Sunday (1997) 90% 1★

– What's it about your movie? I guess since we're scouting, I feel I have the right to know…if it doesn't bother you to tell me of course. (Madeleine is very firm, Oliver says nothing) Oh, look, that's the train yard down there. You should have a look. (They cruise down to a wasteland by the water. Madeleine click locks the doors shut with an automatic button. Oliver looks petrified.) Bit spooky around here isn't it? (Madeleine stops the car and looks squarely, challengingly at Oliver.) Sorry. You were about to tell me the story of your movie. (Her words have the weight of a death sentence. Oliver watches an outgoing train shunting through the yard. His shiny face, hit by a lone streetlamp, is like a big moon against the gathering twilight. The train breaks with a piercing sound of metal on metal.)
– It's about a guy who's – homeless. (Madeleine lets out a grunt and tilts her head with faint surprise. Has Oliver managed to win another reprieve? Is that actually what she's looking for?) Temporarily homeless. He's in a men's shelter, with about ten other guys. Run by a church. He's only been there a few weeks. Most of the guys are lifers. It's about him and them. How he tries to get his life back together.
– Fascinating. I didn't expect that. (For the first time since he got into the car, Oliver looks in control of himself. And for the first time, Madeleine softens.)
– Yeah. Fascinating.
– That's quite a change of direction. From your other work.
– Yeah.
– What sort of guy is he?
– What do you mean what sort of a guy? He's an ex-con, obviously, a child molester. I mean what else would he be doing in a shelter?
– Very funny.
– He's a regular guy. Middle Class. He had a good job, home, wife-- no kids. Thank God. I mean, given what happened to him. (Madeleine engaged now, and disarmed)
– What happened? What kind of job did he have?
– He was working for a big – well for IBM, as a matter of fact, upstate in Kingston. (Oliver more engaged himself) In tax accounting. He'd been with them almost twenty years. He was a real company man; decent salary, car, security, for life -till they fired him.
– Why'd they fire him? (Madeleine laughs)
– Why? No reason. They just up and laid off around fifty percent of their people. Cutting the flab.
– That's good. A very good idea for a story: a regular middle class guy who loses his job, and spirals downward. (she looks around) God you can fall a long way in this country. It's what terrifies me the most.
– Yeah.
– More than anything. This void you can just disappear into. Sometimes I wake up and I can't believe what I'm seeing. I feel I'm right on the brink of…