Alchemy of the Spirit (2022) Movie Script

1
I'm so sorry. I don't know what to do.
So then...
I don't know.
I don't want you to chBaik.
Your hand is so cold.
Oliver.
Evelyn, it's Sam Cooke.
Just wanted to see if you guys
needed some eggs this week.
If you do, give me a call. I'll stop by.
Thanks.
Hello?
Ollie?
Ollie, my love. I have news for you.
Great news. Tremendous news.
Now, I know that we have a
contract to finish a painting,
but right now, I want you
to just put that on hold.
Just absolutely forget about it.
The Sonnenberg wants you to create an
installation for the lobby of their new wing!
They want something simple, yet radical,
and 100% Oliver Black.
And Ollie, they're going to
pay you through the roof!
I'm listening. Yeah.
They're dedicating their new wing
to the personal works of all
the great American artists!
They want an installation
and they want it fast.
Honey, I hate to put pressure on you,
but it's the goddamn Sonnenberg!
We can't afford to pass this up!
Now, honey, I know, I
know this is short notice,
but do you have any ideas?
I have an idea.
That's why
you're my favorite client.
Favorite. Favorite artist.
Ollie?
Ollie, are you there?
Yeah.
I'm just, I'm
just thinking, 'cause yeah...
I should go get to work.
Fantastic.
How's Evelyn?
She's great. She's resting.
Give her my love.
I will.
I'm in here.
It's...
It's so dark.
Look for me.
Another bird flew into the window.
So, I left it open.
Evelyn?
It's so cold.
Ollie, can you hand me a blanket?
My arms don't wanna move.
The desire to see the world
and not be in the world.
So many tiny bodies.
It's like a fire.
Music.
That's better. Don't you think?
Yeah.
Is the window still open, then?
No. It's closed.
Is it winter already?
How long did I sleep?
I fell asleep...
I feel like I was in
the middle of something.
Ollie.
I'm still cold. The music isn't helping.
So, did you...
Did you see him?
Who?
Jesus? Buddha?
The white light?
No.
It's hard to describe, really. It's...
It's more a feeling.
Like a warm light.
Liquid oneness.
The senses are heightened and
the field of awareness is,
is endless.
You feel no sense of your
physical body.
And yet, you feel everything.
Hear everything.
It's infinite
and nothing.
But then, you allow it.
There's no more thinking,
and it's beautiful.
You're free.
What's happening?
What? Hello?
They're telling me-
What's happening?
- I'm with them now.
- Who's "them"?
The recent arrivals.
Someone's telling me
something. They're saying...
They're telling me that we have five days.
Whatever this is, we
have five days and then
you go away from me.
Be gone.
Who's telling you?
The guides.
It's just the guides.
Guides.
They say we'll be reunited,
in the next phase.
Next phase of what?
Next phase.
Evolution.
It's like trying to describe a color you've
never seen before, in another language.
Maybe color isn't it.
No. Maybe it's like music.
Because we can hear it
coming from this machine,
but we can't see it, or feel it.
And yet, it's...
It's everywhere.
The sound wave is invisible,
but it's everywhere.
It's here.
And it's here. We're moving through it.
That's what it's like. It's like music.
It's everywhere.
It's so beautiful.
Well, I wanna
see it, too. You know?
You really wanna know what it's like?
Then come with me.
Now?
Now.
And now...
How many times have we driven by here,
without really seeing
what we're looking at?
Or feeling the texture
in the air around us?
This structure.
That lake.
This turn in the road.
Because you already know all of this,
you probably haven't seen any of it.
You've just gone right on by, missing it.
Seeing what you thought you saw before,
and missing out on all the beauty.
And if you're on a different path,
a road you've never been down,
you don't know what's ahead of you.
You have no idea what's coming up,
what's about to happen.
And that forces you to
become very attentive,
and very present.
And it's in that moment
of not knowing, Ollie,
inside the unknown,
you're alive.
Really alive.
It's the most beautiful place to be.
Sorry to interrupt.
We always struggled dancing, didn't we?
Well that's because you always
wanted to leave.
- I can read your intentions
with a lot more clarity now.
Does that mean that
you're willing to follow?
Let's see.
Sorry to interrupt.
Are you all right?
I want this painting to be my headstone.
"Headstone".
It used to bother
me so much, but now,
I can see what you're
going for and I love it.
I was just trying
to get at the truth, I guess.
- I love how much it shows
how much I was holding inside.
You know, it's not what we
express that drives us crazy.
It's what we keep buried inside.
Alex, what in God's
name are you doing up here?
You have not been answering your phone,
so I just decided to come up!
- Wait, wait.
- No, no.
Do these windows open?
No, but it does break, so be careful.
Ollie.
Why haven't you been answering your phone?
I'm sorry, Ollie, but,
is there something that
matter with your sewer?
Yeah, I think there might be.
I'll get it loBaikd at.
We can get you a studio in the city,
if you need a clean place to work.
I like working here.
- Sweetie, I know. I know
these things take time.
But you've been ignoring me!
Can I see the work?
I promise you, as soon as it's ready,
you will be the very
first person to see it.
That's all I wanted to know.
You must answer the phone when I call you.
You know what?
Not only will I answer
it, I'll pick it up,
and I'll call you.
- How's that?
- I like that.
- It'll be good.
- Yes, thank you.
- You know, she hasn't
always been honest with you.
About what?
About money.
And other things.
What other things?
Your work.
She thinks you've lost it.
That you're out of touch.
She doesn't understand.
How'd you find out about this?
I can hear thoughts, somehow.
The frequency's different when
there's an obstacle in it.
Like a lie.
So...
What, is this whole thing
with the Sonnenbergs a lie?
No.
No, no. This one's honest.
I'm being shown how to connect
to different frequencies.
So, can you read my mind?
Yes.
The tree has turned blue.
Why blue?
Stop!
Honey, wake up.
Did you see it? Did you watch that?
Yes.
Why do you care what Alex thinks?
I thought
you could read my mind?
Not when there's obstacles.
- Well, there's always
obstacles aren't there.
Not all of my own making
always, either, right?
Are you saying it's my fault?
I take responsibility for my own
self-indulgence and self-sabotage.
What are you so afraid of?
I don't know.
It's all underwater.
Murky.
Wanted to say something important.
I wanted to get at some truth.
Wanted to
see something nobody had seen before,
or find a way to say it that
nobody had ever found before,
and maybe help other
people see, in a new way.
Burying all the layers. This
idea that I'll uncover them.
I just don't know that it's working.
Thought it'd be easier to
hide, but it's not easy.
And I'm sorry I led you to this
rotten old building,
thinking I was gonna
bring it back to life.
I hope it's not what killed you.
I think there's something else.
I don't know what happened.
I lost the light.
We should've had kids. I don't
know what the fuck happened.
I think now is your chance
to bring something into the light.
To be brave enough to
bring it into the light.
And not care what Alex thinks about it,
or anybody thinks about it.
Just show it.
You know...
What's that old thing about,
"Bring forth what is within you,
and what you bring forth will save you.
Fail to bring forth what is within you
and what you failed to bring
forth will destroy you."
And I know it's true.
And I guess it's still worth it.
Yes.
It's definitely worth it.
You have so much left to show, and do.
And be.
I always pick up a feather when I see it
'cause a feather is a message
from the spirit world.
It means the spirits are with you,
depending on the feather that you find,
or the feather that finds you.
So, whenever you see a feather,
you'll know that I'm near you.
Remember that awful hobby I picked up,
painting the Ukrainian Easter eggs?
Yeah. You were into that.
It was so tedious.
Hours and hours, just
painting and repainting,
the same surface.
I kind of obsessed on it.
I think I was just so tense,
trying to make it beautiful.
I ended up shattering it
into a thousand pieces.
- Isn't that how they make
'em stronger, sometimes?
Didn't they do that on purpose?
What, break them,
and put 'em back together?
It's true in nature.
Cells have to break apart
in order to keep growing.
Muscles.
Humans.
Maybe we had to get brBaikn
apart to be made stronger.
I think, in the end,
I was just more interested in the egg.
Ollie.
Why did I die?
Why won't you tell me?
I wonder.
Can you hear the sound of that color?
Oliver, the mind can't tell the difference
between what is real and what is imagined.
The mind can't tell the
difference between what is real
and what is imagined.
The mind can't tell the
difference between what is real
and what is imagined.
This is the truth of the Universe.
Oliver?
Oliver!
Evelyn?
Oliver!
Evelyn?
It's Sam Cooke!
I brought you some eggs!
Oliver?
Evelyn?
Hey, guys? You can come down this way.
You don't have to go in the house.
- Down that way?
- Yeah.
The hell were you thinking,
sending plumbers over here?
- It's a problem that needed
to be fixed and I'm fixing it!
- Well, next time give
me a heads up, all right?
It's my house.
Christ.
Oliver, I want to see the work.
My God.
What is it?
The divine essence.
Accompanied by gods from above.
Beasts from below.
The extra-dimensional emissary.
The earthbound primitivist.
It's all aspects of Evelyn.
Evelyn?
Has she seen it?
What does she think of it?
I haven't asked.
It's not finished.
That's what "a work in progress" means.
I said it was a work in progress.
You understand that the
wax becomes bronze, right?
And that the feather
won't be there on the day-
Well, let me know when it will be ready
for the Sonnenberg to pick up.
Buy Evelyn something nice.
Thank you, Alex.
I'll help you out.
So, we snaked the main water line,
and somehow, something
has backed up your system,
and it won't drain.
So, we're gonna have to flush everything.
Every drain in the house.
Starting with the ones on
the top floor, 'cause I...
No. Actually, we don't
use one on the top floor.
Just the one off the kitchen.
Get to it this way, though. I'll show you.
All right. Get this.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it looks whatever's
affecting the drain down here
is coming from the pipes upstairs.
You think I can take a look
at that second floor bathroom?
- Like I said, we don't use
it. It's turned off, so...
- Look, I know it's tough
having guys work in your house,
but if you just let me take a look,
I think I can fix it, get outta your hair.
Yeah, no, I appreciate it
because I know I have to pay,
each time you come but it'd be better,
I'd make more sense to do it that way,
but this is not a good time.
Look, I don't wanna...
Whatever you put in that tub
was the culprit.
I cleaned up for ya. Scraped it all out.
Put some drain cleaner down her.
I wouldn't flush it for an hour or two.
Tomorrow morning, probably be best.
All righty, then.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
My God. You're back.
- We can't ever do
anything like that again.
But it, it worked.
I almost-
They won't let it happen.
They said it shouldn't happen.
Why? What if I want to go?
It's not your time.
Who gets to decide that, if not me?
If I want to be with you more
than I want to stay here.
I know, baby, but not yet.
You're not finished.
This is all dead to me now.
I want to move on with you.
I know, but I have to go alone.
Please don't. There's
nothing to negotiate.
Don't think there's anything you can do.
Then why did you come back?
Why didn't you just stay there?
I came back to say goodbye.
No!
I need you, here.
I have you in everywhere.
In in my work. It's-
Oliver.
You've been so busy, but
now you need to stop.
You need to stop being
so busy and just rest.
Rest and let all the pain in.
Let it in, so you can let it go.
Then you can begin again.
I love you, Oliver.
That's all we are, you know, is love.
- It's not so easy to feel
that when you're all alone.
Love is everywhere and in everything.
Connect with that and then
we will always be together.
Connect with that.
- Eddie Sonnenberg, may
I present, Oliver Black.
It's nice to meet you.
A pleasure to meet you.
Actually, have we ever met?
No.
I know your work.
Yeah, you just seem familiar.
So, come on in.
So, the Russians.
These portraits represent a
cross section a random sampling
of those who were considered
to be counter revolutionaries.
So, Stalin had his secret
police round them up,
document them with photographs,
and then taken out and shot in the head.
So, they all know they're about to die,
and they're in immediate
sense of awareness
of their own mortality.
And so you get to see, in each face,
that I was completely
mesmerized when I was working,
by the confluence of
different emotional states.
The fear and the anger.
The regret and the...
Well, everything going on in there.
Because...
So, I tried to...
I sanded them down in between
each pass 'cause I loved
the idea of collaborating
with the law of accidents.
So every time I sand, I'm losing something
that I put in there and
then I put something back
and I take it away and I put
it back and I take it away.
So, there'd be windows through which the audience,
the viewer would feel that they were being haunted.
- Oliver. Let's forget
about the Russians, for now.
Come on.
I can't wait for you to see this.
I've always felt that modern times
are lacking in terms of the...
What am I trying to say?
I am sure the work I've been
doing for all these years,
of building up all the
layers and burying them,
in order to excavate back
in order to reveal them,
in order to try and...
My version of signaling
through the flames,
in order to find that place
where the spirit meets the bone
in order to do the soul justice,
it seems like a form of
madness, but this is my attempt
to do the soul justice.
Oliver.
It's perfect.
I'm so glad you like it.
I knew that you would, but
I'm still really happy.
Congratulations, Oliver.
You have absolutely captured her spirit.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
I wonder.
Can you hear the sound of that color?