The
story opens in Madison, Wisconsin during a heavy snowstorm.
Inside
a small local comedy club, Denny Briggs, 35, stands on
stage for the first time at an open mic night. Looking out at a
crowd of thirty, he opens with a shocker,
“I have committed murder and you
are the jury that will convict me of my crime."
The small crowd laughs off his bizarre statement, completely unaware
of the gun underneath his jacket and a shirtsleeve soaked in blood.
In
flashback, Denny’s life leading up to this fateful night
is revealed. For the past twenty years, he has lived a life of
isolation, his mundane days spent driving a forklift and his nights
alone in his apartment obsessively listening to his comedy album
collection. Denny copes with loneliness and a troubled past by
drawing laughter from each album he places on the record player.
Following an accident at his warehouse job, Denny is fired and
forced out of his introverted lifestyle, onto the path of something
new.
He
finds it at Miller’s Family Restaurant, a diner privately
owned by husband and wife, Lloyd and Linda Miller.
Denny quickly takes a liking to his new job waiting tables and for
the first time in his life, feels a sense of acceptance by those
around him.
Unable to have children of their own, Lloyd and Linda have always
treated those who work for them like family and a parental bond
soon forms between Denny and the couple. He finds two close friends
in the kitchen staff, Mandel and Shaun, and a
blooming love interest with fellow restaurant server, Sarah.
Denny’s
happiness with his new surrogate family is unexpectedly interrupted
by the news that his older sister, Madison Briggs, has
been released from state prison after serving twenty years for the
murder of their abusive parents. Denny tries to unite his restaurant
family with his estranged sister, but his attempts are met with
jealousy and harsh resistance, as Madison insists that they both
leave their cursed hometown for a fresh start in Chicago. Only then
can the two of them become a true family once again.
This
is the decision Denny must make - torn between his blood ties
with his sister and his own desire for happiness, a choice between
a dysfunctional past and the picturesque view of his ideal family.
With all of these drastic changes and sudden decisions being thrust
upon him, Denny is forced to, for the first time, take a closer
look inside himself and the truth behind a past that he has tried
so hard to escape. While he may think that a new beginning is
right around the corner, the real truth behind his parents brutal
murder is coming to the surface and he is learning that a lie
in Madtown can only stay buried for so long.
"Tragedy
+ Comedy = Madtown"
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