WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU ONLY HAD 2 MONTHS TO LIVE?

Inspired by a true story, The Guitar is a film that answers this question for Melody Wilder (Saffron Burrows), a plain and mousy woman in the prime of her life, who starts out in the film having a really bad afternoon.

First, her doctor informs her that her sore throat is really inoperable throat cancer, and she has but two months to live. When she returns to her work cubicle, her boss say she is being downsized, “effective immediately.” When Melody calls her boyfriend for some comfort, he replies that he feels “suffocated” by her and “needs some space.”

As she contemplates suicide, Melody sees an ad for a short-term lease on an unfurnished Manhattan flat with a Hudson River view. With just the clothes on her back and a purse full of credit cards, she moves in to finish her life in grand style. The first thing she does is throw all her clothes out the window and order a fully-loaded pizza. Then she starts calling local furniture stores and orders everything she ever wanted – a Vera Wang bed with silk sheets, sofas, tables, designer lamps – using her credit cards for all of it.

She order so much, so often that she strikes up a friendship with both the pizza delivery girl Cookie (Paz de la Huerta) and the married delivery man Roscoe (Isaach De Bankolé). These friendships eventually develop into sexual relationships, first with each separately and then with all three together.

Meanwhile Melody has a recurring dream about her childhood, yearning for a red electric guitar in a shop window that her parents could not afford to buy. When she awakens, Melody decides to order a red Fender guitar with all the trimmings, including a huge set of speakers. As the film evolves, she teaches herself how to play, symbolizing her physical transformation from wraith to radiant.

She seems to be enjoying her End Times, when one day Roscoe tells her he must leave the tryst because his wife is pregnant. Soon thereafter, Cookie says she also must leave because her boyfriend has threatened her over the lesbian affair. Then Melody phones in to order dinner only to find out the credit card is maxed out. So are all the other cards. She is shocked to discover it has been three months since she moved in, a month longer than she was supposed to live. She weeps as she realizes her voice is back.

She returns to the doctor (Janeane Garofalo) who announces her cancer is gone. “I have heard of cases where a person changes so much, the tumor no longer recognizes the host,” says the astonished doctor who calls her recovery a one in a million chance. “What did you change?” asks the doctor. “Everything!” replies Melody, smiling.

But now she has a new problem. Her leases is expired, and she is about to be evicted. What furniture she isn’t able to pawn for money is now repossessed. She is left homeless, sleeping in a stairwell, with just her guitar for companionship. What happens next, and how she moves to the next hopeful chapter of her life makes this film truly a hidden gem. You leave the theater inspired – as the cliché says – to live each day as if it is your last. The Guitar demonstrates that where there is life, “hope” always remains.

The movie was shot in 21 days by director Amy Redford (Sunshine Cleaning, Maid in Manhattan). [Note: she is also the daughter of actor Robert Redford.] The tight screenplay by Amos Poe never wallows in dark self-pity as does The Bucket List, a dismal film with a similar theme. However, what really conveys the sense of fleeting time, desperation, and hope is the crisp editing of David Leonard who also edited Goodfellas and Aliens. To Redford’s credit, the film’s frequent nudity is entirely appropriate to the situation. Saffron Burrows is a strikingly beautiful actress who is not ashamed of her body, but neither she nor Redford allows it to be exploited for its own sake.

The Guitar is available on DVD. It can be downloaded via Netflix, and it shows up occasionally on the Sundance Channel.