“Scrap” is the story of adult siblings Ben (Anthony Rapp), a successful fantasy writer, and Beth (writer/director Vivian Kerr), the struggling single mother of a five-year-old named Birdy (Julianna Layne). Ben raised Beth after their parents died in a plane crash. He still feels responsible for taking care of everyone around him, including Beth, Birdy, and his wife, Stacy (Lana Parrilla), a lawyer experiencing the anxiety and moodiness of fertility treatments. Ben’s reaction to the treatments is to create binders with spreadsheets, data, and resources, to give Stacy the nightly hormone injections, to monitor and remind her of her nutritional obligations, and to run fragrant baths for her to soak in.
We first see Beth waking up in the morning. She slept in her car, but there are indications that she has recently been, if not wealthy, comfortable and well taken care of. She wears pink satin pajamas and a perky eye mask. She has an elaborate make-up case filled with expensive items. But there’s a voicemail about an overdue bill. And she barely hides her eagerness when she gets a call about a job interview.
Birdy has been staying with Ben and Stacy, who are getting impatient, frustrated with Beth’s lack of contact. But Beth does not want them to know that she was laid off. In their own ways, Beth and Ben both but enormous energy in trying to exert control over the uncontrollable.
In her first feature as director, Kerr shows an exceptional gift for cinematic storytelling. The characters and their relationships are the focus, but visual indicators in the frame help illuminate what they are thinking. Beth may not remark on or even notice a row of tents occupied by homeless people she walks by, but it subtly shows us the specter of a possible future that terrifies her. The pregnant body of a woman in the waiting room at the fertility doctor’s office as Stacy and Ben wait to find out whether the treatment was successful underscores the pressure they have been putting on themselves and the anguish of their sense of failure. Kerr wisely shows us the scene in the doctor’s office, as Ben and Stacy get disappointing news from outside the office window; the dialogue is silent, so we concentrate on their faces. Other nice touches include Ben’s book signing, with fans dressed as characters in his books, needle drops of classic songs from the 1920s and ’30s, and Beth’s phone showing “Do Not Answer” when she gets a call from her ex, Birdy’s father.
As a screenwriter, Kerr has a deep understanding of her characters and the complex dynamics of the relationship between Ben and Beth. The more he wants to keep caring for her, the more she feels resentful and pushes back. Because he was essentially her parent, because they share the devastating sense of loss, there is a layer beyond brother and sister. She wants him to think she is successful and independent and that she can take care of herself and Birdy. Her lies to him are always aspirational; about important meetings she must run to and calls from her ex about wanting to get back together. Like Ben, Beth is a creator of fantasies, but in her case, it is for just one person. Ben’s publisher is pushing him for more books in the fantasy series, but Ben is more interested in his non-fiction biography of singer Billie Holiday. Its title, taken from one of Holiday’s best-loved songs, echoes the issues facing the siblings, “I Can’t Get Started.” Both feel stuck. Kerr does an outstanding job with characters we meet only briefly, such as an Uber driver, an ice rink employee, and that “Do Not Answer” ex, all vividly drawn and very real.
We can tell when we hear early on that Birdy is about to have both a birthday and a dance recital that these are going to be climactic moments that do not go as planned. Structurally, that works well, but Birdy as a character is so endlessly – cheery and accepting of almost all of the uncertainty and broken promises around her that it seems something of a fantasy itself. A few of the other conflicts are also tied up a bit too neatly given the authentic messiness of the rest of the story. But, by that time, we are so much on the side of the characters, a little bit of a fantasy ending is just what they deserve.
