Red Shoe Diaries
Jake Winters (David Duchovny) is devastated at the funeral of his fiancée. An old lady, Martha (Brenda Vaccaro) tells him to speak with her when he feels like it. At that moment, he can't make head or tails of it. He comes back to his luxury home, where her voice is still recorded at the answering machine. Jake distractedly pets his dog, Stella (Blake the Dog), and plays with a basket ball, pushing some building blocks all over the place.When he starts putting things in bags, he finds his fiancée's red diary. He sits down to read it. He remembers her, smiling, full of life, dancing on her own all the time.Cut to Alex (Brigitte Bako) in her underwear, with a red shawl and a pair of boots, dancing with Stella all over the place. Cut to a kind of Mexican wedding party at an outdoors garden, where she and Jake make out among the flowers and the garden. Meanwhile, a Mexican-looking lady (Mattie Cline) is dancing in a traditional costume. She says she wants a secret, a mystery in her life, something which will be hers and hers alone.Both are successful professionals who want to redecorate their luxury flat. She doesn't like her job as much as him likes his, though.She had to have her eyes checked. She's got one of her eyes really irritated, so the optometrist (Jonathan Zeichner) has to give her a pirate's eye patch. She talks to a lady in a bus, so she can't see another driver who honks at her. She falls onto the arms of Thomas K. Butler (Billy Wirth). Attraction among them is apparent. They splash into the water springing from a punctured waterpipe.Cut to distraught Jake, who realises there's a blood stain on the floor. He tastes it in his mouth. When she comes back to the optician, he admires Thomas' body, saying that there's no competition between him and Jake. They take the same bus, him shining among the rest of working people. He enters onto a Lady's shoe outlet, while she buys a bouquet of flowers for him.It looks as though he's a shop assistant there as well. She enters the shop. He thinks he recognises her, but she denies it. He shows her a pair of 7 and a half sized red high-heeled shoes. They feel attracted to each other, that's clear, and they admit it's irrational. Two older ladies interrupt them. He also gives her his address.Meanwhile, Jake plays basketball on his own at his apartment. Jake remembers a particular time in which himself and her made love after she took a bath in the huge tub.Jake looks for the red shoes in desperation. Alex runs to Jake, and sees how he's having an argument at the construction site. Alex goes to Tom's address, which is a cheap room somewhere full of poor houses. Alex is wearing a business coat, her red shoes and a short lace nightgown. At first, they look shy with each other, and they talk about what happiness is, but then, they make love violently, and he tears her clothes with passion.Instead of designing the building map he's supposed to be designing, Jake keeps on reading and reading the diary, even though it hurts him.Alex has her hair cut, and then goes to Tom in a schoolgirl's short skirt to make love to him. Jake remembers once when he and Alex danced. He imagines her writing on her diary.Tom visits Alex on her work all dressed to the nines. They had not seen each other for two weeks, and she writes that she's worried about that. Her colleague Michelle (Rhonda Aldrich) will continue the silk sale. She wonders how he got to know where she worked, and she says that she doesn't even know his name. When he says it was Tom, at first she tries to protest. He talks about his life and the bad decisions he made. Tom leaves the place and joins a game of street basketball.Alex is playing frisbee with her dog, but even the dog looks scared of her. Alex's wild 17th birthday party with all her girlfriends (Anna Karin, Christina Caron...). She feels isolated from them anyway. Cut to another of Alex's birthdays. She is with Jake and bursts a piñata open. The present is not the candy she was anticipating: it is a ring. That day, Jake asks her to marry him. She doesn't seem to want to give an answer straight away, but he insists.They go to the ballet studio to Alex's mother, who's not impressed with him being an architect. Alex's father was a "cocksucker" and Martha asks him whether he's patient, a good lover. Alex freaks out.Jake puts Alex's wedding dress onto a suitcase.Tom gets a letter to the shoe shop and signs the receipt of the messenger (Kelsey) . Tom calls on Alex, who's been drinking. She says she had the flu and that she's getting married. Tom shouts at her that he won't leave her. She slaps him and pushes him away. She says that Jake disgusts her, but she'll marry him. She slaps him, and admits that she wants him; he wants to go on with their relationship. They make love passionately. Obviously, all this damages Jake's spirit some more.When Alex returns home, she looks drunk. The taxi driver (Harry Cohn) drops her on the street and two bike riders steal her jacket. Once at home, she plays with fire and a torch. She ends up crawling like a worm: she is desperate. She gets onto the bathtub and takes off her engagement ring. Dressed with a black negligée, she cuts herself.Stella accompanies Jake while he's almost kissing one of those red shoes. It's night, and his colleague Paul (Kai Wulff) is out on the street, honking at Jake in his apartment, telling him that their customers are asking questions; that what happened to him was horrible, but that he must go on.Jake, and Stella on tow, call on Tom while at work. Tom says that his name is Michael. He asks for some red shoes as a present to a lady. They go to a bar, where they make a bet on the basketball game. Ingrid (Leana Hall), Jake's new girlfriend appear with Heidi 1 and Heidi 2. The girls watch Jake and Tom play a game of basketball at Tom's apartment. Tom loses, but he's a hit with the ladies. The match stops and Jake is getting more and more pissed off. The match gets hectic, while the girls cheer. Jake breaks Tom's nose.They go on with the game. They are shirtless and hold a conversation while playing. The situation gets very intense. The girls try to stop them, but they have a fist fight. Jake is so frustrated..! Finally, Marlene (Bridgit Ryan) hugs him.Tom could have made out with one of the Heidis.Jake blames Tom for everything in front of Marlene.They hug, while Tom and Heidi go somewhere private. Marlene realises how deep Jake is in shit. All the girls leave the apartment, but the other Heidi doesn't want to leave without her friend. The two Heidis appear, pushing each other: the second Heidi didn't want to leave.Tom and Jake are alone, one on one. The latter throws the red shoes to Tom's feet. He recognises them and realises who Jake is. They fight. "Where is she?", asks Tom - she doesn't know she committed suicide. Jake tells him what happened bluntly.When Jake pulled her out from the tub, it was too late. He hugs to her on the bathroom floor.Tom and Jake get release of each other. Tom punches Jake, who is left on the floor while Stella licks his head.Tom walks by, smoking, in the misty dark night. A train passes by.Jake takes Alex's suitcases of stuff to Martha's home. She's been drinking, and can't refrain herself from crying. Jake tries to offer some consolation, saying that it was not Martha's fault. He remembers again himself and Alex, playing in the garden with Stella.Jake is having coffee at a diner, and while the waitress (Suzanne Lanza) gives him his change, he finishes the red diary. Stella waited outside.Jake goes to a public phone and calls the newspaper to put an ad on the contacts page: he will pay for the stories the ladies want to send him.He plays with a red ball with Stella.---written by KrystelClaire
cult, romantic