A lonely professional woman is betrayed by her eccentric brother for falling in love with a tradesman. 

SYNOPSIS:

FINDING NORMAL

Denise Kohne

It is 1984, the heyday of advertising in Chicago, which is a comedy of commerce. Leigh is the lead researcher for an outlandish agency, despite being socially unadjusted from a sweet but smothering upbringing. In a focus group for dog food, she sees Dave. Dave has eyes that make women compulsively touch their hair. The focus group begets a television spot full of puppies. Leigh, drunk in the client lounge, tells her colorful co-worker Peter a secret: she’s a virgin. And she’s never had a boyfriend. Or basically, a friend at all. The production implodes and puppies scatter. Peter helps a slurring Leigh leave after the production ends, and they find a Weimaraner puppy crying in the dark. Leigh takes him home, and later is berated by her neurotic brother Charles, whose self-esteem issues are overcompensated by comic, highbrow, literary bravado. Leigh defies him; she’s keeping the puppy. She names him Larry.

Charles cares for Dad, a legendary war hero and inventor, who is mentally diminished. His favorite thing to do is scratch lottery tickets, lovingly supplied by his family. Leigh’s younger sister, Nikki, just graduating college, is engaged to Marc, who comes from money. Leigh fits dinners with her family into a stressful series of work assignments that push the boundaries of misogyny and profiling. Meanwhile, Larry is destroying her apartment. At puppy class, she is shocked to see Dave with his dog, Sammie. With great courage, she makes conversation and they walk home in the same direction. And run into each other in the park. And eat ice cream. They are falling in love. Charles, meanwhile, spirals. Dad’s residual payments for Super Elastic Bubble Plastic have stopped, and Charles, who has never had a job, has to find employment with a series of pathetic jobs including flea market sales and fish monger.

With great reservation, Leigh introduces Dave to Charles and Dad at a picnic. Leigh kept Dave a secret, and he is hurt. Charles pushes every childhood button to get Leigh to breakup with Dave, because he’s not worthy of entering their family gene pool. She does it, and it is particularly cruel. She refocuses on her pathetic work life. After a time, she comes unannounced to pick up Dad’s discharge papers, as she’s filing for his disability. Charles does not appear to be home; Dad says there are papers in Charles bedroom. She finds papers…snippets of papers piled in shoe boxes…that are all Charles’ bravado declarations. Quotes he stole. “A true German can’t stand the French, yet willingly drinks the wine.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. “Soldiers were made on purpose to be killed.” Napoleon Bonaparte. Charles is a lie, and Leigh confronts him with fury. She vows, despite Nikki’s upcoming wedding, to never speak to him again. He continues odd jobs, and works in a greasy burger stand during a beach volleyball tournament. As Charles gives a customer a hot dog, it’s stolen by a big white dog: Sammie. Sammie runs through the tournament, Dave follows, Charles follows and eventually gets tangled in a net and knocked out. He wakes to Sammie licking his face…The wedding is held on the grounds of Marc’s family’s mansion on Lake Michigan. Leigh keeps her promise, ignoring Charles. Towards the end of the evening, we find her staring out at the lake. Charles is behind her, and asks to apologize. She rants without turning. He offers that he’s gotten help. She turns, and he introduces his analyst, Dave. Love explodes. And Dad, who has received a scratch-off lottery ticket from Dave, is a winner.

Finding Normal is a comic glimpse into how we are all led to believe untruths by advertising, culture and foolish power. The only thing that is real is love, and it is love that is the soul of genius.

FINDING NORMAL