Synopsis
Napier is an orphan, a runaway and a great thinker. Dickie is a year out of college and is trying to escape the smothering influence of his family, and a girlfriend he doesn’t love but can’t bring himself to leave. Because there’s nothing else to do, and despite being ill-qualified for such a project, they’re attempting to formulate a universal theory of human relations, to be expounded in a world-changing document which they call The Memo. This is Napier’s great passion, for Dickie it’s a way to pass the time at work, while he works out what he’s going to do for the rest of his life.
Dickie relates the events of a long weekend in their lives, in London, early one summer in the 1990’s.
Leaving work on a Friday afternoon they go drinking and rescue a young woman, Ondine, who is being attacked by a dog. Ondine, who works at the Home Office, inadvertently leads her rescuers to believe, wrongly, that the government has somehow found out about The Memo, and will attempt to suppress it should they attempt to publish.
Dickie, who to this point has felt somewhat ambivalent towards The Memo becomes sold on its importance, and persuades Napier that they need to retrieve the papers from the office where they are temping before they are stolen and destroyed. They are therefore obliged to go into work on a Saturday morning. Disguising The Memo amongst a bundle of men’s magazines that they find in the post room they escape to Dickie’s childhood home, where Napier, who has few memories of normal family life, is immediately captivated by the same mundaneness that appals Dickie. Napier vetoes Dickie’s home as a repository for The Memo, as he is unwilling to put this domestic idyll at risk of a ransacking by unseen agents of the state. Dickie eventually agrees, and they stay the night. They leave for the home of Napier’s sister in the morning after Dickie has had to explain away the bundle of pornography to his disappointed mother.
Dickie meets Napier’s sister, Lara, about whom he has long fantasised. Whilst disappointed that she is not the outstanding beauty he had imagined Dickie feels himself drawn to her calm nature. When they tell her their story Lara is sceptical, and gently mocking, but nevertheless agrees to help them. She is looking after a neighbour’s cats and conceals The Memo in the neighbour’s bedroom.
Napier and Dickie meet again at work on Monday morning. There is a curious distance between them. They have lunch with Lara as agreed and Dickie senses that perhaps Lara has spoken warmly about him to her brother, which has piqued Napier into a jealous reserve. Lara embraces Dickie warmly as they part. Napier and Dickie pass the afternoon in silence.
As they prepare to leave work Lara calls and explains that her neighbour’s flat has been burgled, but that the memo has remained undisturbed. The two young men decide that this is a warning of some kind from the government. Hoping to confirm this and also to find a new hiding place for The Memo they contact Ondine, the young woman that they helped on Friday evening. They meet at the Brown Derby, Friday night’s drinking hole and having secured her reassurances that she will not relay any of what she is about to hear to her employers they tell her their story to Ondine. Amused, she asks to see the memo, notes that its content is philosophically, rather than politically subversive, reveals to them that the burglary was probably just that, and that the other assumptions they’ve made about the events of the previous 72 hours are based on a misunderstanding of what she told them.
Crushed, more than relieved, Napier and Dickie walk Ondine home again. Dickie tells Napier that he’s thinking about getting a full time job, something clerical. They part. As Dickie walks away he turns to see Napier being attacked by a familiar-looking dog.
Dickie relates the events of a long weekend in their lives, in London, early one summer in the 1990’s.
Leaving work on a Friday afternoon they go drinking and rescue a young woman, Ondine, who is being attacked by a dog. Ondine, who works at the Home Office, inadvertently leads her rescuers to believe, wrongly, that the government has somehow found out about The Memo, and will attempt to suppress it should they attempt to publish.
Dickie, who to this point has felt somewhat ambivalent towards The Memo becomes sold on its importance, and persuades Napier that they need to retrieve the papers from the office where they are temping before they are stolen and destroyed. They are therefore obliged to go into work on a Saturday morning. Disguising The Memo amongst a bundle of men’s magazines that they find in the post room they escape to Dickie’s childhood home, where Napier, who has few memories of normal family life, is immediately captivated by the same mundaneness that appals Dickie. Napier vetoes Dickie’s home as a repository for The Memo, as he is unwilling to put this domestic idyll at risk of a ransacking by unseen agents of the state. Dickie eventually agrees, and they stay the night. They leave for the home of Napier’s sister in the morning after Dickie has had to explain away the bundle of pornography to his disappointed mother.
Dickie meets Napier’s sister, Lara, about whom he has long fantasised. Whilst disappointed that she is not the outstanding beauty he had imagined Dickie feels himself drawn to her calm nature. When they tell her their story Lara is sceptical, and gently mocking, but nevertheless agrees to help them. She is looking after a neighbour’s cats and conceals The Memo in the neighbour’s bedroom.
Napier and Dickie meet again at work on Monday morning. There is a curious distance between them. They have lunch with Lara as agreed and Dickie senses that perhaps Lara has spoken warmly about him to her brother, which has piqued Napier into a jealous reserve. Lara embraces Dickie warmly as they part. Napier and Dickie pass the afternoon in silence.
As they prepare to leave work Lara calls and explains that her neighbour’s flat has been burgled, but that the memo has remained undisturbed. The two young men decide that this is a warning of some kind from the government. Hoping to confirm this and also to find a new hiding place for The Memo they contact Ondine, the young woman that they helped on Friday evening. They meet at the Brown Derby, Friday night’s drinking hole and having secured her reassurances that she will not relay any of what she is about to hear to her employers they tell her their story to Ondine. Amused, she asks to see the memo, notes that its content is philosophically, rather than politically subversive, reveals to them that the burglary was probably just that, and that the other assumptions they’ve made about the events of the previous 72 hours are based on a misunderstanding of what she told them.
Crushed, more than relieved, Napier and Dickie walk Ondine home again. Dickie tells Napier that he’s thinking about getting a full time job, something clerical. They part. As Dickie walks away he turns to see Napier being attacked by a familiar-looking dog.
posted by Tom Miles at 3:05 pm
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