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Connor

Connor is one of the good guys. His mission is simple; to find true love. The search hasn't been very fruitful and his faith is faltering. The story is picked up as Connor is picking up his best friend, Corey from work. As he walks into the store, he drops a spot of change into the palm of a vagrant called "Tapping Tony". A high school chum named Steve corner's Connor, bragging about his upcoming wedding.. Connor relates the story to Corey, expressing his disappointment that Steve would be lucky enough to find someone who loves him, even as he continues to be a womanizer and a fraud. At this point, the story begins to be narrated by an off-screen voice that calls himself God. God illustrates to the audience that Connor's life has been plaged with "the wrong girl" and he has become something of a cynic in the arena of love and romance. When we meet Connor, it is God who introduces us, as well as to the other characters in the story. Through God we also meet Corey, Connor's neighbor and best female friend. She has been Connor's shoulder throughout all his romantic pitfalls and is where Connor gets much of his relationship advice. The problem with that is her idea of love is a warm body and a long night. Indeed God says Corey is a "harlot, but you gotta lover her". It is Corey's misguided view of romance that ultimately leads Connor on his collision with fate.

God also introduces us to Mike, Connor's cantankerous, filthy minded drinking buddy. Mike offer's Connor an escape but at the same time he is what Connor forsees for himself; a lonesome life of bitterness and drinking.

We learn that Connor's cynicism has caused him to place the blame for his lacking in love on a Higher Power. He believes in a God that's amused by what Connor calls cruel and unusal punishment. One character that God makes little mention of is "Tapping Tony". Throughout all the bad and ugly that Connor endures in his quest for love, his true character is revealed in the empathy he shows towards Tony.

Through the story, God reveals to the audience all the chances he's given Connor to meet the girl he's been looking for. He explains the run-ins with the girls who broke Connor's heart as signs that Connor was on the wrong track.. He warns us that his efforts have become in vain and he's organizing one final sign that Connor will be sure to notice. God reveals to Connor one girl in particular under several strange circumstances that are, to the audience, obvious signs from above. Connor, however, misses the signs and, in a fit of rage, scribbles a letter to the Almighty, accusing him of playing favorites with the people who are not deserving, accusing him of forgetting those who try their best. He finally challenges God to prove his existence and plan. Connor folds the letter, cracks open a dusty Bible and realizes that he has opened it to the book of Job. "How appropriate," he miffs as he inserts the letter and replaces the book on the shelf.

The signs start out subtle. At a bar, out with another friend, Connor notices a beautiful girl standing alone. The next few moments are spent trying to talk himself up to approaching her. In the background we see Tapping Tony again. We see Connor interact with him with the same compassion he has shown him previously. We also see the girl locked in conversation, now, with another man. Noticing this, Connor's demeanor changes. He instantly changes moods and loses what ambition he had. But a glimmer of hope! When the man the girl is with walks away, she flashes a smile at Connor who is held breathless, for just a moment. The moment passes as the man returns and Connor retreats home, broken, cynical and even angrier now. All the while, God interjects his opinion, arguing his plan, talking much like a sport's commentator would as he watches Connor sulk in his drink. Later, Connor's rage builds as he hears Corey in the throes of yet another romantic interlude.

We follow Connor through a series of last-ditch efforts to find love. He peruses online singles, frequents club after club and sifts through a bevy of not-the-ones. Connor is disgusted, frustrated and ready to give up. He and Corey are out to dinner when God's plan begins to, once again, take shape in subtle fashion. Their server sidles up to the booth. When Connor looks up, it is the girl from the bar, the one with the smile. He lets out with the first thing that comes to his mind "You're the girl with the smile!"

She laughs. "My name is Mason. I'll be your server. And yes that was me at the bar that night".

" She has a name", Connor thinks to himself. And with that simple introduction, Connor knows who she is. He and Corey order drinks and he nervously attempts to make converstion with Mason. She smiles, giggles and then walks away from the table to get the order. The two wait, talking about the strange coincidence, as God addresses the audience. After some time, Connor decides to approach Mason for her phone number. He walks to the hostess stand and asks a waiter to talk to Mason. The waiter, Oscar, tells him Mason had an emergency and had to leave work. He'll be taking over their table, he says and when Oscar comes to the table, Corey does what she is famous for. She flirtatiously "orderss the waiter's phone number to show Connor "how it's done", then chides Connor for not being assertive enough to ask Mason for her number right from the get-go.

Later that night, Connor is sitting in his apartment, listening to rain pouring down and Corey poring over her newest visitor, the waiter from the restaurant, "Oscar". Frustrated, yet again, he jumps up, grabs his car keys and pulls out of the driveway, on a mission to clear his mind. . His nighttime drive takes him to the beach where he encounters a vehicle off in a low ditch with hazard lights flashing. Outside, huddled under a tattered umbrella is the waterlogged driver. It is Mason. Her hair is matted down and she is drenched. Connor stops and rushes to help her. He looks at her as she smiles and thanks him for his kindness. He is dumbfounded at his luck and just begins to ask her for a phone number when she explains why she's out in the South Florida rain.

"I was supposed ot go out to dinner with this guy I am seeing. He cancelled at the last minute so here I am, driving home from the place we were supposed to meet all by myself. Thank God you came along".

A pang of anger shoots through him and he is awash with disappointment, knowing that someone has beat him to her heart. Again, he feels slighted by the Hand of God, thinking to himself that he would never cancel on a date with her.

His midnight adventure is not over yet. Soaked, he begins to ease back onto the road only to see a shadowy figure standing in the rain. He hits the brakes and notices it is Tapping Tony standing there, motionless. Connor offers him a ride which he gladly accepts.

To Connor, Tony begins to speak: "Lost my way I reckon. Ever lost yo' way boy. Cause you sho' don't look like you got biness out here on a rainy night like dis."

Connor sighs and tells Tony that he doesn't know the half of it. The two discuss women and fate and God and faith and before Connor knows it, and without realizing he was really even driving, they arrive at a downtown street corner.

"Dis wer' I gits off, boy" says Tony. He opens the door and steps out. He tips a ratty old fedora to Connor and reminds him to take heed of their conversation.

"I may be jes' an old black man to you with bottle caps on his tap shoes, but I knows it all, Connor. I knows it all".

Connor rolls away from the corner suddenly realizing that he never gave Tony his name.

The next day he and Mike are at their usual bar, scarfing down beer and bar fare when the two notice Mason walk in. Connor nearly chokes on a chicken bone when he sees her. She walks up to the table and thanks Connor for his chivalry. He invites Mason to sit down but she politely refuses, saying she is meeting the guy she is dating for the dinner they were supposed to have the night before. She walks away and Connor watches her ease through the bar, almost like she's floating her way through the tables and chairs. Connor keeps watching as she finds her date. Connor's jaw drops! It is the waiter that Corey brought home the night before, when he found Mason alone in a ditch in the rain. Connor is livid now. He storms out of the restaurant, headed for home. Back at his apartment, he flies into another tirade at God. Corey comes over to find out what all the commotion is. As Connor is explaining to Corey what happened, Mike comes running in out of breath. He explains that he stayed at the bar after Connor left and saw Mason and Oscar fighting.

"He just hauled off and hit her!"

Connor rushes downtown, finds Mason at the bar and tries to console her. Without warning, from behind, Oscar swings an unseen object, connecting with Connor's head. A burst of white light and searing pain are the last things Connor remembers. When he again opens his eyes, his vision seems clouded, and he squints to see a person sillhouetted by a blinding sunset. A voice he hears claims to be God. The voice explains to Connor that he is in a place called "somewhere in between". During this meeting between God and Connor, it is revealed that all his anger, bitterness and disbelief have been well received.

"You wanted proof", God says. "Here it is".

Connor is finally left with a choice to continue past the bonds of life to the unknown or return and face whatever happens. Connor chooses to return.

Months later, Connor is adjusting his bowtie as Mike plunders through Connor's bookcase. He knocks a book off the shelf and Connor picks it up. It is the Bible that Connor slipped the note into so many months ago. He notices, in fact, that the Bible has opened to where the letter is. He picks it up and whispers "Thank you" as he opens the letter. In place of all of Connor's scribbled handwriting are the words, "You're Welcome".

As the couple exits the church amid a flurry of rice and cheers, God wraps up the story with some words of wisdom:

"Don't ignore anything. Don't take anything for granted because nothing ever is".

As he finishes his narration, the face and form of God is finally revealed. It is the vagrant that Connor had always shown compassion to, "Tapping Tony". With bottlecaps on his shoes, he dances a little jig, tapping and scooting his way past the scene as the screen fades to black.

Table in the Back

"Table in the Back" revolves around 6 men and a woman. The woman, Tess Mulgrew is a recently divorced waitress, trying to start over after a malicious divorce which cost her much of her savings. her husband, an aspiring resturanteur named Stan has already divorced her, taken money and opened a business in the Carribean. She is left to start over, working as a waitress to make ends meet and trying desperately to meet a good man and put the past behind her. We find her at the beginning of the story, chatting it up with her mother on the phone. They are obviously talking about a man Tess has met whom her parents have yet to. At the end of the conversation Tess hangs up with her mother, looks at her reflection in the mirror and remarks "I don't even know his last name".

We fast forward 6 weeks and meet Jazz Selkirk and his motley group of adversaries. The group is made up of veteran thief Ike Medina; bookie Max Sandia; Stan Zolay, a money launderer; Steeny Mullano, a former juvenile deliquent and Levy Perreni, a small-time criminal-at-large. Jazz Selkirk has told this group that he has assembled them under the pretense of a large job worth in excess of 20 million dollars. They have all met at a local South Florida diner. As they file into the door, a hostess asks "Smoking or non", to which Jazz replies "Table in the back, please".

As the group is seated we discover that Tess is a waitress at the restaurant. She spots the group sitting down, quickly checks the schedule to see who's table it would be and negotiates a switch with that waitress so that she can work the table. She immediately approaches the table and introduces herself and takes the breakfast order.

As Tess leaves, the group launches into a conversation about trust, personal secrets and how they came to be employed by Jazz. Levy, Ike and Stan are the first to begin and the tale they spin becomes the first of several vignettes throughout the story. Their's hinges on a scam pulled on a fourth member of a group they assembled to carry out a heist against several drug dealers. Disguised throughout the entire ordeal and acting as if all were strangers, Ike, Stan and Levy managed to swindle the fourth person out of his share of the gain. That fourth person, unbeknownst to the others, turned out to be Jazz.

Steeny pipes up next, bragging , in classic juvenile thug fashion, about breaking into liquor stores and stealing money and booze. His story doesn't quite match the facts, and it is represented visually that his story is quite embellished. Nevertheless, it is discovered through Steeny's account that his biggest job, involving actually torching the store, turned out to be against Jazz's father's liquor store. His story continues, and he relates to the rest of the group that he made his way to Florida and to Jazz after leaving Juvenile Detention and trying to find work with Jazz, whom he heard about, as he says, "on the inside".

That story reveals more about Jazz and his relationship with his family, including his father, who was murdered, and his Uncle, Donny Allegheri, who committed the murder. Steeny tells the group he showed up at Danny's club, learned that he and Jazz had a falling out and was instructed to find him in Florida.

The conversation shifts to Max and how he came to be under the employ of Jazz. His story is one of illegal weapons trade and reveals yet another connection to Jazz's family. The weapons delivery Max helped hijack was slated for Jazz's Uncle and was supposed to be moved through Jazz's father's business. The hijacking was blamed on his lapse in security and the robbery cost Uncle Danny dearly. Jazz learned, by chance, that the hijacking was the reason for his father's murder. At that revelation, he severed ties with his Uncle, moved to Florida and vowed revenge.

Intertwining all these stories is the underlying theme that these men have been assembled to committ a robbery of epic proportions. Neither, however, knows the other has wronged Jazz . In fact, Jazz is the only one who knows anything. The conversation constantly turns to when and where the heist is to take place. The hours go by and the group grows restless. Jazz keeps stalling the group, letting them know that when the time comes, they'll know it. "Be ready for anything", Jazz keeps saying.

In a conversation with Tess, hours after they first sat down, jazz learns that the owner of the diner is slated to arrive for his monthly visit at any time. She lets the group know that he is not the nicest man and doesn't like a table with no turnover in 12 hours. Jazz promises her a "large tip".

Throughout the story, other scenes add to the mood and feel of the events transpiring. We witness an arrogant exchange of words and wits between the group and a hoity-toity restaurant goer at an upscale eatery days before the main story that culminates in the man's car being rigged to explode. In another scene, Jazz sends Steeny out with Ike to hold up a liquor store to prove his criminality and there is a continuing conflict between Jazz and Tess's harrassing manager. These sidebars act as comedic escape for the movie.

The crescendo comes when the audience, as well as the characters, least expect it. You'll recall that Tess was complaining to the group that her boss was set to arrive any minute, and would be displeased that their table had been occupied for so long. In the midst of Tess and the group chatting it up, the door of the diner swings open behind Tess. She turns and gasps. "Oh shit, he's here. The owner" A quick zoom to the door reveals the owners identity. Jazz's uncle, Danny Allegheri is standing in the door, framed by body guards. Jazz springs into action, yelling "Now! Now! Now!". He hops onto the table and draws his weapon. The rest of the group scramble to the doors and windows, blocking exits and customers hit the floor. A shot is fired, then the place erupts in gunfire. One-by-one, Jazz eliminates the members of his group, the very men who have come to trust him. He exacts his revenge on everyone, including his uncle, not saying anything. He hits the floor himself, crawling through the kitchen to a hidden safe. He unfolds a slip of paper and begins spinning the combination lock. Amid the glass breaking and shots fired, he hears the unmistakeable click of a gun cocking. A slow wide shot reveals Uncle Danny with a firm grip on a pistol, clutching a bloody hand over his stomach. "Nepote mio, say hello to your father for me", Danny says as he lowers the gun to Jazz's head. Another shot cracks and Danny slumps onto the floor. There stands Tess, smoking gun in hand, trembling slightly.

"What is your last name, anyway," she asks.

The final scene shows Tess and Jazz strolling down an avenue, hand in hand. He looks at Tess.

"The last place in the world I ever expected to be with you was in the Bahamas", Jazz says.

Tess replies, "I just need to take care of some business". The two walk into the door of a restaurant called "Stan Mulgrews". The two approach a hostess stand and a bahamian woman asks, in a thick accent: "Smoking or non?"

Tess smiles at Jazz "Table in the back, please".

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