12 Mar 2011 05:34:51
Charlie runs a San Francisco startup developing a surgical robot. He's years away from a marketable model. Initial funds have been depleted and new investors are hard to find. A savior appears in the form of Lena's estranged uncle, Cal Rusch, a successful venture capitalist. Dealing with Cal will create problems at home, but not dealing with him could mean financial calamity.
Lena has quit her job at Boston's PBS affiliate WGBH, sacrificing her own ambition to support Charlie in his. She struggles to fit in part-time work while raising their two children, while mourning the recent stillbirth of a third. What makes it more difficult is Charlie's absence as he tries to keep his company afloat. Lena's loneliness makes her particularly vulnerable, if not entirely permeable, to the attentions of an old lover.
Edgarian also treats us with a look at Cal's marriage to Ivy, a socialite whose first scene has her planning an untimely, embarrassingly lavish engagement party for their daughter, yet whose largess and pragmatism ultimately win us over.
In lesser hands, "Three Stages of Amazement" would feel like an indulgent glimpse into the lives of rich people — hardly sympathetic as millions of Americans are still without work. And though they aren't nearly as wealthy as Cal and Ivy, Charlie and Lena live in a nice house and can afford part-time childcare.
But their youngest child is seriously ill and frequently rushed to the emergency room. Without funding for Charlie's company, they are one hospital visit away from bankruptcy, and Edgarian makes you feel their anxiety — tempered, as it must be, in order for both of them to continue on with their daily tasks — without once veering into parlor-room melodrama.
Edgarian is an exceptionally gifted and generous storyteller, able to dig deep underneath the bedrock of human connection to get at what we mean when we don't say what we mean, and how we cope with that point in our lives when it might be time to compromise for what we can still accomplish.
Lena has quit her job at Boston's PBS affiliate WGBH, sacrificing her own ambition to support Charlie in his. She struggles to fit in part-time work while raising their two children, while mourning the recent stillbirth of a third. What makes it more difficult is Charlie's absence as he tries to keep his company afloat. Lena's loneliness makes her particularly vulnerable, if not entirely permeable, to the attentions of an old lover.
Edgarian also treats us with a look at Cal's marriage to Ivy, a socialite whose first scene has her planning an untimely, embarrassingly lavish engagement party for their daughter, yet whose largess and pragmatism ultimately win us over.
In lesser hands, "Three Stages of Amazement" would feel like an indulgent glimpse into the lives of rich people — hardly sympathetic as millions of Americans are still without work. And though they aren't nearly as wealthy as Cal and Ivy, Charlie and Lena live in a nice house and can afford part-time childcare.
But their youngest child is seriously ill and frequently rushed to the emergency room. Without funding for Charlie's company, they are one hospital visit away from bankruptcy, and Edgarian makes you feel their anxiety — tempered, as it must be, in order for both of them to continue on with their daily tasks — without once veering into parlor-room melodrama.
Edgarian is an exceptionally gifted and generous storyteller, able to dig deep underneath the bedrock of human connection to get at what we mean when we don't say what we mean, and how we cope with that point in our lives when it might be time to compromise for what we can still accomplish.
