Synopsis Watershed

	Watershed

	Land/Country: USA (1999) Genre: Drama Regie / Directed by : Ricardo Scipio Writing script: Ricardo Scipio Rudolf portrayes Richard Petrovic
Synopsis:	Watershed by Ricardo Scipio
	Richard Petrovic is a 29 year old Croatian native who grew up in the Amsterdam Houses public housing project right behind Lincoln Center in Manhattan , and who has for the past two years taken care of his ailing mother who has recently died. Richard is a paradox. Richard, normally humble and shy with the grace and poise of a cat, is not above a certain arrogance inspired by his undeniable physical beauty. Although a devoted son to his hardworking immigrant single-parent mother he has repudiated her generation's work ethic and morals and has become an aimless slacker drifting from bartending job to bartending job. His mother's funeral three days ago has plunged him into a crisis -he's guilt-struck for not having been able to afford his mother a better life as he would have been able to had he not dropped out of college. His mother gave up a promising dance career herself when she was pregnant with him -her oldest, and struggled greatly to raise four children. His mother hadn't known the love of a man for more than twenty years, blew up her blood pressure working double shifts at a local Greek diner, and had her only solace in the church and in Richard , the son she was so proud of. Although thoroughly crushed by A mother's cruel passing , he is also guiltily relieved , as he alone of the four siblings bore the heavy responsibility. After the funeral, tormented by all his unfulfilled promises to his mother and the prospect of never seeing her again, Richard takes refuge in his well-rehearsed cool bartender persona.

	Layla Reid is a successful 31 year old owner of a small architectual firm specializing in renovations. Although a product of rural Ohio, she has honed her business skills in New York. She is a well-dressed, well-groomed and meticulous woman. Never married and childless, she has poured her considerable energies into her career. Although not wealthy, her company provides her a very comfortable upper-middle class lifestyle. Layla surrounds herself with beautiful things- her apartment is a true map of the life she has created for herself. She is a confident, fast-stepping woman with a note of ruthlessness around her mouth and sadness in her almond shaped brown eyes. Although Black , she has almost completely divorced herself from the Black community out of a misplaced combination of embarrassment and disappointment. Layla is a loner , she has virtually no friends and has an uncanny knack of inspiring jealousy and indignation from other women.

	Despite her successful career, and the somewhat make-believe world she inhabits, being without love and children makes her life feel very empty. With both parents dead, and being an only child she has no family to speak of. Her 31st birthday has just passed and she's never even been proposed to, in fact except for brief "flings" , she hasn't had a serious relationship with a man in over nine years. She is mortally afraid of what she cannot control or predict. When she is dragged to a co-worker's bachelorette party at a bar downtown , she turns to booze to try to drown out some of the incessant talk of babies , families and husbands. When the other 'girls" slowly drift back to their lives she remains behind at the bar alone.

	Richard is the bartender on duty and takes great exception when Layla sends back a drink for the third time that night because he didn't make it to her satisfaction. He swears under his breath and cannot resist the urge to go to her table and sit himself right across from her after his shift is over. When he asks her what her problem is , she sharply replies that if the bar is going to overcharge her for drinks she wants her drinks made right. Richard and Layla continue to have a tense and ascerbic exchange.

	OPENING CREDITS.
	The film begins with Richard and Layla lay asleep on opposite sides of her bed. A candle on Layla's night table is down to it's last few flickers, and moonlight from a window at the other end of the large bedroom remains the room's sole illumination.

	Richard wakes slowly, awkwardly freeing himself from the sheet entwined between his legs. He looks around the room for a reference point, and when he regains his bearings, he slips out of the bed and walks across to the adjacent bathroom. Closing the door behind him he begins to shower. The water running wakes Layla. She stretches across the bed and smiles.

	When Richard emerges from the bathroom he goes over to Layla and embraces her, not out of burning desire, but more like a well-rehearsed ritual. He is also trying to avoid having to engage in too much conversation with a woman whose name he can't even immediately recall.(When Layla briefly goes to the bathroom , he searches her purse for i.d.)

	Richard wants to go home, he feels claustrophobic sleeping in a bed with another person, and he feels awkward in Layla's over decorated place. When the morning finally comes they promise, without conviction to keep in touch and see each other again.

	In the next few weeks Layla and Richard live their life as they did before. They speak once or twice a week on the phone, and Layla does invite him over again. Unknown to her he is too depressed about his mother to see or speak to anyone. He calls in sick at work 5 days in a row. Although dying to see him again, Layla's pride takes over and she stops calling.

	Suddenly , after a couple of weeks in which they do not speak , Layla calls Richard insisting that he see her that night. Despite the new note of desperation he detects in her voice , he doesn't return the call. Layla shows up at Richard's bar that same night all vamped out and with an intense gleam in her eyes. She steers Richard back to her place , puts sweet Flamenco guitar music on in the background. Some of the awkwardness between them immediately recedes. When she repeatedly states in an all too pleading tone that she wants to make the night as nice for him "as possible" , he doesn't pay attention. Looking deeply , strangely at him. After a prolonged silence , Layla announces that she is pregnant.

	Layla's announcement opens a Pandora's box of emotions for the two of them. Richard's first reaction is to suppress the reflex to smile. She takes this as him thinking it a joke and flies into a rage. Richard is struck simultaneously by two warring jolts of emotion. One strike renders him petrified of being trapped in an indefinite, permanent relationship with someone he doesn't love, he immediately feels constrained , choked , stifled. Almost at the same time he his struck with unwelcome joy represented by his unsuccessful attempt to not smile. Somehow he believes that this baby, conceived on the third night after his mother's death will embody some of his mother's spirit, as if his mother was reincarnating and returning to him.

	Layla is incensed by his confusing and contradictory reactions and continues to berate him. She is afraid that he will demand that she have an abortion , or worse that he would want a permanent role in her and the child's life. She feels utterly stupid for ignoring her own counsel and even telling him , although she knows for the sake of her conscience that she couldn't have kept the news from her child's father. For the first time Layla's life is out of control.

	Layla, feeling humiliated and defiant declares to Richard that she will have the baby no matter what, and that he isn't obligated to her in any way, and that she's more than able to care for the child herself. A shaken and exhausted Richard tells her that he has to go home. His final words to her are , "This was planned wasn't it?." To which she responds by punching him in the face full force with her bony elegant hands , splitting his lips.

	Layla's "double punch sends Richard reeling. The physical punch wounds his pride and sets him to vow to never speak to Layla again. But the emotion punch of her pregnancy really delivers the body blow. Richard is so racked with fear and dread that he loses his appetite and carries around a tight fist of anxiety in the pit of his stomach.

	Beset by her hormones and feeling isolated from her "friends" and co-workers, Layla tries to contact Richard. After a couple of weeks of him dodging her calls he agrees to meet her. Layla demands to know if she will have to "go through this alone." She's not sure that she wants him in her life, but she doesn't want to let him off the hook either. Richard declares that he will not abandon his child and that he will do his best to be there for her.

	Richard begins to spend time with Layla as they earnestky try to get to know each other, It's always awkward and always at her place, and consists mainly of him listening to her growing lists of complaints, fears, and plans for the child. Although still attracted to her, Richard resists the temptation to have any physical relationship with Layla. Their great differences begin to become points of conflict. She likes jazz and classical music , he likes acid-jazz , hip hop and techno-so they are never in the car, or near a stereo without a quarrel about music. Layla is condescending towards Richard for his lack of a formal education and money. Richard is indignant about Layla's materialism and cynicism. There are some fun and close moments between the two.

	But as Layla's pregnancy advances and she begins to show, she becomes even more emotionally vulnerable- calling Richard numerous times a day, even at three o'clock in the morning to rant, rave and cry, she begins to demand that he make love to her. When he refuses , she tries to make him feel guilty about her pregnancy-"I'm carrying your child, no other man's going to want me, so you better be a man and do your job". Layla's demands, emotionally and sexually propel Richard deeper in to Madeline's supportive arms. Riichard's irresponsibility and unpredictability makes Layla's situation even more insecure.

	In her fourth month of pregnancy on their way home from a fruitless attempt at couple counseling. Layla begins to bleed. She is terrified and Richard takes her to the emergency room.

	The bleeding is minor but is soon revealed by a doctor that Layla has lost the baby. When he sees Layla in the hospital bed , he realizes for the first time what the past 5 months have done to her, and cries again. He reaches for her hand.

	When Richard brings Layla home the house is spotless as he's spent days cleaning it. He does his best to pamper her-cooking meals and giving her foot and back rubs. Gone are the porno videos, and tries his best to balance between giving the withdrawn and depressed Layla her space and lavishing attention on her. He tries make love to her , but now it's her that doesn't want to be touched. She falls asleep every night crying in his arms. Richard is determined to break through to her, so he decides to make a special day for her. He buys all the things necessary for a home facial and gives her one, he gives her a badly needed pedicure and manicure. He gives her a scented bath and an hour long hot oil massage.

	But when he shows her the savings account he'd opened for their child's college fund, she begins to cry again. He tells her he'll do anything for her , that they can try to have another child as soon as she's healed, anything... She, after along pause, tells him that she wants to see him dance in his "Mr. Spock" outfit. Richard does the dance of his life for her, and for the first time in months he sees her smile , even though there are tears in her eyes as well. Although they cannot have intercourse for many weeks until she heals. That night they make passionate love without sex.

	(From Director Ricardo Scipio himself! Thank you, Ricardo!)