The Twenty First Letter

Mark in hospital, his father is dying. They're having a heart felt conversation. It is obvious that the father is the most important person in Mark's life. The father expresses that his main interest is that Mark finds happiness and achieves his heart's desire. We see flash backs to Mark's youth with his father. The father passes. We see Mark's emotion. Mark gets back to his life. We see him walking his dog. We see him volunteering at a retirement home. New Years party. Everyone talking about resolutions and goals for the next year. Ball drops, everyone has someone to kiss but Mark. As Mark goes to leave at the end of the night, friend Sara asks if he's thought about getting into the dating game and mentions getting to know someone online. Late, quiet Saturday night in humble apartment (SNL is on TV). Mark surfs web, reads some Internet profiles, finds Ali and is immediately attracted to her profile and pictures. Writes her a letter introducing himself and decides not to send it to her. Mark volunteering for Big Brothers, Big Sisters organization. He's at a park playing catch with a kid. They go for ice cream. He gives the kid his hat. We further develop benevolent character. Talking to Sara from the New Years party about Internet dating. Mark mentions how he chickened out of introducing himself to Ali. Sara peps him up. He rewrites the introduction and after dramatic hesitations, Mark presses send. Mark's at work toward the end of the day (he's a youth counselor at YMCA) and one of the kids brings him a picture they drew that is really sweet. It's like Mark's the kid's hero. Ali's getting ready for her friend's wedding in a hurry and realizes that she forgot her shoes. She goes home to get the shoes. We see her puppy chewing one of the shoes that perfectly matches her dress. Another of the bride's mates calls on the phone, "The limo just arrived, get your ass back here now!" Ali grabs another pair of shoes and as she's driving back to where they're getting ready, she calls the store where she bought the shoes and explains what happened, the store shows above and beyond service by sending another pair to the church. We don't see the ceremony or even the bride. Mark takes public transportation home from YMCA. He arrives home does the normal stuff, puts shoes in their place, keys on the rack, heats leftovers, checks email hoping Ali has responded..no response. The phone rings. It's a close friend (Ryan) who was at the New Years party. He's a consultant at IBM who's been assigned a project for Pepsi. Ryan says that his consulting will save a projected $12 million in Pepsi's shipping department and that that will have an effect on Pepsi's stock value. Ali's sitting on sofa with her laptop and puppy looking at Mark's profile. She responds with promise (voice over) and writes about how getting ready for the wedding was hectic, but the wedding was perfect. (The vernacular is attractive and witty) Mark getting ready for bed, checks the computer to see no new mail and as he walks away we the audience see her message pop up on his Gmail account. We toggle between her and his nightly routines, which are ironically very similar. (Shower, brushing, flossing, etc.) As luck would have it, they sleep on opposite sides of the bed. We see a split screen where they simultaneously turn off the bedside lamps. They both fart and blame it on their dogs. "Six months later." Mark sees that his investment in Pepsi now has a value of $500,000. He cashes in. Mark takes Sara and Ryan to dinner to celebrate his new wealth (because of Ryan's tip). Sara and Ryan are married. During dinner Sara inquires of Mark's situation with Ali. Later, Mark and Sara are at a popular establishment. They are talking over the background music (we don't hear what they say). Mark sees several girls that resemble Ali slightly, but none are Ali. Ali finally appears. Mark and Ali are driving and get into a car accident.....

Genres: Drama, Romance