Movie Movie Podcast

Cup of Life is a romantic drama written by Zoe Kazan and directed by Marc Webb.

Cup of Life is about second chances, love, loss, and learning how to live blah blah blah.  Anyway Cup of Life begins with a young man named Jonathan, played by Kit Harrington getting ready for work.  We get the hint from his answering machine, that his girlfriend has recently broken up with him and wants to get her stuff back.  He deletes her message and goes on getting ready for his day.  He walks out of his Greenwich Village apartment and hops on his bike.  He gets off and ties up his bike and heads into Cup of Life.  Once he goes inside he pulls out his macbook and starts writing.  It is clear that he is a writer and goes to coffee shops to write.  However right as he is about to begin writing the manager played by Geoffrey Arend tells him that he has to buy something first.  He goes to the front of the line with a pack of mints to buy and then the manager rudely tells him to get to the back of the line. When he finally gets to the front the manager, clearly just being a pain at this point tells him he has to buy a beverage, and they have a long drawn out back and forth over him just ordering a cup of regular coffee, when that is the only thing they don’t have on their menu.  The girl behind him, Laura, played by Zoe Kazan starts giggling over the exchange and when Jonathan doesn’t have enough money on him, she gives him an extra quarter.  He thanks her and grabs his latte and goes back to his table.

Some time passes and Jonathan is deep in his writing process, when Laura interrupts him and asks if that seat is taken.  He says that he is writing on a deadline, and Laura, says “good, then you wont mind a break.” She asks him what he’s writing and he mentions he’s got a deal with a publisher and if he doesn’t get the first 3 chapters of his book to the publisher by the end of the month he’ll lose the deal.  Laura asks about the book and he tells her it’s a coming of age story and they get to talking about it and other stuff.  As time wears on, it is now dark outside and Jonathan says he’d better go.  She agrees it’s late and he offers to walk her home.  She says thanks but no, and leaves out the door.  A few seconds pass, and Jonathan runs out to get her number and she’s already out of sight.

The next day at the coffee shop while Jonathan is working on his book, Laura taps him on the shoulder and sits down.  They start having yet another effortless conversation and it is becoming clear to the audience that their may be some connection between the two.  Jonathan asks if he can take her out sometime and Laura in her quirky way says that she doesn’t really do dates, but she’d be more than happy to meet him at Cup of Life sometime when he’s not working for a cup of coffee.  The next week he meets her at Cup of Life with flowers and they have yet another great night of conversation and laughs.  Eventually he asks her more and more questions about her life and the conversation turns sour.  All of a sudden Laura has to leave because she has to do something she forgot about.  She quickly leaves the shop and Jonathan runs after her, but she’s nowhere to be seen when he looks outside.

The next day he sees her again in the coffee shop and asks her if everything is ok and she says yes, but it’s clear she is hiding something.  She says that she likes him but she’s nervous if he knew the truth about her he wouldn’t want to date her.  He asks her what is it.  She tells him that she died 3 months ago.  He laughs and says that it’s a funny joke, but then she does some ghosty shit to someone right in front of her and they don’t see it.  He asks if anyone else can see her.  She says that only necessary people can.  He asks what that means and then in a flashback sequence we see that Laura used to be a career-oriented woman always focused on her job and often ignoring the people closest to her.  One day while texting and walking she is hit by a truck (meet joe black style) and killed.  When she dies, she barters with an Angel to let her live longer.  She never knew what it was like to love cause she was always busy.  The Angel allows her to remain alive long enough to experience love, but once she feels true love she’s going to die for real or something.  She takes the deal and it’s conditions allow her to come to that coffee shop and nowhere else.

Jonathan realizing its true says that he doesn’t want her to die for real so they should just be friends and keep on meeting each day if that’s all they can do.

This goes on for sometime and we can see they clearly are growing to become more than friends, and one day Laura comes to the coffee shop and looks pallid.  It is clear that something is wrong.  Jonathan growing worried asks if there is anything he can do.  She says theres nothing left to do.  For the first time in her life she is in love and it’s killing her.  Jonathan starts crying and says he’ll leave her alone if it means she stays alive and Laura says its no use, the deal is already done, but there is one thing he can do for her: Kiss her.  So the music swells and the camera pans and Jonathan and Laura actually touch for the first time and she slowly starts to fade into translucent ghost form, but not before they both say at the same time, “I love you.”

The camera fades to black.

A few months pass and we see Jonathan has written a book about Laura and the deal she made for love and it becomes a bestseller.  Everything works out in the end for him.

Da End.