The Rage in Placid Lake

The Rage in Placid Lake is a comedy in the tradition of Charley Bartlett, Sebastian Cole and Igby, however there are a few clever twists. The first clever twist is the title of the film. Placid Lake isn’t a place, it’s our protagonist. He’s a slightly nerdy prep school grad that has been systematically bullied his entire school career by the same three idiots. The film starts with his hippy dippy parents dropping him off at first grade in a dress saying it was ‘challenging people’s ideas of gender roles.’ Poor Placid is scarred for life. When he cries to mom and dad about the beatings, they tell him to find the positive in it. That was the same day he would meet his best super genius crayon-eating gal pal, Jemma.


Fast forward to senior year and the beatings he’s gotten accustomed to from the head bully Bull and his faithful minions. One day Placid puts Bull on the spot in private pegging him as homosexual, Bull doesn’t protest; but uses his fists to cover the truth. Placid is a very thoughtful and devious type that plans his revenge very carefully. He enters a film contest and does a documentary about how great his school is, and shows it at a school assembly to many applause. Placid is set to show the film at graduation to all the parents as well and switches the film to show his tormentors extorting other students and selling drugs on campus; as well as his out of touch hippy parents sexual melt downs. Naturally this would earn him another beating. He is chased to the roof of the school and cornered. Just as the bullies are about to pummel him he decides to jump off the roof, shattering every bone in his body. He would be in a coma for months, only to recover and decide he wants to ‘be like everyone else.’


He lies his way into a prestigious Insurance firm and gets a salary job. His hippy parents are beside themselves with disdain at this, as ‘they raised him to be a free expressive spirit.’ To shut them up he pretends to quit and hang around coffee shops all day, only going into the shed out back to change back into his suit and tie and continue working. His best friend Jemma is even a little creeped out by his changes and holds him at arms length as well. Placid charms his way into a higher position at work; bypassing his co worker Anton, and starts a purely sexual liaison with the company hotness Jane; much to Anton’s chagrin and jealousy. Though Placid always longed for structure; as the pressures of being a ‘company man’ and the hollow sex with Jane take their toll he starts to reexamine his choices and the reasons behind them. The pressure becomes too much for his nemesis Anton, and Placid has to use his wits to cheat death. You’ll have to watch and see how Placid jumps out of the way of deaths gun barrel. Crazy, quirky and thoughtful.