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Log Line A mechanic obsessed with replacing his dead wife forms an uncommon bond with a fortune teller over the murder of an innocent woman. Short Synopsis Tobey, a mechanic, uses desperate measures to replace the void in his life left by his dead wife. When an inflatable doll, dressed in his wife’s clothing, ruptures, he kidnaps and kills a woman he has been secretly watching. But preserving this “organic” doll proves to be more difficult than it appears. Weaving in and out of this storyline is April, a fortune teller with her own secret and long-held obsession for Tobey. Earthly Things is about the events that ultimately bring Tobey and April together, and a tale of the destructive and consuming nature of obsession. Synopsis Tobey, a mid-to-late-twenties mechanic, leads a lonely life. Consumed by the memory of his dead wife, he tries to fill his need for companionship with an inflatable sex doll. Yet even he eventually realizes the absurdity of his actions, sending him into a deeper state of despair. When Tobey meets April — an eccentric fortune teller who brings her car into the auto shop where he works — his curiosity and obsessive nature is piqued. She leads him to believe that he has already met the woman who will replace his wife. But what Tobey fails to understand is that April is speaking of herself — and her flirtation goes unnoticed. Instead, Tobey is convinced that a stranger he has voyeuristically watched — a woman sitting by the edge of a river — is destined to be his companion. Pushed over the edge by the accidental rupture of his inflatable doll, Tobey decides to kidnap the woman by the river — Faith — as a replacement. But her resistance ends up being more than he is willing to put up with. Driven to a murderous rage, preserving this new, “organic” doll proves to be more difficult than it first appears. Adding to Tobey’s tension, April takes this opportunity to reemerge in Tobey’s life — and makes a startling revelation that both shocks Tobey off his fragile foundation and offers him a solution to his dilemma. Ultimately, Earthly Things is about the events that bring Tobey and April together, and a tale of the destructive and consuming nature of obsession. Themes Earthly Things is an attempt to explore the conscious choice of some to stray from a moral and righteous path in life and instead indulge in selfish pursuits. It is a story of a man and woman who don’t make the right choices to improve their lives, but rather choose — essentially — to live doomed existences. However, rather than being a condemnation of these characters, in many ways this is a sympathetic love story. It is an illustration that human beings — no matter how hopeless and flawed — still need companionship.
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