slowly, the conversation gets deeper, more emotional. As Daphne tells Buddy how much she likes her job, how it doesn’t really affect her, we see a flashback scene of her sitting naked on a bathroom floor crying. The walls between the two are still up but brick by brick they are pulled down. Daphne professes to just selling fantasies but actually she is combat her own inner demons. Buddy begins to talk to her about the various initials used in her ad to describe what she will do. It is almost comical if it wasn’t for the fact that a middle aged man is talking to an underage girl about sex acts. Instead of engaging in physical intimacy they dance around getting down to business with a conversation that becomes far more intimate and revealing. Eventually we see the turning point for both characters. Buddy is at a friend’s bachelor party and the evening’s entertainment turns out to be Brittney, nee Daphne. It turns out that Buddy is her neighbor and now in the position to disclose her hidden life. Not only does Daphne open up to Buddy but the conversation turns to Buddy opening up. Daphne remembers his late wife Sarah and how she used to make her cookies. This small thing helps to bond these two lonely individuals.

Gorman Bechard does an excellent job here both as writer and director. He even gave a credit to Jessica Bohl for additional dialogue. The film has the look and feel of an off Broadway play, one of those theatrical productions I used to love so much to see in Greenwich Village here in New York. It isn’t polished and it shouldn’t be. A story like this does best when it is honest to the premise. The feeling developed here is one of a two way therapy session. Two people who have had their perceptions of each other drastically change and now find out something deeper about their inner, personal view. The pacing is wonderful. Bechard builds on each moment, one on the next. Every scene uncovers something deeper in the psyche of these two people. Flashbacks show that they were on the peripheral of each other’s lives, neighbors like so many who have no clue to what the other is really doing or feeling. There is also a fantastic use of lighting. As the story goes on the light becomes brighter more focused on the bed. The two people are in shadow coming slowly into the light as the exposition increases. This is such a well crafted piece that even though the themes are rough it is done with taste, real emotions and tenderness. Even the musical score is done well, there underlying the emotions but never in the way.

For a two person, play-like film like this the cast is crucial. Fortunately, they picked the right actors for the task. Jessica Bohl is incredible. She is beautiful in that girl next door way instead of the pop culture’s glam perspective. As an actress she manages to tread the thin line here between the lost girl using sex to numb the pain of her daily life and the world wise hooker with a heart of gold. She opens up her character with control, going from the use of sexual euphemisms to more frank discourse. Her presentation of Daphne is one that juxtaposes a girl desperately in need of some form of control with one who feels lost and alone. In the scene where she is sitting naked on the bathroom floor she looks so helpless, so lost that the audience can not help but to become emotionally invested in her character. In the story she uses a large number of colored gel bracelets. She has her customers snap one off; the color determining what will be done. For Daphne this was a simulacrum of control. For Richard Brundage this is a gentle but forceful performance. Here he is a middle age man in a hotel room with a pretty young woman but he talks to her. His need for relief is emotional not sexual. She initially tells him about her other clients but soon move into motivation. He goes deeper and deeper into what has gone wrong in his life. While her motivation may seem shallow it is perfect for a girl that age, life is shallow without the experience that age will bring.

This is an excellent film that may not be for everyone but is more than worth having in any serious collection. It is not what you would expect. Instead of graphic sex you get a look at the hearts and minds of two very dysfunctional people. It is a conversation driven piece but that is the strength of the film. I was glued to the screen getting into the lives of the characters.

Posted 02/27/07