An Average Nobody

Feature Film · 111 pages · by Shawn Retherford

A directionless pot-smoking college dropout inherits half of his estranged father's failing nursing home just as a drug debt, a predatory developer, and an old mob-connected family friend all collide on his doorstep.

Crime Comedy Character Driven Crime Drug/Alcohol Abuse Ensemble Cast Period Violence

Story Breakdown

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The script has been edited since this breakdown was made.

Story

What happens

Genre

Crime comedy

Subgenre

Coming-of-age dramedy

Tone

Wry, laid-back Florida slacker comedy shading into mob caper

Central conflict

Danny must decide whether to save his late father's struggling nursing home from debt, embezzlement, and a predatory developer while a drug debt he didn't incur puts his life in danger, with a mob-connected family friend steering him through all of it.

Inciting incident

Danny's stepmother Cheryl leaves a message that his estranged father Walt has died of an apparent heart attack, forcing Danny out of his party-house limbo and into his father's unfinished business.

Character

Protagonist

An aimless twenty-something stoner drifting between house parties and couches who suddenly becomes half-owner of his dead father's assisted-living facility

Want

To avoid responsibility, stay high, and make the various threats around him (debt collectors, lawyers, grief) go away with minimum effort

Need

To actually show up for something -- his father's unfinished legacy and the people who depend on it -- instead of coasting past it

Flaw

Avoidance; he physically runs or checks out (sunglasses, headphones, weed) whenever something gets emotionally real

Antagonist

A polished local real-estate developer working with a crooked judge and a dirty ex-cop to seize Sunrise Manor and its adjacent land for a condo project

Opposing force

Corporate/legal pressure to force a sale, compounded by a separate, unrelated threat from two violent Lakeland debt collectors chasing money Danny's roommate owes

Personal stakes

Danny's physical safety (armed debt collectors), his inheritance, and his chance to make peace with who his father was

External stakes

The residents of Sunrise Manor losing their home to condo developers, and Cheryl's financial exposure in the estate

The 8 main characters and 16 minor characters (on the Minor tab) have been added to this script’s Characters list, with whatever the script gave us about each of them. Open one to change anything or to fill in the rest.

Structure

Midpoint

Kristen's car nearly runs Danny down outside the restaurant, and in the aftermath Sal and Frankie realize her father is Judge Harlan Davenport, the man sitting on the land ruling -- connecting the ex-girlfriend subplot directly to the main land fight.

Climax

Danny hands over a payoff briefcase to Ricky and Cliff as bait; Frankie's crew then raids the Lakeland pair's motel room, capturing them along with their Miami supplier Alex Ruiz.

Ending

Fully resolved: the land purchase goes through with Cheryl financing it, the embezzling manager Blodgett is quietly neutered and kept on under new oversight, Ricky/Cliff/Alex are implied to be permanently dealt with by Sal's people, the developer backs off under threat of exposure, and the film closes on a triumphant Sunrise Manor sunset cruise with Danny and Sarah together.

Act turns

Act One break ~p20
Danny meets Vic and Cheryl at the law office, learns he's half-owner of Sunrise Manor, and under Sal's guidance agrees to go work there undercover as a laborer, pulling him into his father's world.
Act Two break ~p75
After the embezzlement is exposed, Kristen's judge father is revealed as the one blocking the land case, and Ricky pulls a gun on Danny at Sunrise, Danny pretends to fold to the developer and sets up a sting with Sal and Frankie to reclaim the money.

Themes

Inheriting a parent's unfinished obligationsFound family versus biological familyOld-world loyalty against corporate greedGrowing up by accident rather than intentionThe gap between who a father was and who his kid thought he was

Comparable titles

Get ShortyA Bronx TaleJackie BrownDonnie Brasco

Key scenes

INT. TOBY BARLOW'S HOUSE - LATER
Danny learns of his father's death mid-party, the event that yanks him out of his drifting life.
EXT. HOUSE PARTY - CONTINUOUS
Sal Catalano introduces himself to Danny, establishing the mentor/mob figure who will steer the rest of the story.
EXT. MARINE SUPPLY SHOP - CONTINUOUS
Discovery of the kilos in Toby's car trunk escalates Danny's personal danger and locks Sal into protecting him.
EXT. VACANT LOT - CONTINUOUS
Ricky pulls a gun on Danny and Luis shoots Cliff; the stakes turn physically real and force the counter-scheme.
EXT. BAYFRONT PARK - DAY
Danny appears to capitulate and sign away Sunrise Manor, the key piece of the sting against the developer and the Lakeland pair.
EXT. CLEARWATER MARINA - DAY
The sunset cruise closes every plot thread -- Sunrise Manor saved, Danny and Sarah together, Sal and crew vindicated.

What was unclear: The script plants a suggestion that Walt's death may not have been purely natural (the lingering cop at the crash scene, and Frankie later 'finding something' in Walt's old file) but never resolves or even names what that something is -- it reads as a deliberately dangling thread rather than an oversight, but it's worth flagging since the writer may want to pay it off or cut it. The exact fate of Ricky, Cliff, and Alex is left euphemistic ('you won't be seeing those punks around here anymore') rather than shown, consistent with the film's comic tone but worth noting as unresolved on the page.

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