ALCHEMY & ICE

 

DAN, an artist whose abstract paintings never sell, loves high-flier, LAURA, a beautiful girl who works for a big advertising agency in London. Dan embarks on a tangled web of lies to impress her. He tells Laura he’s the top Art Dealer at Christies and his aristocratic parents live in a country mansion. When she asks to meet them, Dan thinks fast and hires two actors to play the role and puts them in a country mansion (which he’s supposed to be selling). The lies escalate when his ‘parents’ tell Laura that their talented son not only flies planes, scuba-dives, bungee-jumps, but works with the poor in a Brazilian forest. Laura is bowled over. Dan is shell-shocked. He goes home to and sees his Russian landlady, MADAME VOLGA who tells him that he must change his life to win Laura who looks like a Russian Princess.
As Laura ( who tells Dan that her parents are dead ) loves his parent’s house she asks to go there again, but this time it’s a total disaster. They’re discovered in a bedroom by his friend ALEX, ( with whom he works ) and MARK, Laura’s wealthy boss, who fancies Laura, and wants to buy the house. Dan is devastated when Laura starts going out with Mark and they become engaged. But it is obvious that Laura isn’t happy.
One night, Dan dreams of Laura and wakes up and starts to paint: a half-naked Laura covered in ice in a magical forest. When Madame Volga sees the painting, she knows that Dan has painted a sensation. She introduces Dan to Art Dealer, BRENDAN and his eccentric MOTHER and they commission Dan to paint a series of paintings.
Dan is desperate for Laura’s forgiveness so goes to her flat with a present - his painting. There he meets someone he thinks is Laura’s sister. Dan is stunned when she makes a pass at him just as Laura walks in, and even more stunned to discover that she’s Laura’s amorous, alcoholic mother, HILARY. After Laura throws them out of her flat, Dan finds Hilary has nowhere to go and is forced to put her up. Dan can’t believe how complicated his life has become and again turns to Madame Volga for advice. Together, they find a way to help Hilary and when Laura realises how much Dan loves her, she breaks off her engagement to Mark. With Dan’s help, Laura and her creative partner JULES win a big perfume account. At last, Laura realises how much she loves Dan and during his Art Exhibition, she tells him that she’d like to have her honeymoon in the Brazilian forest where Dan was supposed to be working for years. Dan is over the moon.