Big Eyes

FADE IN:

TITLE SEQUENCE:

TIGHT on TWO PAINTED EYES. The pupils are impossibly wide.

Imploring. The watery rims spill a single tear.

We PULL OUT... revealing the eyes belong to a child. A young

girl, fingers clasped pitifully. She's forlorn, alone in a

dirty gray alley. We feel shame. Compassion. Sorrow...

Then -- an IDENTICAL girl SLAPS in front of the first one.

Then another! It's a PRINTING PRESS, the creation of a BLUR

of sad children.

A KINETIC montage! HORDES of gazing WAIFS get lithographed,

bundled:
Huddling in worry. Floating in space. POSTERS.

POSTCARDS. BOOKS.

We ZOOM into a MAGAZINE AD: A 1960's era come-on -- "IT'S

KEANE! MUSEUM-QUALITY ART, MAILED DIRECTLY TO YOUR HOME!"

A blizzard of NEWSPAPER ARTICLES: "Meet America's Million-

Dollar Painter!" "Keane Masterpiece at World's Fair"

Painted EYES float by. Haunting... questioning...

Old POLAROIDS:
A family Christmas, a Keane print over the

mantel. Kids play bumper pool, a Keane print in the b.g.

A blurry black-and-white TV: A talk show HOST holds up a Keane

PAINTING --

MUSIC BUILDS. FASTER. Keane brochures. Catalogs. A flyer:

"Now Open! Keane Gallery"

MORE orphan's faces. Hungry, unblinking, beseeching.

A CRESCENDO -- then -- SILENCE.

A single CARD on black:

"I think what Keane has done is just

terrific. It has to be good. If it

were bad, so many people wouldn't like

it."

-- ANDY WARHOL

CUT TO:

EXT. SUBURBIA - 1958

A nice, orderly tract of post-World War II housing. Identical

rows of little yards. Young MOMS. Scampering KIDS.

Then, a SUBTITLE: "TEN YEARS EARLIER"

2.

INT. HOUSE - DAY

CU on two concerned eyes. The same eyes as the paintings. We

REVEAL they belong to a real girl: JANE, 8. She sits in her

small house -- a typical young family's, spare and

underfurnished.

Suddenly -- Jane's mother MARGARET ULBRICH, 28, rushes through

frame. Margaret is blonde, yearning, fragile. Terribly

upset, she is hurriedly packing.

Margaret throws her clothes in a suitcase.

She shoves Jane's clothes and toys into another.

Margaret barrels through the breakfast nook, which is a mini

art studio -- easel, canvases, paints. She scoops up her

supplies.

Margaret runs to the door -- then turns. The hallway is lined

with her PAINTINGS. Oils and inks of wide-eyed Jane, who

grows from baby to toddler to child. Hastily, Margaret takes

them down, each frame leaving an empty mark on the flowered

wallpaper. Finally she reaches the last spot -- a WEDDING

PHOTO:
Margaret and her HUSBAND, smiling, happy.

Margaret peers -- then leaves it hanging. The door SLAMS.

CUT TO:

EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY

Cars roar down an interstate.

INT. PACKARD - DRIVING - DAY

Margaret grips the wheel, uncertain. Jane stares. The car is

all loaded up. REFLECTIONS of passing BILLBOARDS drift across

the windshield. Images of perky, happy-fake Americans.

Margaret bites her lip. Has she made the right decision...?

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