Into the Arms of Angels

We meet Joe, thirty-ish and fair-haired, in early September of 2006 as he stocks the Farmer’s Market stand for his family’s business, County Dairy. Though outwardly successful – married to level-headed registered nurse Chris, working as County Dairy’s head of operations, and blessed with useful counsel from close friend Toby and kindly uncle Otto – Joe is an emotional cripple.  His unprocessed grief over the 9/11 death of his beloved cousin, Gabriel, taints his marriage and his professional life and threatens to upend his unstable equilibrium. The story, covering one week in September of 2006, follows Joe through a series of traumatic incidents that first forces him to confess his grief aloud and then provides him a miraculous key to recovering his peace of mind. Through interspersed flashbacks, the audience learns about Joe’s close, lifelong friendship with Gabriel, the events that sent Gabriel to Manhattan in September 2001, and the wrenching circumstances of Gabriel’s death.  A final flashback at story’s end shows the trigger event for the guilt that has haunted Joe for five years, although it is unclear whether Joe himself ever fully understands it. Act I takes place in and around Madison, Wisconsin.  Joe’s interactions with Chris, Toby, Otto, and Joe’s odious boss, Phil, lay out the characters’ backstories and inform the audience of two crucial facts: Joe’s and Chris’ wedding anniversary is a few days away, and County Dairy has received take-over bids from two different food conglomerates. The events of Act II, also set in and around Madison, propel Joe toward crisis.  First, Joe and Chris clash catastrophically on their anniversary.  On the next day, Joe suffers a humiliating loss of face while arguing at work with Phil.  Joe decides on a desperate impulse to entertain the take-over offer from a company based in New York. Act III takes place in Manhattan, where Joe and Otto have traveled to make a sales pitch.  Shocked by the potential buyer’s callous response, Joe snaps and suffers a seizure.  From his hospital bed, Joe finally confesses to Otto the reason for his heartsick self-flagellating over Gabriel. Otto returns home before Joe and meets with Chris.  Joe follows a few days later. Joe’s cab ride to La Guardia airport is the film’s emotional center.  In a lengthy speech, the driver tells of his steel-worker nephew, Joey, who suffered terrible PTSD from his work in lower Manhattan.  Hearing the solution to Joey’s problem – suggested to Joey by a counselor at Ground Zero – is an epiphany moment for Joe.  Serendipitously, has been gifted the means of moving his life back toward health. (The story told by the cabdriver is true.  I read it in a newspaper in September of 2002.) Act IV, a brief coda, takes place in Madison. Joe finds Chris at her place of work.  Their conversation is painfully stilted but ends on a hopeful note.  While offering no pat solutions, the story suggests that Joe and Chris might eventually heal their marriage. The closing scenes find Joe chatting with Toby and Phil back at County Dairy. Through actions rather than words, Joe makes it clear that he is at long last free to go on living without Gabriel.