Be Happy for Me

Institute History

  • 1992 January Screenwriters Lab

Description

Two brothers, Norman and Phil, meet at their father’s funeral in Milwaukee. They haven’t seen or heard from their father in more than thirty years, though they have remained in touch with one another.

Norman, in his early fifties, is a staid New York investment banker with “one wife, one kid, one address, one mailman” for all these years. He’s bored, having frittered away his life managing money for dowagers, and envies his younger brother Phil, a thrice married California divorce attorney (became a divorce attorney in self-defense) who can’t seem to get his life together. Phil, on the other hand, loves and admires his older brother as the only constant, stable, continuing, sane part of his life.

Off they go to Aruba, on a vacation, just the two of them to get reunited, have fun, and reassess their lives.

Into the picture, pissed as hell at Phil, enters Elizabeth, Phil’s soon to be third ex-wife. It is soon revealed that Norman has been in love with her for years. And now, is prepared to do something about it.

Their trials and tribulations make for a character-rich comic adventure, set on the sands of Aruba.

Credits

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