This Room Is Made of Noise

A middle-aged man befriends an elderly woman in the nuanced latest from Schottenfeld (Bluff City Pawn). Don Lank, broke and divorced, supplements his handyman work by selling antique lamps. Millie Prall, 94, has what Don assumes is a Tiffany knockoff in her window, and he offers to buy it for $800, knowing the replicas also have value. She accepts, and he later discovers the lamp is an original Tiffany Lily, worth $15,000. Feeling guilty, he decides to share much of the profit with Millie, who later calls Don and asks him to make repairs around her large house. As Don considers the collapse of his marriage and his failed relationship with his father, he also makes a commitment to Millie’s care. Millie is hospitalized after a fall and her dementia worsens. She’s then admitted to a nursing home, where Don is overwhelmed by seeing Millie crying and the staff’s lack of response to her emotion, as if her “sadness meant nothing.” As the story progresses, Don deflects suspicions from Millie’s long-lost niece after Millie gives him power of attorney and announces she’s changed her will, leading both to assume he’s the benefactor, and ultimately must confront his own fears about his motives for helping Millie. Don’s reflections on his past heartache tend to throttle the story’s momentum, but Schottenfeld shines in his well-wrought depiction of Millie’s decline. This morality tale is worth a look. (Apr.)