I Melt with You

Plot synopsis:
Former college friends—Ron (Jeremy Piven), Jonathan (Rob Lowe), Richard (Thomas Jane), and Tim (Christian McKay) reunite in Big Sur during Spring Break to celebrate Tim's 44th birthday. Each of the men enjoy some degree of professional success but are unfulfilled with their lives: Ron is a rich stockbroker, but is currently facing indictment from the SEC for embezzlement. Jonathan runs a successful medical practice, but all of his patients are wealthy drug addicts, he and his wife are divorced, and their young son identifies more with his mother's new husband than with Jonathan. Richard is a published author, but he has only written one book and now teaches high school English. Tim, an open bisexual, was until 5 years ago living in a happy relationship with a man, until accidentally causing the fatal car crash that took the lives of his boyfriend and his sister, Jill.
The four friends party for several days at a beach side mansion, during which the men consume massive quantities of drugs provided to them by Jonathan, including oxycodone, ativan, dilaudid, adderall, ketamine, medicinal marijuana, hydrocodone cocaine and morphine. After reminiscent conversation they head into town for food and to pick up women. Richard convinces a young waitress to bring her friends back to the house. Tim engages in a three-way with two of the revelers, during which they role play the parts of Tim's dead boyfriend and sister. Early in the morning, Tim hangs himself in the shower. Richard, Ron, and Jonathan find him, along with a note he left behind. The note contains the text of a suicide pact the men made in 1986, promising that they would kill themselves together if they found life unfulfilling in middle age. Afraid that the police will find the note and blame them for Tim's death, they bury him on the beach behind the house. Ron disagrees with continuing the fulfillment of the suicide pact, which results in Richard and Jonathan mocking him as a coward and a liar. Ron goes to an airport in an attempt to return home, but cannot bring himself to board the plane after listening to worrisome voicemails by his wife, indicating that federal agents are at their house and waiting to arrest him. He returns to the mansion and the three friends reunite.
Going into town for lunch, the men eat at a restaurant where an elderly man goes into cardiac arrest. Jonathan saves his life, drawing the attention of police Officer Boyde (Carla Gugino). Coming to the house to thank Jonathan, Boyde encounters an inebriated and agitated Ron. Believing that Boyde knows something is wrong, Ron attempts to get her to leave, raising Boyde's suspicions.
Later, Richard finds Ron in his room, unwilling to return home to the waiting federal agents. He tells Richard that he is frustrated with where his life has ended up, cannot face his wife and family, and no longer wants to live. Richard agrees to help him end his suffering and smothers him to death with a pillow. The next morning, Richard and Jonathan bury Ron beside Tim.
Richard and Jonathan go into town to party more, where Richard provokes two young men into beating him up. Jonathan, having decided to end his life, calls his son, asking the boy to promise him to remember who his real father was. After Jonathan's ex-wife interrupts, he uses a stethoscope to make a tourniquet and gives himself a fatal overdose of intravenous sedative, most likely a barbiturate. Richard discovers his body just after he intended to tell him that he couldn't go through with the suicide pact and buries Jonathan beside the others.
The next morning Boyde arrives at the house to check in on the men, the bar fight and Ron's suspicious behavior leading her to believe that something criminal is occurring. Entering the mansion, she finds a disturbed Richard has covered the inside of the house in artistic recreations of the text of the suicide pact. Richard tells that his friends are dead and then flees in a sports car, leading Boyde on a high speed chase to the Point Sur Lighthouse. When Boyde arrives, she finds Richard's car with the suicide pact on the front seat and Richard near the edge of the cliffs above the ocean. Boyde attempts to talk Richard away from the edge, but Richard states he would "miss his friends too much" and jumps while Boyde looks on in shock. The film ends on a close up of the suicide pact and the four friends each narrating a line.

Tags: flashback

Review:
Before I saw it, I'd read reviews about "self-indulgent, whining white guys," but I think these people missed the point entirely.
Weird and crazy, mostly out of focus and shaky/abnormal shot help portray the chaos of this film.If you honestly sit and watch this film for what it is (an experiment to dive into the soul and inner thoughts of middle-aged men) and not the next Hollywood Blockbuster then I think people may enjoy it more..
I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing tho- people make movies for certain audiences all the time.I don't usually write reviews but I felt like there was too much hate for this movie out there.
It tells a story, the acting is good, the movie making is good, there are a few parts that are not completely clear- I'm not sure if that is writing or editing or directing.Depending on how you look at the movie you might consider it a psych study on a group dynamic amongst males over time.
I loved the camera use effects etc , very real , comes with a great cast and soundtrack also , I don't think the actors could have performed any better.
Late last year, I had the chance to preview a little film titled "I Melt With You." It's an ensemble drama featuring Rob Lowe, Jeremy Piven, Thomas Jane and Christian MacKay. This film opened in the thick of the Holiday Movie Season.If your idea of a holiday movie treat leans toward the likes of "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" or "Arthur Christmas" or "The Muppets," this film is NOT for you.
It is a strongly acted, strongly directed film that sucks you in and doesn't let go.Every year, four "forty-something" college friends leave their careers and families behind to gather in a sort of mini-reunion where they live the weekend as if they were back in school - lots of sex, TONS of drugs, and the obligatory (punk) rock and roll.
By the virtuosity of the complete package, a flawless portion of the film, with amazing realistic relations and events.After things go wrong, in more ways then one, the movie kinda goes on another road.
To end it all like they did, was in my opinion, a bad way, and the film simply goes downhill.Why the incredibly high score then?
For a film that I followed since the announcement of Jeremy Piven joining the cast last year, I wan't sure what to expect after the poor reviews coming from Sundance and people in general.
I can see why this film was rejected by the general public - it's a dark, depressing movie and it is way ahead of it's time.
I think that in the future (10 years?) "I Melt With You" will be considered "One Of Those Films..."I have spent the last four nights watching everything on this DVD.
It reached inside my head and turned it into a cocktail shaker.Listen to the very first lines in the movie - a premonition for the next two hours.People have written that the first part was "exciting and original" but the second was "dull and predictable" - gosh, do you think this has anything to do with the whole point of the movie?Thomas Jane is absolutely stunning, Rob Lowe is like you've never seen him and Jeremy Piven and Christian McKay are truly unforgettable.
Watch this movie and you will see where the Industry is going.I think there are truly great movies and there are movies that come along at the perfect time in ones' life.
I think I heard the term man-gina while I was trying to fast forward to find the point, and that's what I would expect you'd have to have to like this film.
You would be better off watching something from your wife's drama collection and pretending they were guys.I'll try to finish it, but reading another post suggesting the 1st hour was the good part, there may be a reason this trash grossed ~$4000.I was a fan of Piven and Lowe and heard this was a thriller.
Having just watched this on Netflix and read all the IMDb reviews, some of which are very thoughtful, I'm stunned that no one seems to have picked up on the central point of the film - even though it's made explicit by the filmmakers.
It's drugs, substances, intoxicating: if yourself, or your friendships are based solely around intoxication, you're going to be in a very bad way at certain, important moments of truth.So, as we get more permissive about drugs - which isn't necessarily a bad thing - it's good to have brave movies like this one, revealing what happens when lives based solely on intoxication realize they no longer have a tether to who they really are; and likely never did..
Having no idea where this movie would lead me, I watched in wonderment as the beautiful camera work told the story as much as the acting did.
Being a middle aged man myself, this film was just so beautifully written, shot and played by all involved, in a realistic and sad way for some.
Only to continue to follow them in an adventure leading absolutely nowhere for the first 40 minutes of the movie.You think things might just pick up when Thomas Jane brings back a group of college co-eds to party the night away.
It picks up with the disgust and despair from a foolish college pact.Why stars like Jeremy Piven and Rob Lowe wasted a minute of their time on this is beyond me.
the movie gets as devastated as could possibly get, it's almost like it looks to be self- destructed on a way that u can't even imagine - very stupidly and very ugly.
The soundtrack is one of the greatest one i've heard in years, and have to say it's one of the strongest asset of this "weird movie" (i also recommend the song from the trailer "Cameras - Defeatist").I find it very difficult to rate it, but i do one thing know - this could have been great..
Every once in a while i get to watch something great like this flick and i spend hours thinking about it and just wondering about my life and how it turned out.
After reading countless negative reviews on this film, I feel like a real outcast when I say I enjoyed it and this is why.
The fundamental concept to the movie is quite far fetched until you look deep in to the characters lives and circumstances and realize that its all very possible.This is a film for 25 - 55 year old guys to be watched by yourself or with other guys ...
A prior dabbling with recreational drugs also helps the appeal to the characters personalities and occurrences in the movie.Only thing was the music sometimes drowned out the speech but it does give it the feel of an abstract / indie movie.Good acting, especially from Piven..
People go into it thinking its a Hollywood blockbuster and their surprised by the indy film feel to it.This is about 4 lifelong friends who meet up and spend a week together just like they do every year.
I couldn't wait to see this, but after watching this movie the best thing about it is the extrodanry Soundtrack!
What this movie lacks in plot, it makes up for with memories of excessive drug use, I was the pot smoker, and the music is one of the best Soundtracks that I've ever heard!
Sadly, this film was a terrible reminder of the friends I've lost over the years to excessive drug use..
It can drive people to do things suddenly and out of impulse, often to the destruction of everyone around them.Welcome to "I Melt With You." This artistic, visually stunning drama takes four middle-aged college friends, each with their own baggage, to the coasts of central California for a rowdy reunion of one week.
If these sequences were shortened by 50%, there would be no effectiveness lost to the film's message and there would've been ample more time to develop more likable characters.And man, trust me when I say that these guys are some real Grade-A douchebags.
If you are a 44-year-old man who snorts coke with his college friends and never reached emotional maturity, then maybe you'll relate.Overall, yes, this film offers some good things but they're nothing that can't be had in better and larger quantities in other great addiction dramas.
The film progresses to some really dark, unsettling places, involving a pact the four of them made 25 years before, and the ramifications of where their self disappointed lives have ended up.
I enjoyed this movie, although it took me a couple runs to get through it due to the tedious drug binging scenes that almost make you feel like you are high as well!
I think the movie was filmed in Big Sur, CA...
I watched "I Melt with You" right after I watched "Husbands." On the surface the movies have a lot of similarities, both featuring middle-aged men at a crossroads in their lives, overindulging their Ids in a desperate attempt to relive the good times they left behind when they became responsible adults.
But the movies have a lot of differences, too, the chief one being that "Husbands" was written and directed by the acclaimed John Cassavetes; "I Melt with You" was decidedly not.In "I Melt with You," four friends, all age 44, gather at a rented mansion in Big Sur for their annual reunion.
Richard (an over-the-top Thomas Jane) is a failed novelist now teaching high school English; Jonathan (Rob Lowe) is a doctor/drug dealer; Ron (Jeremy Piven) is a money manager dodging the SEC; and Tim (Christian McKay), in what just as easily could have been the "token black friend" role, is defined by his homosexuality and thoughtful demeanor so I guess we don't have to know what he does for a living.
Upon the guys' arrival at the vacation manse — which, I should mention, seems more within the actors' price range, not their characters' — the movie becomes "Less than Zero: The Reunion." Their week proceeds thusly: Get drunk and do coke.Drink some more and do more coke, plus pop some of those pills that Jonathan brought.Do donuts in Richard's Porsche while snorting coke.Do still more coke.Splash naked in the ocean.Get drunk and do coke, with some pills to mellow things out.More cocaine!
No matter how artful director Mark Pellington's camera angles are, no matter how beautiful the lighting, no matter how cool the soundtrack, watching Jane, Lowe, Piven and McKay Hoover up mountains of cocaine and talk about p---y hair gets real tedious real quick.
In real life if these guys ingested as much drugs and alcohol as they do in this movie they'd be in an emergency room by the second day of their gathering — or dead.
This is where I should bring up that Carla Gugino is in this too, as a cop/deus ex machina, but I'm betting she wouldn't be offended if you forgot she's part of this movie.I didn't exactly like "Husbands" — I thought parts were better than the whole — but I appreciated what Cassavetes was trying to do, not to mention it features some strong acting.
If I were to write this review imitating Chris Traeger, a character played by Rob Lowe on the show 'Parks and Recreation,' I would undoubtedly start off by saying that this was LITERALLY one of the most disappointing movies I have ever seen (and keep in mind, Chris is normally a beacon of positivity).
Following four middle aged college friends who come together for a weekend of fun, booze, and drugs, 'I Melt with You' had the potential to be a modern 'Return of the Seacacus Seven,' but ended up being closer to the annoying younger brother of 'The Big Chill.' Director Mark Pellington, who is more commonly known for his documentary work, boldly takes a swing and a miss.
I was expecting a lot more because of the ''omg this film was awesome'' reviews displayed on here.The movie included a few nice songs.The cinematography is very good,that made it more easy to watch but still,like I always say: stay away from the ''kids know how to party'' teen flicks and it's all good...Why?
because that stuff gets old after 10 minutes,and even more when that's the only thing it has to offer to the audience.Points to be mentioned 1:Four old men reunited go on a drug trip,recycled situations/images of other movies.
I wonder if there's a word yet to describe the characters in "I Melt with You." These would be four male friends, all forty-four years of age, who have led separate lives since their college days but make it a point to reunite once a year.
Basically the way I see this movie is 4 guys killing themselves or each other because they can't party like they did when they were younger.
If you, like me, have watched the trailer for "I Melt With You" and are attracted to the allure of a philosophical tale about men confronting the harsh realities of late middle-age, think again.
(Come on, Mark Pellington, give me a break!) Like an MTV music video, the film carries along with truly effective moments of presenting the despair and dissatisfaction these four men recognize in their lives (as they continue to drink and drug themselves into oblivion), but then there is a turn for the worst when the sensitive Tim...I don't want to commit spoiler-violation-treason here so let's just suffice to say the film continues its downward spiral from here as it attempts to glorify the most selfish of acts.
it checks all the boxes, and almost tricks you into thinking you're watching a movie that is way better than it really is.
If this is the sort of thing your into, its a GREAT film, and probably attempts to publicize the position of a lot of men my age's current situations, but one cant help but think it is glorifying a very dark solution....
I wasn't entirely sure what this movie was going to be like when I started watching it.
It is a whirlwind ride of manic psyches, drugs, alcohol and something akin to a bad acid trip.Having made a similar evaluation of my own life several years ago, I could completely relate to the characters' vow and how it effected them during this week of debauchery.This movie is not for the faint of heart and take the viewer on a ride into places of the human psyche that aren't so pretty.
If you are (like me) a forty year old man looking forward to a boys-behaving-badly weekend with your old friends - do not watch this film.
Talk about taking a wrong turn to Negative town - if you want to feel empty and soulless and wander around asking, 'what does it all mean, what's the point of anything anyway?' for a few days - Watch this film..
Richard (Thomas Jane) is an English teacher with one published book to his credit, who is trying to reprise the free spirited, artsy bad boy he clearly was in college; Ron (Jeremy Piven) is a family man and stockbroker with the forces closing in on him, from a career that may not be as legitimate; Jonathan (Rob Lowe) is a divorced doctor pocketing cash on the side by making illegal sales of prescription drugs and a relationship with a young son that's clearly going south; and Tim (Christian McKay), a man who made one deeply fatal mistake in life that may have damaged him beyond curing.
I look at this film and I think of my friends, and I hope to God that we don't end up like the four main characters in this film.
During a party sequence in the film, the four characters find themselves in deep conversations with peers half their age, and in a way, representations of what they were like at that age, before family, career and responsibilities got to them.
Jeremy Piven has always crafted a career of playing the angry neurotic that he's performed well in films like "Very Bad Things" and "Entourage", and his character's descent into his own personal hell is something to watch.
But the four men take this film seriously as an actors piece, and they do it perfectly."I Melt With You" will slip into the abyss of the thousands of movies that get forgotten each decade.
In the sense that this movie strongly evoked my feelings (I had to hit the pause button often)- and forced me to consider my life story: it was a bitter pill, hard to watch but had some good effects..
The problem with watching a film such as this, and thinking that you could have done something more entertaining and enjoyable with the time, is that you don't know until you have watched it.
That opens the second half of the movie wherein misery, grief, self-pity and a long-dormant suicide pact are called into question, and what do think the odds are that they are going to make good on that very suicide pact.Pellington's visual style is to twist and turn the camera so that we feel the nausea of the drugs and of the inner-turmoil, but all it does it wear us out.
To read the lyric is imperative to understanding the film: '(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you/ (Let's stop the world) I've seen some changes but it's getting better all the/ Time / (Let's stop the world) There's nothing you and I won't do/ (Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you/ The future's open wide'When four 40-something college friends - Richard (Thomas Jane), Ron (Jeremy Piven), Jonathan (Rob Lowe), and Tim (Christian McKay) - meet up for their annual reunion, things start to spiral out of control, and a suicide pact they made as young men is revisited.