A Nickel for a Parallel

### **A Nickel for a Parallel**
**A Film/TV Treatment**

**1. LOGLINE**

A rigid, by-the-book lawyer's world unravels when he discovers the dusty convenience store at the heart of a bizarre property dispute operates on its own laws of physics, forcing him to confront a reality far stranger than any legal precedent.

**2. SYNOPSIS**

MARVIN JESSOP, a meticulous and unflappable lawyer in his forties, arrives at a dilapidated convenience store to resolve a seemingly straightforward but contradictory property line dispute. The store, run by the eccentric and deceptively sharp TOMMY, is a relic filled with oddities, and Marvin immediately senses something is amiss beyond the clutter. The legal issue is a paradox: two valid surveys place the property boundary in two mutually exclusive locations. While Marvin relies on deeds and schematics, Tommy speaks in riddles about the "elasticity" of the land and the store's defiance of straight lines. Frustrated by Tommy’s philosophical diversions, Marvin is challenged to investigate a spatial anomaly within the store itself. Armed with his own measuring tape, he confirms the impossible: the building's internal dimensions are fluid and defy Euclidean geometry. As Marvin's rational worldview shatters, Tommy reveals that the true nature of the property is tied to a mysterious, ancient wooden box that hums with an otherworldly energy, hinting that the key to the dispute lies not in law books, but in something far more fundamental and strange.

**3. CHARACTER BREAKDOWN**

* **MARVIN JESSOP (40s):** A sharp, impeccably dressed corporate lawyer who lives by logic, facts, and precedent. He is a man of straight lines and fixed realities, finding comfort in the order of the legal system. His confidence borders on arrogance, but it stems from a genuine belief in a rational, measurable world. His journey is one of forced intellectual and spiritual upheaval, from supreme confidence to utter bewilderment.

* **TOMMY (60s-70s):** The proprietor of the convenience store. On the surface, he is a study in casual dishevelment, but his "magpie-sharp" eyes and dry, intelligent wit betray a profound understanding of the world's hidden mechanics. He is a gatekeeper, a sage hiding in plain sight, who finds amusement in the rigidities of the outside world. He acts as a reluctant guide, nudging Marvin towards a truth he can't possibly articulate in legal terms.

**4. SCENE BEATS**

* **THE RELIC:** MARVIN JESSOP enters the dim, dusty convenience store. The oppressive heat outside gives way to a thick, stagnant air inside.
* **VISUALS:** We see the world through Marvin’s critical eyes: shelves of forgotten brands, faded wrappers, a cracked linoleum floor. The light seems to bend at odd angles. It’s a place out of time.
* **BEAT:** Marvin, a man of order, is immediately unsettled by the quiet chaos of the place. It’s not just messy; it feels fundamentally *wrong*.

* **THE PROPRIETOR:** TOMMY, the disheveled owner, rises from behind the counter. He is the human embodiment of the store’s entropy.
* **DIALOGUE:** Their initial exchange establishes the dynamic: Marvin is all business and polite condescension ("I hope I haven't interrupted anything vital"). Tommy is all dry wit and philosophical deflection ("Clarity is a luxury we rarely afford here").

* **THE LEGAL PARADOX:** Marvin lays out the case. He unfurls pristine architectural schematics on the grimy counter, a stark visual contrast.
* **BEAT:** He explains the impossible situation: two legitimate surveys, one from his client (OmniCorp) and one from Tommy’s older deeds, place the same wall in two different locations, three meters apart. It is a "lawyer's nightmare."

* **THE WHIMSICAL DEFENSE:** Tommy dismisses Marvin’s linear logic, suggesting the land has an "elasticity" and that the law needs more "whimsy."
* **BEAT:** Marvin’s professional frustration mounts. He sees Tommy as an eccentric old man deliberately obfuscating the facts. The conflict shifts from a legal dispute to a battle of worldviews: logic vs. paradox.

* **THE SPATIAL RIDDLE:** Tommy challenges Marvin’s perception directly. He poses a logical puzzle about the store's layout—how measuring the distance to the back storeroom from two different entrances yields contradictory results.
* **BEAT:** This is the hook. Marvin, a man who loves puzzles, is irritated but undeniably intrigued. He senses a trap but can't resist the challenge to his own logic.

* **THE IMPOSSIBLE MEASUREMENT:** Feeling a need to debunk this absurdity, Marvin walks the store. He pulls out his own measuring tape—a symbol of his reliance on tangible fact.
* **CLIMAX OF THE BEAT:** He measures. He re-measures. The tape confirms the impossibility. 2.7 meters from one path, 3.1 meters from another, to the *same fixed point*.
* **VISUALS:** Close-ups on Marvin’s trembling hands, the stark numbers on the tape, his face shifting from disbelief to a cold, dawning horror. His composure finally cracks.

* **THE REVELATION:** Tommy appears silently behind Marvin, as if from nowhere. He gives a name to the phenomenon: the space is "fluid."
* **BEAT:** The power dynamic has completely inverted. Marvin is lost and terrified; Tommy is calm and in control.

* **THE ARTIFACT:** Tommy reveals he is holding a small, intricately carved wooden box. It seems ancient and gives off a faint, resonant hum.
* **BEAT:** He explains that the "true nature" of the disputed land is tied to an item within this box. The legal case is now explicitly linked to a supernatural/sci-fi object.

* **THE CLIFFHANGER:** Tommy begins to open the box. A cool, internal light shimmers from within, casting an otherworldly glow on their faces. Marvin is frozen, a moth drawn to a flame, trapped between his instinct to flee and his desperate need to understand. Tommy pauses, the box tantalizingly ajar.

**5. VISUAL STYLE**

* **AESTHETIC:** Hyper-realism meets magical realism. The film should ground the audience in a tangible, recognizable world before subtly twisting it.
* **THE STORE:** The production design is key. It is a character in itself. The look is one of accumulated history—not nostalgic, but stagnant. Saturated dust motes hang in the air. The colours are faded and muted, dominated by browns, yellows, and the sickly green of fluorescent lighting.
* **CINEMATOGRAPHY:** The camera should reflect Marvin's perspective. Initially, shots are stable, locked-off, and composed with a lawyer's precision. As he becomes more unsettled, the camera becomes more subjective. We use subtle visual cues to suggest the spatial anomaly *before* it's confirmed: slight lens warping near the edges of the frame, a background that seems to breathe or shift when out of focus, a disorienting dolly zoom as he first enters.
* **LIGHTING:** The lighting inside the store is crucial. It's a mix of dingy, warm fluorescent hum and the harsh, brutalist glare from the windows. This natural light should bend in unnatural ways, with shadows that don't quite align. The light from the box at the end is the complete opposite: a cool, clean, internal luminescence that cuts through the grime, signifying an entirely different order of reality.