Cupidity Synopsis

Story by John Gallagher
© Cupidity LLC

CUPIDITY is a romantic comedy, set in New York City about lost love, the horrors of dating and the search to find true love.

James (JAMES GILMARTIN) is a nice guy. He’s a private sanitation worker with a degree in art history, a sensitive soul and a poet’s heart. After getting dumped by a series of women, he is finally with the girl of his dreams, Bethany (BETHANY EMERSON). Bethany is beautiful, sweet, compassionate and deeply in love with James. But there’s a problem.

James is terrified of losing her. He takes advice from his best friend Stevie (STEVE STANULIS), a male stripper who tells James that to keep a girl you have to treat her badly. “In fact”, says Steve, “The worse you treat ‘em, the more they love you.” Stevie calls his fool-proof philosophy “The Stevie Technique.”

James follows The Stevie Technique to the letter… only to have it backfire in his face. Bethany leaves James. Her friends Desiree (DESIREE MAUMUS), “the nice girl,” and Meredith (MEREDITH ROSS), “the bad girl,” each set Bethany up on dates that turn out to be disasters. Bethany vows to stop dating and focus on her career in physical therapy.

Distraught, James seeks solace from his sister, who sends him to a dating service run by the eccentric Dr. Cupid (JARED MILLER). James embarks on a series of dates with a gallery of neurotic, psychotic New York women, including Michelle (MICHELE CONIGLIO), who becomes a most unwelcome stalker.

Stevie is appalled by the notion of paying to meet girls; he’s never met Bethany, but he assures James that he’ll get over her as soon as he hooks up with somebody else, and demands that James come to his Hunk-O-Mania strip show to find all the available women he can handle. Meredith, meanwhile, drags a reluctant Bethany to the exact same show. Surrounded by screaming women, James watches with amusement as the guys on stage do their thing. He doesn’t notice Bethany and Meredith sitting in the front row. Meredith screams her head off, but Bethany is embarrassed by the whole thing.

James watches in horror as Stevie pulls Bethany up on stage and performs his act. At first she resists but then gets into it; James’ freaks out and leaves, and sets out on another round of dates, each one worse than the last.

Walking in Central Park one day, Bethany meets Glen (GLEN HOWARD), a novelist. There is an immediate attraction between them and soon they’re involved in a serious relationship. He is everything that she could want in a man — devoted, supportive, respectful, and loving.

James is at the end of his rope, almost losing his mind. An old girlfriend, Alex (ALEXANDRIA HUNTER), advises James to ask Bethany for one more chance. When he arrives at her apartment he finds that she’s living with Glen. In a poignant farewell, he realizes that Bethany, the love of his life, has found happiness with another man and after a final embrace, James and Bethany can let each other go.

Bethany has learned that true love is possible, even in this world of chaos and confusion; James has learned the importance of being true to yourself.