Chloe's Claire

This script has received favorable coverage from the 2017 Page International Screenwriting Awards, StoryPros, Scriptapalooza, LiveRead/LA, Script Pipeline, The Indie Gathering International Film Festival, Finish Line Script Competition, and the WILDSound Feedback Film and Screenplay Festival.

Chloe Murphy is an eleven-year-old science prodigy with a cynical disposition and a caustic wit. Chloe's father, John, is a likable but poorly educated construction worker who just wants a better life for his daughter.

Despite her tough exterior, Chloe struggles with the fact that her drug-addicted mother, Rose, abandoned her as a baby. John tries to shield Chloe by sweeping the entire past under the rug.

More interested in string theory than boy bands, Chloe spends most of her time alone working on an invention that nearly burns down the house. Real trouble emerges though when Chloe finds a doll named Claire hidden in the attic among pictures of Rose.

Angry that John has hidden the doll, Chloe storms out of the house and is hit by a car. She recovers from the accident but is diagnosed with terminal cancer at the hospital. Her only wish is to see her mother, a request that puts John on a collision course with Rose and her ex-con boyfriend Ray.

After showing up on her doorstep unannounced, John bribes Rose to visit Chloe in the hospital by offering her the deed to his childhood home. Rose reluctantly agrees to the deal but arrives at the hospital with Ray, and John explodes.

When they finally meet Chloe realizes how selfish Rose really is, but Rose is moved by the encounter and redeems herself outside the hospital by giving John back the deed and deserting Ray.

After Chloe dies, John searches through her science notebooks, trying to piece together a reason for living.

In the end, John finds the link between quantum entanglement and Chloe's poignant insight that "nothing really ever goes away."

This gritty but redemptive story carefully intertwines the emotional arcs of the characters with the world of quantum physics. Audiences will adore Chloe's biting sense of humor and will empathize with John's personal turmoil as he reunites with the woman he lost while losing the daughter he cherishes.