Tightwad

Cocky, tight-fisted HAROLD MEIZER (30) invites his fierce, big-hearted girlfriend ANN to move in with him, part 1 of his master plan to scrimp for an early retirement. Part 2 is moving up at “Apptitude” from IT support to accountant, leaving behind prankster frenemy KIARA (27). In the office of THOMPSON (60), Apptitude’s crafty CFO, Harold is pressured to use customers’ personal financial data to optimize an unethical billing algorithm, in exchange for Apptitude’s funding of Harold’s CPA training. Ann, fed up with Harold’s miserly ways, walks out on his fancy-restaurant marriage proposal. On the way to drink off his rejection, Harold stumbles into an argument with salty bag lady MAUDE (50) and street girl JAZZ (20), which turns into Harold hiring Maude for odd jobs at his house to prove she’s not just a lazy drunkard. Ann returns for a possible rapprochement, but Harold blows it again, and even Maude leaves him after he chews out a fundraising Little Leaguer for wasting his property taxes. Kiara sends Harold a video of marriage jokes, containing a hidden virus that steals Harold’s log-in password. Apptitude’s CEO learns of the sketchy project, so Thompson orders a “Code Red” on Harold, who escapes back to his house, packs up a duffel bag, guns his piece-o-crap Camry down the driveway, where IT GETS T-BONED BY A PASSING TRUCK, forcing Harold to dash off into the woods. Harold finds Maude to help him hide on the streets while he tries to clear his name, under the nose of CALLAHAN, a bumbling detective assigned to track down Harold. Maude drags him to a shelter to secure a bed, but it’s the shelter that Ann runs! She kicks him out. Harold learns he’s being framed for embezzling $2M from Apptitude! In another run-in with Ann, Harold chides her hand-out vs. hand-up support of the homeless. He makes a low-budget app that encourages food-stamp users to choose nutritious options, but Maude and Jazz make a mockery of test-driving it at a local grocery store. Harold gives up, taking the L train out of Chicago. Maude finds him on the train, reveals that they have similar problems – trying to recover the love of a young woman – she’s lost custody of her teen daughter JENNA (16) through her alcoholism. In their dark hour, Maude and Harold resolve to help each other regain their lost loves. Harold learns at the Archives Building that Apptitude’s building has a secret escape route built in. He also gets Maude a job, and he coaxes her to allow Ann to set her up in a halfway house. But when he tries to convince Jenna to reconcile with Maude, instead he gets kicked like a dog. Kiara boards a flight to Punta Cana after failing to convince Harold to leave town. Harold reveals himself to Callahan to stop him from roughing up Jazz, then runs away, tunneling his way into Apptitude’s basement. He finds the escape route into Thompson’s office, and proves to him that because Harold’s reco to have Kiara promoted to backfill him was ignored, Kiara impersonated Harold’s computer credentials, took the $2M, most of which was donated to at-risk-youth programs. With Maude’s help, Harold convinces Ann (despite his offer “to sleep his way to the top” of Ann’s staff) to hire him to modernize her accounting practices. Maude starts living at the halfway house, reconciles with daughter Jenna. We end with Harold and Ann back at the fancy restaurant, where he orders “filet mignon and a glass of your finest … tap water.”