| Elliot Kelman is the ringleader of a group of mid to
late fortyish males who dine together several nights a week and play golf
at crummy public golf courses on weekends. They go back a long way, to
high school, in fact. Big things were expected of the group – Elliot was
the brilliant editor of the school newspaper, Marshall, state champ in the
quarter mile, Jerry Jay, exceptionally handsome and even funnier than he
was handsome, and Doc Klingenstein, a Merit Scholar and 3rd place winner
in the Westinghouse Science competition. Things
haven’t worked out as expected. Elliot lost his job as editor in chief of
Dutton Books in his early 40s and hasn’t been able to find work in the
field since. Marshall, a Viet Nam vet, is dying of prostate
cancer. Jerry Jay barely ekes out a living as a real estate
salesman. And although Doc has in fact become a doctor, his bizarre
appearance (shaved head, earring) and peculiar manner (loud, inappropriate
bursts of laughter, sexually ambiguous persona) have consigned him to
night duty in Englewood Hospital’s emergency ward.
Elliot’s bitterness is expressed through a pamphlet that
he publishes and self-distributes on park benches and supermarket bulletin
boards throughout northern Bergen County. The one page diatribe is both a
stern warning against the perils of self-delusion and a biting tribute to
the “losers” in the world, and it is clear that Elliott considers himself
and all of his friends in that group. Each time a new issue is published,
Elliot reads them aloud to his friends, who get more and more
uncomfortable as they begin to cut closer and closer o the bone.
Our story opens with Elliot getting a phone call from
Richard, an old chum of the group who has actually done well for himself.
For the last 7 years Richard has been head of a large Hollywood studio and
is roundly acknowledged as the man who gave the go ahead to the making of
“Vesuvius,” a film that has garnered 9 Academy Awards and taken in over a
billion dollars worldwide. He is coming back to New York for a couple of
days for the start of a new production. Elliot begs Richard to stay at
his house in the hope of talking to him about a screenplay he has
written.
“Second Best” tells the story of the fierce rivalry that
once again surfaces
between Elliot and Richard during Richard’s long weekend home to hang out
with the old gang. These are two long time friends whose competitiveness
keeps on getting in the way of their immense fondness for each
other. Elliot in particular has to find a way to come to terms with the
fact that Richard has so vastly outdistanced him in their chosen
careers. He winds up confronting the problem in a surprisingly direct and
creative way.
“Second Best” explores how a generation (in which
everyone was supposed to become a star) can learn to live with the
limitations and mortality it is just now beginning to face. |
