Fine Dining

Having just-turned 50, Martin Crum is having an extreme midlife crisis. He is bored beyond belief with his three decade-old job as host of an increasingly unpopular cooking show on a local cable station in New York City. He’s in a sorry state of reflection – depressed by his failure to move up the celebrity ranks, fearing cancellation of his show, is hardly recognized on the street anymore, he hates his graying hair and frumpy appearance as much as his moneyed ex-wife who left him because she considered him a relic a decade ago, and he’s always feuding with the neighbors in his apartment building.

Cantankerous at best, he simply hates his lot in life, blames the world for his woes and feels even more impotent while emotionally saddled with his estranged relationship with his rising star of a daughter, Samantha, who is at the top of her class at Columbia University, having been supported totally by her successful, ambitious real-estate investor mother. Samantha has been unduly jaded by her mom’s less-than-stellar opinion of her father.

Especially, he is salad green with envy at a beautiful thirty-three year-old, vivacious upshot, Madelaine Mason, whose brand new competing cooking show on the same channel became an instant regional sensation and is now going to be syndicated nationally, destined to be a smash hit. In Martin’s mind, even though the two had hardly interacted, Maddy learned everything she knows ‘from the master himself’ and he feels he is owed much by the about-to-be crowned queen of stove and plate. To boot, Maddy, also divorced, brings her wise-beyond-her-eleven-years daughter, Rebeka, against company policy, to work often and she’s always looking for Martin so she can engage in her favorite pastime - getting Martin’s goat. He’s an easy target and she does just that at every opportunity.

Maddy, more or less oblivious to Martin’s jealousy, overhears he’s going to be fired, and feeling sorry for him, offers him the job of Production Assistant for her new, heavily funded state-of-the-art show, “Fine Dining”. A blow to his inflated ego, in his first confrontation with Maddy, he acts insulted at such a suggestion (letting out how he feels he has been the major influence in her career - NOT) but he finally decides that survival is the most important thing considering his age and lack of appeal in the marketplace and he begrudgingly accepts the “demotion”. More ammo for his escalating personal crisis.

Tension builds as the two begin working together. Old versus new ideas over everything including how to prepare food ensue and new ideas, Maddy’s ideas, win out in the end.

The big show debut day arrives and Rebeka, in celebration of her mom’s success, adds to the tension as she takes her antagonizing of Martin to a whole new level. She always manages to reveal the many holes in Martin.

The show is an instant hit but, in a few months, as the oddest couple struggle to even be in the same room with one another, a rival cooking host on a competing cable network comes on to the scene, with an even slicker show and Fine Dining ratings dip sharply. Management is not happy. Nor is Maddy. Martin though, is basking in a little “I told you so” glow blaming the faltering show on not utilizing his old-school ideas.

The new-host-on-the-chopping-block is a handsome, charismatic 30-year-old named Corbin Nelson and upon meeting for the first time Maddy is smitten with him. When she decides to go on a first date, Martin’s true feelings are revealed now showing signs of the other kind of jealousy. Maddy’s interest in her own show starts to wane as she falls head-over-heels in love with Corbin, leaving more of the workload to Martin as she lunches and takes entire afternoons off with her new beau. Her show is then about to be cancelled when at the management meeting (where the axe would fall) Martin suddenly speaks up and challenges the team to try out his ideas to salvage the show, which include him being Maddy’s sidekick, for the next 4 weeks. Maddy is infuriated when management agrees and the two head off on a larger collision course, which reveals even more of their generational and personality differences.

To everyone’s surprise, including Martin’s, his ideas on the newly named “Fine Dining with Maddy and Martin”, actually work. He’s not only regained his form in front of the camera but he’s taken it to a whole new level, and the two come off amusingly, albeit honestly, adversarial, acting like a bickering old married couple, much to the audience’s delight. Their popularity skyrockets, setting ratings records, and management obviously decides to retain the show in the new format, expand its market, pour more publicity into it, offering the duo a lucrative long-term 50/50 contract. All is well in the land of cooking shows.

All the while, Rebeka is becoming more and more uncomfortable with her mom dating Corbin, sensing he is selfish and controlling with ulterior motives. She also senses that Martin has fallen in love with her mom and instead of making it her mission to escalate taking Martin to task on all his weaknesses, she begins to slowly huddle up with him where she so expertly reveals her mom’s strengths and weaknesses, and, above all -- love buttons – in the process. Her motive is to protect her mom and remove Corbin from the picture and soon, Martin begins melting and the pair become increasingly close. Martin inwardly admits he has learned a lot from Rebeka, and considers her wiser than most adults.

Corbin’s show is now rapidly losing traction as a result of the revamped Fine Dining Show so he decides to invite Maddy on as a guest. His sole motive is to regain his audience by making her look foolish on set and a trap has been set. Corbin would then create a publicity blitz including a viral Internet campaign based on the juicy humiliating clips from that show to diminish her credibility and ruin her show.

The morning of Corbin’s show Rebeka becomes ill at school and is rushed to the hospital. Martin brings Maddy to the emergency ward and the news is not good - Rebeka is being tested for cancer. During their first embrace (Martin comforting Maddy) Maddy’s cell phone rings. It’s Corbin screaming that she is late for his show. Maddy, in between convulsive sobbing, tries to explain what has happened and why she forgot about the show and all you can hear is Corbin yelling that a lot of money has been spent on advertising this show and this is going to make him look like a fool. Corbin’s true colors are now fluorescing and Martin grabs her phone and ends the call.

Tragically, later that evening, with Martin still with Maddy, the final diagnosis is delivered – it’s leukemia. It will progress rapidly with no hope for remission. Maddy is faced with the choice of continuing her show or staying at home to spend her time caring for her daughter. Martin knows what her choice will be and is comfortable with the idea his stint as her co-host, and probably his last hurrah in television, is now over. Martin is also devastated by the news as he has now become very attached to Rebeka. To his surprise though, a few days later Maddy asks him to temporarily host the show in her absence (she believes that is what Rebeka would want) and he reluctantly agrees while feeling deep down that he knows he plays second fiddle sidekick to the real star of the show.

No sooner is Martin transitioning to be the solo host of M & M Fine Dining, he learns from his ex-wife that Samantha has had a serious drug problem for months and has dropped out of school, and is now living as a prostitute on the streets to support her habit. Her mom has disowned her. After many days of trying to find her in a seedy part of town (while trying to see Rebeka and support Maddy) he finally finds and rescues her, forcibly bringing her back to his place to live. Martin decides to quit the show (after being told he faces the threat of a lawsuit for breach of contract) so he can be with his daughter to help her dry out. The process is very difficult on both dad and manic daughter as they fight what inevitably appears to be a losing battle with addiction. During this process they discover what makes each other tick and Samantha learns that her dad is not the total loser her mom portrayed him to be. Most importantly, it’s her father who is the one risking his job and sanity trying to save her. While this is going on, Rebeka’s health is rapidly declining, she is now in respite care with only weeks to live. Martin is torn about how he can help ‘both’ his daughters. Although he doesn’t know why, something is telling him that it’s time for Samantha to meet Rebeka and Maddy. He brings Samantha to meet them.

A miracle seems to unfold as Samantha witnesses how brave and positive the deathly sick eleven-year-old is. Instantly, she recognizes how her self-inflicted issues pale in comparison to Rebeka’s no-choice fate. Rebeka, in her adult-like wisdom, and not knowing any details, deeply senses the struggle Samantha is going through and makes it her last mission on earth to do whatever she can to help ‘Sam’ rise above it all.

The four of them hang out in Rebeka’s room every day. A new bond is immediately forming between Samantha and Rebeka while a strong bond is forming between Martin and Maddy as they discover that they are not really that much different. Maddy begins to bond deeply with Samantha who gets stronger every day as Rebeka weakens. So little time is left.

A day before her 12th birthday, with Maddy, Martin and Samantha by her side, Rebeka passes peacefully, with the most beautiful wish for her newly expanded family as her last utterance.

Months pass and the camera zooms in on a commercial street on the sign atop a small restaurant which states, “Fine Dining Inspired by Rebeka.” Underneath, in smaller letters, is “Established: M & M Crumb”

The camera pans down from the sign towards the big window. Martin, Maddy and Samantha are sitting at a table enjoying fine dining and each other’s company.