A feature film written by Tony Gapastione
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full film treatment here.
It was Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving. Beethoven’s Symphony no. 3 in E-flat major Op. 55 was playing ominously from an old record player filling the aging Atherton mansion. The long antique wood table was set perfectly for a seven course meal. The silverware was freshly polished and each place was perfectly adorned with a hand-written calligraphy name card for each of her three children and three grandchildren.
Dawne, 81, barks orders from her powder room. "Consuela! You found the recipe?” Consuela, 70, in the kitchen, rolls her eyes. “Si, Señora.” The turkey was being prepared in the usual way according to Dawne’s much beloved family tradition by her loyal, yet frustrated, caretaker.
Dawne sips red wine elegantly as she stares at herself in her bathroom vanity mirror. She sets her wine glass on her sink basin which is covered with a perfect line of seven prescription pill bottles. She removes her make-up, almost smearing it off like Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard. With her aging hands, she smoothes over her wrinkles and bags under her eyes. She stares at her reflection in the antique mirror, tears filling her eyes.
“I can’t take this anymore,” she mutters under her breath as she gulps down the rest of her red wine .
This was when she made the decision.
The next day her family would arrive and things would never be the same.