|
|
Out of the Woods DOWNLOAD (pdf)
SYNOPSIS
Matt Flemming (Jason London) is a young Los Angeles lawyer with a life that seems to be largely about material things. He drives a luxury car and has an elegant beachfront apartment that his high-maintenance girlfriend Linda (Meredith Salenger) wants to furnish with expensive artwork. Linda also has every intention of becoming Mrs. Matt Flemming – and soon – but he has resisted so far. The fact that Linda’s buddies, Charles (Sean Squire) and Vicki (Sandra Prosper), have recently gotten engaged only makes it harder for Matt to fight being steamrollered into commitment. Matt’s mother, Mrs. Flemming (Mel Harris) is pushing him in this direction, as well.
Matt, Linda, Charles and Vicki have a Las Vegas getaway scheduled, but the trip will have to wait because Matt’s demanding mother has a pressing task that only he can tackle. It seems that Matt’s eccentric grandfather, Jack Green (Edward Asner), has returned from years of world travel and has purchased 12,000 acres of land in a remote wooded area. He is living in a cabin that has no modern conveniences such as electricity, indoor plumbing and phone service. Mrs. Flemming’s concern is that Jack is squandering the family money, so she has taken the liberty of drawing up papers for Jack to sign that will give her control of everything. Matt’s mission is to get the old man to sign. Otherwise, Mrs. Flemming says, she might have to resort to subjecting her father to a competency hearing.
Matt drives to the remote area of California where Jack’s house is located. The nearest town boasts a population of only a few hundred. He parks his car in front of the house and out walks Jack with a warm greeting that takes Matt by surprise. Jack marvels at Matt’s vehicle, asks for the keys, starts the motor to hear the engine purr, then shuts it off and gets out, pops the hood to look at the engine, removes a part, locks the car doors with the electronic key chain that he’s still holding, then walks back into his house, slamming the door behind him. Only then does Matt realize that his grandfather has disabled the car and locked Matt’s briefcase of papers inside. And given that his cell phone does not work in so remote a location, the young man must walk into town in search of a working phone and a mechanic. The only mechanic in town is willing to fix Matt’s car, but it will take time to get a replacement key and a replacement part. Matt calls home to tell Linda his errand is going to take a little longer than expected. Another problem: There’s no hotel in town where Matt can stay. He walks back to Jack’s place and knocks, but Jack won’t let him in. Matt spends a restless night outside on Jack’s porch. Jack is amused.
The next morning, Jack offers Matt a bucket and suggests he go find a breakfast of berries in the woods. Matt isn’t exactly getting the bed-and-breakfast treatment. Later that morning, after Jack heads off into the woods with an axe, berry-stained Matt is trying to clean up out back when he hears activity in the front of the house. He goes around front to find the door wide open. He goes in and is surprised to find the interior of the house is immaculate and exquisitely furnished with religious and symbolic artifacts from around the world, beautiful paintings and hundreds of books. Also inside, he encounters a pretty young woman, Gwen (Missy Crider). She delivers groceries. Matt asks, “You have your own key?” “The door was open,” she answers. “It always is.”
Gwen gives Matt a ride back into town, but the news from the mechanic isn’t promising. He calls Linda to ask her to mail him a duplicate car key. Self-centered Linda frets not about Matt’s safety, but over the ruined Vegas trip. His errands all tended to in town, Gwen drives Matt back to Jack’s place. Matt isn’t looking forward to spending another night here, but he isn’t so self-pitying that he fails to notice Gwen’s beauty. He flirts a little and she invites him to dinner at her home a mile up the road. After Gwen leaves, Matt finds Jack in his woodworking shop. They argue for a while before Jack heads back into the woods. Matt follows, still trying to talk things out with the stubborn old man, who ditches Matt in the woods. Matt is unable to find his way out as darkness falls. He winds up missing his dinner date with Gwen and spending the night out in the elements.
The next morning, Matt eventually finds his way back to Jack’s. “It didn’t work,” Matt tells him. “I’m still alive.” To which Jack declares: “That’s the first spiritual thing I’ve heard you say. You feel alive. Last night you felt real fear. Now you’re experiencing real anger. For maybe the first time, you are finally alive. Kill you? Hell, I just saved your miserable life.” With that, he has given Matt much to think about.
When Gwen comes around with the day’s groceries, she is mad at Matt for standing her up. Matt tells her how Jack left him in the woods. She takes pity on him, brings him to her home where he can take a hot shower. While there, Matt meets Gwen’s young son Noah (Garrett Palmer), whom she is raising alone. Matt spends the better part of the day with Gwen and the boy. There’s a lot of chemistry here, even though Matt and Gwen are from very different worlds. When Matt returns, he finds Jack with three Native American friends in a small hut in a clearing. The men, in various stages of undress, are seated around steaming rocks. It’s a traditional “sweat lodge,” Jack explains. They’ve gathered there to celebrate Jack’s returning to the Indians more than 1,400 acres of their land. “For free?” Matt protests. “You can’t do that!” “Sure, I can,” Jack says. When Matt is invited to join them around the steaming rocks, he declines. He just can’t figure his grandfather out.
Later that day, things go from bad to worse. A car pulls up to Jack’s place and out step Linda, Charles and Vicki. Linda has brought the spare key and now expects Matt to join them on her newly planned alternative getaway at a spa in Yosemite. Matt explains that he can’t leave yet. Instead, they’ll all have to stay the night at Jack’s. Linda and her friends are mortified by the “primitive” conditions and annoyed when Jack insists that guys sleep in one room, girls in another. During the night, Linda plays the drama queen when she lowers herself to using the outhouse, only to leave with a painful splinter in her behind.
The next morning, Gwen stops by, as usual. Her arrival creates an awkward situation for Matt when Linda and Gwen meet. Linda instantly leaps to the right conclusion – that something is going on between Matt and Gwen – and she and her friends leave. It’s over between Matt and Linda – which actually isn’t a bad thing, once Matt thinks about it. Now it’s just Matt and Jack again. Despite the rocky start they got off to, they’re starting to get along, in large part because Matt is beginning to see a method to the old man’s apparent madness, wisdom in his seemingly crazy ways. Later that day, at the sweat lodge, Matt can be found by Jack’s side, stripped down and enjoying a good sweat. It is here that Jack finally tells Matt why he came back after years of world travel. He’s dying of lung cancer, but he wanted the chance to bond with the grandson he barely knew. Jack then says he’ll sign the papers that pass over control of the family money, but only if Matt, not Matt’s mother, is the executor of the estate.
Jack’s health is crumbling fast and, later that day, he has a heart attack. Gwen and Matt rush him to the nearest hospital, where Matt stays by his grandfather’s side until the scare is over. Afterward, they go back to Jack’s home. Matt’s car has finally been fixed. With papers signed, he can leave now, but something is keeping him. Could it be Gwen? He is a changed man, one who is unafraid of commitment and no longer out of place in this rustic setting. Matt tells his grandfather he’s thinking of staying. “I was toying with the idea of ‘gentleman farmer.’” “Now that’s a fine job,” Jack says. And the men hug. “I love you, Grandpa.” To which Jack says, ‘What’s not to love?”
-- HALLMARK CHANNEL --
|
