Luise and Melissa

This is a classic character-oriented story. It began with the idea of a woman – Luise - with a history of violence, an enforcer for gangsters, a big-city slicker who loves the vibrant nightlife and who is now forced to exist in a small, cold, and in her opinion – boring - town. So, this woman experiences a depressed and frustrated existence and turns to alcohol as a coping mechanism. Then another character took shape – Melissa - a ten-year-old girl who didn’t speak and who had an arm in a cast and who would be a catalyst for Luise to find a purpose and a reason to snap out of her self-induced funk. This of course takes effort, Luise being not unlike Rick Blaine in “Casablanca” (1942), at first refusing to get involved in Melissa’s life, wanting to keep to herself, to be her own island – refusing the call to action. But once she commits, a duo is born, and like all good double acts, their interactions at first are laboured and humourous but in good time they bring real growth and change.
So “Luise and Melissa” is a character dramedy with a dressing of crime and action thrown in for good measure and it is 101 pages long. The setting is that of a small, snowy town surrounded by nature, with flashbacks set in Brooklyn, New York. It deals with themes such as loss, depression, trauma, second chances, and letting go of the past and embracing the new. It is a story that blends together drama and humour, as well as action and suspense, and one that is at its core a character-centered piece. The budget is estimated in the 4 to 8 million range.