SYNOPSIS:

THE HURTING" A story of redemption inspired by the life of Paul Abramson By Chris Beams Screen play Synopsis By all accounts, PAUL ABRAMSON appears to most as a man to be envied. An up-and-coming figure in the underground LA music scene, Paul recently met his beautiful girlfriend, ANGIE, who despite his reticence to talk about his family or his past, is falling in love with him. As he is her. But when Paul finds his best friend, DAN, dead of a suicidal overdose of heroin, his past, one that Dan knew only too well as they had experienced it together, comes crashing down upon him. Tormented by the lingering effects of his abusive childhood, the incarceration in two psychiatric facilities and the devastating death of the friend he met in one, Paul decides to file a lawsuit against his parents. A suit similar to the one Dan filed. And lost in more ways then one. Meeting with his therapist, DR. ROSS, to go over his uncovered medical records to determine the merits of the case, Paul confronts the very nightmare he worked so hard to overcome. We flashback to his childhood where we discover the roots of Paul's harrowing ordeal; his maniacal mother, JANE, and his spineless father, FLOYD. Jane's disdain for men, a result of the abuse she knew at the hands of her wealthy father, focuses squarely on Paul as she attempts to isolate him from his sister, ANNE. When she fails, she commits Paul at age five to the Pritzker Center for Children, headed by "Brutal Bruno," the discredited child psychologist, Dr. Bruno Bettleheim, his only possession being a watch his father gave him as he left him there, lying to him that he'd return for it in five minutes. While at the center, Paul struggles to overcome the rampant emotional, physical and sexual abuse in order to "get better" so he can return home. But due to his ever-increasing resistance to his incarceration and their inability to diagnose him with a disorder, they release Paul three harrowing years later to his family. But as his mother becomes more unstable and his father more physical with him, Paul retreats into his personal "asylum" provided by the music he loves and takes him, if only briefly, from the abuse he receives daily. But acting out for the love he so desperately needs, Paul's parents once again dump him off at the notorious Wilson Psychiatric Center for Teens where he meets Dan. Populated by children of the elite, pawned off for reason's of convenience, and the criminal youths the state pays to keep off the streets, the center is a farce set up by DR. WISLON simply to line his very pockets. Paul spends another three years "inside," his father's watch ticking every second by as he confronts the same nightmarish circumstances he did as a child at Pritzker, as well as many others no human of any age should ever be privy. Back in the present, Paul decides to go ahead with the case. But due to the demons of his past now released, he returns with a vengeance to the bottle and his life spirals out of control. Fearing the rejection he once knew so well, he pulls away from Angie, ultimately kicking her out of his condo and his life. His work begins to suffer and the case takes a turn for the worse, bringing back the suicidal thoughts he once had as a teen. Visiting with Dr. Ross throughout, she works to get at his deep-seeded abandonment issues and plants in Paul the knowledge he needs to find true happiness in life. But blinded by his desire to penalize his parents at all costs and legally prove his sanity, he continues down the reckless path to his all too certain destiny. After Paul discovers he lost the case, he heads out to the same cliff where he met Angie over a year before. Inching his toes over the edge, Angie shows up and tells him that she'd gotten pregnant shortly before she left and given birth to their child who now struggles for his life in the I.C.U. Torn, she felt Paul had a right to see him before he dies. As Paul looks down at his helpless child, the words Dr. Ross told him come to light and he reaches down and grabs Angie's hand. He maintains a vigil by Erik's incubator and, soon, he recovers. As does Paul. Now, during a music conference in Chicago in which Paul is the keynote speaker, Paul tracks down his family and hands the watch back to Floyd, telling him he doesn't have the time anymore to waste on such a pathetic relic. As Floyd erupts in an embarrassing display, Paul returns to the car where his new, real family, wait. As they pull away, Angie asks him who those people were back there. Paul simply replies, "I don't know. Some crazy people, I guess."

THE HURTING