Speculative commercial script for Hallmark, for Mother’s Day of 2019.
Script written 09/30/2018.
The Original Idea:
***The following short scenes will be in slow motion and individually reversed, and depict a male and his mother in numerous scenes cherry-picked from throughout a lifetime, and shown in reverse chronological order, all as if this lifetime were moving backwards.
An old adult male leans in and hugs his senior mother who lies in a hospital bed that is in her bedroom at home.
The middle-aged male toasts to his senior mother at Thanksgiving, and his family joins him.
The middle-aged male consoles his old mother at the funeral of his father.
The adult male and his family are barbecuing with his old parents, and his mother plays with his son while he grills with his dad and they talk about her.
The adult male and his wife show their newborn child to his old mother and father.
The young adult male stands at the altar with his soon-to-be bride and gives his old mother and father a happy glance.
The young adult male and his fiancée are hanging out in the den of his middle-aged parents' house with them, playing Taboo.
The twentysomething male, fresh out of college graduation, is taking a photo with his middle-aged mother and girlfriend.
The twentysomething male visits his middle-aged parents' home from college for Christmas, and has brought along his new girlfriend.
The twentysomething male moves into his first college dorm with the help of his middle-aged parents.
The teenage male says goodbye to his middle-aged mother as he leaves for prom.
The teenage male argues with his middle-aged father (who holds a doobie accusingly) and shoots his disapproving mother an angry glance.
The teenage male is frustrated while learning to drive a car with his middle-aged mother.
The preteen male is unenthusiastic in an amusement park with his middle-aged parents, although he has funnel cake.
The preteen male is camping in the backyard with friends when his adult mother brings them smores-makings, and they are delighted.
The kid male blows out the candles on his birthday cake as his adult parents stand behind him and smile, and the other partiers clap.
The kid male goes Trick-Or-Treating with his adult parents and insists on doing the current house on his own.
The kid male lies next to his scooter with a badly-skinned knee, and his young adult mother holds him on the ground and nurses the wound with antiseptic.
The kid male nervously stands in the hallway on the first day of elementary school, holding his young adult mother's hand.
The toddler male has awoken from a bad dream, and his young adult mother comforts him in her arms while he cries.
The toddler male gets dried off in his twentysomething mother's arms after receiving a bath.
The baby male is smiled down upon by his twentysomething father as his twentysomething mother holds him and rocks him in her arms.
The sleeping baby male is picked up from his crib and coddled in the arms of his doting, happy twentysomething mother.
***A somber, soft-spoken narration begins on the knee-skinning scene, and continues until the end, where it slows down dramatically to linger on the shot of the twentysomething mother reverse-lifting the baby male from his crib: "your mother was always there for you. To watch over you and guide you. To hold you when you needed her. To support you, with your best interest in mind. Over the years, her love for you has only grown. And she always will love you — no matter what."
Fade to black, and stay on black: "let her know how you feel — she deserves to know — because to her..."
Lastly, a scene of the twentysomething mother getting an ultrasound and squeezing her husband's hand in joy when she sees the image of her soon-to-be son on the monitor, and she smiles while we faintly hear the fetus' tiny, rapid heartbeat: "it was love at first sight."
(Inspired by the tear-jerking idea that, “There was a day, where your mother put you down, and never picked you back up again.”)
Original document created 01/03/2018.