LOVE & EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

Written by Michael Dougherty

Hamptons... Summer... Love...
What could possibly go wrong?

CAUTION: For the reader who has not yet seen LOVE & EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN, this synopsis may deprive the reader the impact of the twists and turns within the film. However the film's ending is an undisclosed cliffhanger, so you will just have to view the film to know the ending!

Opening scene is a black-tie gathering at the Southampton Arts Center. MICHAEL, 50, a Hamptons architect and recent widower, is trying to give life a second chance. He is captivated by LEAH, 45, an attractive divorcee. Michael and Leah are both seeking a second chance at love. What could possibly go wrong?

Michael and Leah go back to his home where they find Michael’s only daughter overdosed and unconscious on the bathroom floor. ABBY, 17, is pretty, privileged, innocent, naive, and risk-prone. She is rushed to the Southampton Hospital where she survives her near-death experience.

Leah arrives home from the hospital to be greeted by her son, MATT, 21. Matt is good-looking and athletic, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, alpha male, yet sensitive. He is a recent college graduate, who otherwise spends his time, surfing, partying, and seducing women. Matt reminisces over the love and security he lost with his parents' divorce, and longs for that love himself, but in the meantime, during his last wild summer in the Hamptons, he is experiencing 'everything in between'.

Leah and Matt are invited to dinner at Michael's home, where Matt meets Abby. Despite Michael's tirade directed at the millennial generation, the dinner date proves to be a success. Michael and Leah's relationship continues to blossom while Matt and Abby connect and share an obviously mutual attraction. The dinner concludes with Matt quietly inviting Abby to share several day trips to Montauk.

At Matt's graduation and birthday party at his home during July 4th weekend, Matt and Abby are seen falling in love. Matt’s party is a major success with the Southampton Preppie crowd, as the champagne flows during the high energy dancing and partying.

Matt is newly-acquainted with CHRISTIAN, 21, dark-haired, WASP, privileged, with an arrogance polished in elite prep schools. Matt, Abby, and Christian head down to the ocean to join a group at a bonfire party. As the 4th of July fireworks explode over the ocean, in the darkness of the dunes, a violent sexual assault takes place.

Both Matt and Christian are arrested, but the District Attorney initially pursues charges only against Christian, pressuring Matt to turn against Christian to make their case, but Matt's attorney advises him not to get involved and deny that he was even there. Michael wants Matt to rot in prison for leaving Abby alone and unescorted on the beach where the assault takes place. He refuses to allow Abby to contact or connect with Matt. Leah is destroyed, and knows her son’s future may be forever tainted, and she also believes that she has lost her second chance at true love.

As the events twist and turn, Matt believes he has the fortitude to rule his own destiny, while Abby struggles to survive the loss of her mother, the near-fatal drug overdose, and the incident on the beach. Will love turn out to be the outcome? Or will love be destroyed by unforeseen events yet to come? What unravels is 'Love & Everything in Between.'