She drives me crazy, like no one else...
A 2013 Odd Couple Road Trip Plot written by Jesse Gabe, directed by Jason Priestly, and starring Richard Dreyfuss and Tatiana Maslany as the respective title characters.
Dr. Cas Pepper has lost his wife, his dog, and (thanks to an incurable disease) his own will to live. He plans a cross-country trip to lay both himself and his dog to rest - but a chance encounter with Dylan Morgan, a motormouthed free spirit and wannabe writer, throws a monkey wrench into both their plans.
This film provides examples of:
- Blatant Lies: Quite a lot of what Dylan says, in particular her claims that her and Cas are former members of an internationally recognized synchronized swimming team.
- Cas gets in on the blatant lies when he claims Dylan has high blood pressure and could collapse at any moment in order to get her a meeting with the editor.
- Played for drama later in the film when Cas insists he's fine as he puts a chopstick in his mouth to keep himself from biting his tongue in the ensuing seizure and when he sends Dylan out for a latte so he can kill himself. Notably, Dylan obviously doesn't believe him in the second case, but still leaves.
- Domestic Abuser: Dylan's boyfriend Bobby.
- Five-Finger Discount: Dylan is a chronic shoplifter, even as Cas tells her not to. One of her last boosts is a CD of bluegrass music as a peace offering to Cas.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The film ends with Dylan preparing spaghetti sauce based on Cas' tightly-held secret recipe - one of the things he wills her after his death.
- Grumpy Old Man: Cas.
- How We Got Here: The film begins with Dylan driving while nursing her injured hand in an ice-filled cooler. Distracted by what's in the cooler, she loses control of the car and drives into a ditch, which propels the contents of the cooler - Cas' dead dog - into her lap. Cue hysterical screaming, followed by a rewind to two days prior.
- I Call It "Vera": Fearing that the police will be looking for them, Cas trades in his SUV for an orange VW Beetle convertible. Dylan promptly christens it "Jennifer."
- The Last Straw: Cas's beloved dog unexpectedly drops dead during a game of fetch. This motivates Cas to set out on his final road trip.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Dylan. She is zany, unpredictable, has no filter, shoplifts on a regular basis, and upends Cas' plans at every turn. Subverted in that no romance develops between her and Cas, and her positive influences on Cas don't prevent him from killing himself by movie's end.
- May–December Romance: Dylan attempts to pass off herself and Cas as this, much to Cas' annoyance
- Meaningful Name: Dylan is gleeful when she realizes Cas is "Dr. Pepper"
- My Secret Pregnancy: Halfway through the trip, Dylan realizes Bobby knocked her up. She attempts to conceal it from Cas - only for him to inform her that he's been a doctor long enough to recognize Morning Sickness when he sees it.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: After burying his dog, Cas sends Dylan out to get coffee - a latte, rather than the black, unsweetened coffee he's been drinking throughout the film. As she leaves, Dylan realizes Cas is sending her away in order to end his life; she breaks down in tears, yet fetches the coffee anyway, returning to find him peacefully dead.
- No Smoking/Silence Is Golden: Along with "driver chooses the radio station," Cas eventually lays down the law before he will drive another mile with Dylan as a passenger.
- Silent Snarker: Cas, when he's not being a Deadpan Snarker
- Suicide Is Painless: Cas knows his brain tumor is inoperable and fatal, and opts to bow out on his own terms. Also a literal example: he rigs a Jack Kevorkian-style IV drip to gently terminate his own life.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dylan finally gets an audience with a high-powered editor - who verbally eviscerates her writing ability.
- Talking to the Dead: Rooting through Cas' phone, Dylan finds a frequently-dialed entry for "Denise." Thinking it's a friend, she calls the number repeatedly, but the calls go straight to voice mail. Eventually, Cas reveals that "Denise" is his long-dead wife, and he has kept her account active all these years just so he can occasionally hear her voice one last time.
