Rick visits Jamie a year after the accident. In that time we can imagine there has been a great deal of grieving and bitterness. But why now? Why has Rick returned on the day of his deceased younger brother's birthday? Has he simply come to save Jamie from a desperate state of mind. He clearly knows that something is wrong with Jamie. We can imagine that a friend or family member has got word to Rick that Jamie is in a bad way.
But is Rick also in need of something? The actor playing Rick has to find a mix of emotions that best serves this situation. At the same time that Rick feels the need to help his old friend he is also very tentative about what he might find. Seeing a crazed gun wielding Jamie is an unsettling experience and one can only imagine that seeing Jamie this way holds inherent grief and regret for Rick. No doubt he blames himself for what happened. Is Rick in his own way crying for help by trying to regain something of the past through Jamie? Is the impossibility of this desire confirmed for Rick by the time he has to leave Jamie is his abject condition? The scene plays through high intensity while also allowing the actors to explore moments of reflection and at times deep regret and nostalgia. Rick is no doubt torn between seeing Jamie, having to confront the reality that his old friend is also his brother's killer and reaching out to help him in his hour of greatest need. What sort of character is Rick? What are his strengths and weaknesses? Is he a straight-forward sort of guy who is simply grappling with the consequences of a dire set of mistakes? Although he didn't pull the trigger perhaps his guilt is just as intense as Jamie's. Rick's confession to Billy in the heat of the argument gives us an insight into Rick's character. RICK: And I'm the one who brought all the whiskey and speed
and shit ... I knew you two shouldn't have had so much ... I knew
you were trying to keep up with me ...
RICK's months of self-loathing come to the surface. RICK: ... but I let it go on you know why? Cos it felt good being
King Prick. And the more fucking wasted you two got the better I
felt ... (about myself). JAMIE: We'd have done anything for you, man. RICK: (vulnerable and visibly distraught) Billy looked up at me
when he was trippin' ...his eyes were glazed and he just looked at
me from somewhere inside - scared the fuck out of me. But I
didn't stop him. My own little brother. The challenge in this scene for the actor playing Rick is to find the character's need. As perhaps it is for any scene. The past cannot be undone and Rick feels he is just as complicit as Jamie in Billy's death. If Jamie recognises this will Rick achieve two of his deepest deires: firstly, to feel comfort in sharing his remorse and secondly, in saving Jamie from misery and suicide? The character of Jamie is so deeply wracked with guilt and pain he seems beyond saving. The intensity of his desire for self destruction feels as powerful as any drug and in that sense he seems totally hooked. But a thread exists that stops him from pulling the trigger. But when Rick comes to visit this is the impetus that Jamie seizes on to drive him over the edge. When Rick refuses to pull the trigger himself Jamie realises what he has been waiting for - a witness to his suicide. This desire is a diametric opposite of Rick's. While Rick wants to taste some kind of redemption from his guilt Jamie only wants his own ultimate destruction. The force of these opposing needs provides the actors with the opportunity to explore a raw force of wills. |