The Envious Moon

The Envious Moon Synopsis Act One 2015 We meet Marc, an award-winning architect and successful artist. He and his brother Jack, and his parents Camille and Max, are in the family limo. They're all admiring the painting Marc has done of a magnificent but somewhat derelict house at Lake Como, Italy. Marc's father says it's a painting of his anniversary present to his mother. His parents think they are going to a movie so they can celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary as a family. The driver takes a shortcut through a bad part of town, and they go into a convenience store. The store gets robbed, and all four of them get shot. Marc wakes up in the hospital and learns that he is permanently blind and that the rest of his family have been killed. Back at his home in Houston, he is like a statue and won't let anyone in. Finally, his friend Reed breaks in and convinces him his life is not over. 2025 We meet Chandler. She's in bed with her husband, Alex, celebrating their third anniversary. They are supposed to go to Italy the next day. She has a big interview with a consulting company. Alex is going with her because they're going to vacation at Lake Como after. Alex and Chandler love each other, but they don't like each other. Their marriage is very unhappy. Alex is immature and impulsive. Chandler is smarter than he is and is very methodical. Chandler mourns that there is no more romance in her marriage. They make it to the plane, and Chandler squeezes past Marc, who is sitting on the aisle and wearing his dress like he's ready to go to the beach. Chandler takes her place next to the window, but Alex never sits down between them. He says he has an upset stomach and he's going to run to the bathroom in first class. Chandler and Marc start talking and flirting. She accuses him of being an actor because he's so nice-looking. She starts calling him Hollywood. When he finds out she's going for a communications interview, he starts calling her Newsflash. Alex hasn't come back. Chandler is not worried because she thinks he's pulling an unfunny trick, as he often does. She does ask the flight attendant to find him. The plane starts to push back from the gate. Chandler starts texting Alex with no response. Then she tries to call him. She gets a recording that the number is no longer in service. The flight attendant reports the captain that they have a missing passenger but that, oddly, the manifest is correct and shows everyone is in their seat. The captain calls the FBI, and they say they are aware but not to worry about it. We see Alex walking through the airport, ignoring Chandler's texts. He exits the airport at the exit that says Uber Exit and gets in a black van that drives off. Chandler discovers that Marc is blind. When she marvels at how well he gets along, he tells her he just quit his job teaching the blind at a school for the blind how to live life. The flight attendant returns after the plane takes off and tells Chandler a search has revealed her husband is not on that plane, not at the gate, or anywhere at the airport. Act Two 2015 Marc tells his fiancé, Gia, that he can't marry her because he does not know who he is other than just a blind man. Marc tells his Orientation and Mobility Specialist, who has been teaching him, that he approves of her recommending him for a position teaching the blind, since he has been doing so incredibly well. 2025 Chandler begins to cry angry tears. How could Alex do this to her? Marc offers to help her because he knows what it feels like to be all alone in a crisis. At the airport in Milan, they meet with an FBI agent who tells them Alex has chosen to go into the witness protection program without Chandler. Chandler knew he got caught up in something illegal at work, but she did not know he had been arrested and offered immunity if he would testify. She is livid that he did not tell her or discuss it with her. We see Alex in a cheap motel on the phone arranging to pay a man to go get Chandler in Italy because he has changed his mind. He can't live without her. IMarc goes with her to the expansive two-bedroom suite the company she's interviewing with has reserved for her. They continue to bond, and it is decided he will stay in the other bedroom that night instead of traveling from Milan to Lake Como where he lives. Chandler wakes up in the night not feeling well. She takes a pregnancy test she has been carrying around. She's pregnant. Chandler goes to the living area to look out the window. She's crying. It wakes up Marc, who comforts her. They end up spooning in Marc's bed the rest of the night. Marc tells Chandler he has learned of a new procedure that restores sight. He has an appointment in two weeks, but he is reluctant. He doesn't want to wake up in the hospital blind again. Chandler tells him she will go with him to the appointment if he will keep it. They decide Chandler will stay with Marc for the two weeks until the appointment. Marc lives in an award-winning tiny house he designed in college, on the property of the magnificent house his father bought for his mother for their anniversary. It is the house in the painting he did for his father; his family was looking at in the limo before they died. He shows the house to Chandler, and they dream about restoring it together when his sight gets restored. They go to the big house one evening and are getting amorous outside, so they decide to go inside. There's a man inside who says he's going to take Chandler with him. Chandler turns off the lights, and Marc and the man scuffle. The man shoots Marc, who crashes into a big antique that falls on him. As the man drags Chandler out the door, she sees Marc under the antique, and she thinks he's dead. Marc has successful surgery and has his sight restored. Act Three The man who kidnapped her was hired by Alex, who changed his mind about living without her. When she gets back to the US, she assumes a new name and stays with him because she has her baby and vowed she would never be a single mother like her mother was. She and Alex argue all the time. One day, he comes home with the motorcycle, a purchase they have not discussed. Alex ends up storming out after a very heated argument. Meanwhile, Marc has gone to Italy to find the man Chandler interviewed with. He can't remember the man's name, but he does remember where his office is. The man doesn't know where she is. Back in the US, Alex has a fatal motorcycle accident. After looking in all the places Chandler might be in Italy to no avail, Marc returns home. He has the news on while he goes through his mail. There is a story about motorcycle safety in Texas. They interviewed the widow of a man. The lower third says Julia Lampkin, but when Marc hears her voice, he feels certain it is Chandler. Marc and his best friend, a partner at his architectural firm, set up a fake interview for a communications consulting assignment. His partner contacts"Julia" for an interview. When she arrives and sees Marc for the first time, she is confused because she thought he was dead. Marc spends most of the interview with his eyes closed, listening to her voice. Finally, he asks her,"A very important question". He says, "What is your soft drug of choice?" It was a joke they made while they were flirting on the airplane. Chandler responds, "Coke Zero! Oh, Hollywood, it's me!” She explains that she thought he was dead, and they catch up on the major details. Marc asks her if she can feel the chemistry he feels and would she continue to explore their relationship. He tells her he never restored the house in Italy because he just couldn't do it without her. They decide to go to Italy. In the last scene Marc’s contented happy face dissolves into the same contented happy face, but it's an oil painting. And as a camera back up, we see that it's an oil painting of the restored house in Italy with Marc, Chandler, and three children in the front yard.