Plot

Benjamin and Carla have been friends since early childhood. Benjamin suffers from Autism. Carla, a senior in high school, suffers from stress perhaps from everyday life or perhaps from her addiction to "vikes."

Fine Lines Our story starts with Benjamin in a courtroom. He is very unsure of both the current situation and himself. As he watches the bailiff tie his shoe, he has a flashback of Carla doing the same thing to him.Carla and Benjamin have been best friends since before they can remember. Being next-door neighbors, they were always at each others houses. Having first met at such a young age, they never recognized any problems with one another. But as they matured, it was evident that they were different. Benjamin suffers from autism and ADD. By the time Carla is old enough to realize the situation, it has become the norm to her, so it does not faze her. Although for other people it is a different story. Benjamin brings out the best in Carla. They have this one song, Some Day Soon that basically defines their relationship. Throughout the movie we see them always singing it to each other well Carla sings it. Benjamin tries, but is not too successful with remembering the words. The flashback triggers quite a few other scenes which help establish the history and chemistry between various characters in the story. We discover that Carla has another friend, Melissa. Tension is in their friendship because of Carlas addiction to prescription drugs. Carla is like the black sheep in her family. Not for any reason in particular, but because she just simply does not fit in. She is unhappy with her life, and so takes prescription drugs to help get through the difficulty of every day life. Only problem is that Melissas older brother Leo is the one who supplies the "Vikes" to Carla. Melissa parents passed away two years prior in an accident in the Adirondacks. Leo has been taking care of her. Basically he treats her like dirt when he talks to her. Given the fact that he too has problems dealing with the death of their parents. Melissa hates her life situation and wants to get out by using her academics. The fact that her best friend uses drugs from her brother drives her insane. Carlas addiction becomes so bad, that she eventually ends up sleeping with Leo in order to get pills because she has no more money. Everything around her starts to crumble including her family life. When she goes over her little brother Frankies assistant baseball coachs house for a harmless get together, it blows up in her face because of her recent change in behavior. She gets in a very heated argument with her parents about everything going on, and takes the last of her pills and falls asleep. When she awakens she decides that she cant live like this anymore and thinks that she is done with her pill problem. While hanging out with Benjamin, she starts to feel her addiction. After taking them for so long, her body does not know how to react with her sudden stoppage of taking the pills. She starts to experience symptoms of a withdrawal. It gets so bad, that she brings Benjamin with her to meet with Leo. Now Carla still has no money, and at this point is willing to sleep with Leo again in order to get her pills. However Leo only wants money. Sleeping with Carla was a one-time thing, just to say that he did it. He has no further interest in her sexually. So this meeting starts to become confrontational - in fact physical. Leo shoves Carla, and this motivates Benjamin to act. Leo is beating Carla demanding money, and Benjamin pulls him off and hits him in the head with a rock. As we see a close up of Leos bloody face, we see Carla and Benjamin running away out of focus. Carla takes them back to Benjamins house, where the current adrenaline and paranoia has taken over, she is beyond desperate for pills at this point, in fact hysterical, and is hopelessly looking everywhere for something anything. At this point Benjamin suggests that she take some of his medicine because she looks sick, and his parents always give him the medicine when he starts to get sick. Benjamin hands his bottle of Adderall to Carla. She knows what will happen if she takes his medicine, but is at the point in her life where she could care less. She takes the biggest handful she can muster. The next day Benjamins parents come into his room and find them together, but this is not abnormal because there is no sexual tension between them so it is perfectly acceptable that they sleep with one another they know they are just friends. But they cannot manage to get Carla up. They begin to panic and call 911. Benjamin does not know what is going on, and begins to have a panic attack. While under the influence of the pills, Cara has a peculiar dream in which Benjamin is normal. He questions her about her recent activities and why she is doing them.This is now a very gritty and distorted part of the story where we switch back and forth between the paramedics with Carla, and Benjamin with his panic attack. We are back to a long scene in the courtroom. Benjamin is now directed and crossed by the respective attorneys. The cross becomes so much for him that the judge has to intervene. This event triggers another flashback to a funeral. We do not know whos it is. The scene cuts back to the courtroom as Benjamin drops a rose onto casket, with perfect timing of the judge pounding on the gavel. In the courtroom the judge gets order from the previous uprising during the cross, and we see Leo raise his head in the audience. Turns out Benjamin is not in court for killing Leo with a blow to the head. Judge reads the charges. We now know that Benjamin is in court for the death of Carla. He starts doing his thing where he cannot notice anyone else except what he is doing and has a flashback. This flashback is different. It is comprised of many different stills and memories shown throughout the film to build up to a short scene of Benjamin at Carlas grave. In this short scene he talks about not being sure when he will be able to see her again, and attempts to sing their song but forgets the words again. Talks about how she was always better with the words then he was. Brings up a warm memory. Judges words become un-muffled and we are back to the courtroom. He has just finished saying the sentence and asks if Benjamin has anything that he would like to say. Benjamin starts with much difficulty, but eventually is able to get the words out of the song that he and Carla shared. He has a look of pride on his face afterwards that just says, Looks Carla I did it. I remembered! He has never truly realized the gravity of the situation, but knows that Carla will always be with him, and that right there he made her proud. To him that is all that matters.