Synopsis
Best friends Wes and Mimi (both early 20s) get married at city hall surrounded by a small group of friends. They graduated from a music conservatory exactly a year ago, and with Mimi’s student visa set to expire, they hope this will allow her to stay in the country to build on the fledgling career she’s begun to forge.
At Wes’s encouragement, they’ve put together an ensemble and regularly play her original compositions on subway platforms. Jim (40’s) is a professor at the conservatory, and recognizing her incredible talent, offers to help get Mimi’s music off of the streets and onto larger stages.
While Wes works the checkout desk at the school library, Mimi goes to a local club with Jim. There she meets Randy, another former student of Jim’s, and the first person to ever ask Mimi what she wants out of her career and her music. She books Mimi for a gig on the spot.
Wes feels more marginalized after a disastrous practice where he struggles to keep up with the elevated level of musicianship Jim’s friends bring to the band. After Mimi corrects him, Wes gets dangerously carried away (“If I don’t help you, none of this exists.”).
Mimi’s roommate Ray throws his latest house party - in which the entire apartment is transformed into a lascivious and lewd version of the way kids might build forts with couch cushions and bed sheets. Intoxicated at the end of a long night searching for Mimi, Wes finds her just in time to see Randy kiss Mimi.
The gig is a hit, but after the last song, Wes storms off-stage. He’s MIA at the subsequent rehearsal, and while Mimi is about to count in the band, a stranger interrupts and hands her a sealed envelope. Wes has annulled the marriage. Mimi chooses not to contest the dissolution, and Wes - riddled with regret - finally speaks his true romantic feelings to her, but she leaves him in a merciful fog of cigarette smoke and forfeited time.
Later, Wes is accepted into a graduate program at their alma mater. Alone on his commute home, Wes stops at the subway platform where he and Mimi first performed together. As the train pulls into the station, he pushes his cello in front of the oncoming car and destroys his only instrument.
After a cut-to-black, we come up on a small theater where Ray is rehearsing a play. His phone lights up with a social media alert; a video of Mimi determinedly performing by herself on a subway platform in Tokyo. She’s starting again. He excitedly climbs a chair and hits play for the entire room to hear as she breathes in, pulls the bow hard across the strings, and blasts into a new piece.