This Close to Okay

On a rainy Thursday evening in late October in Louisville, Kentucky, Tallie Clark, a 40-year-old licensed therapist, spots a man climbing over the railing of a bridge over the Ohio River. She pulls over, calls to him, and shares details of her own pain, including her recent divorce, to forge a connection. Tallie runs her own therapy practice, TLC Counseling Services, but tells the man she is a teacher, not wanting professional distance between them. She plays music from her phone, holds out her hand, and he takes it. Tallie begins privately calling him "Bridge."

She drives him to a coffee shop and gently questions him. When he goes to the bathroom, she searches his jacket and takes two folded farewell letters, one addressed to "Christine" and one to "Brenna." Compelled by instinct and post-divorce recklessness, Tallie brings him to her house in Fox Commons, where her wealthy older brother, Lionel, helped her buy a home. She gives him her ex-husband Joel's dry clothes, and they cook pasta together. When she asks his name again, he says it is Emmett. They drink wine, watch the World Series, and trade personal details. He confesses he mailed a suicide letter to his parents and refuses to intercept it.

That night, Emmett stays up and discovers Tallie is still logged in to Joel's Facebook account. He creates a fake email account and, pretending to be Tallie, writes Joel asking him to admit the divorce was not her fault. He decides that if the Giants win the World Series, he will postpone returning to the bridge. They win, and he resolves to stay through the weekend.

On Friday, Joel replies with remorse, affirming that the divorce was not Tallie's fault. Over breakfast, Tallie proposes Emmett stay through the weekend and attend Lionel's annual Halloween party. He agrees. They decide to go as Mulder and Scully from the television show The X-Files. After lunch, Emmett drives Tallie's car and is pulled over; he tells the officer the truth about his situation and is let go with a warning. The encounter leaves Tallie shaken and crying, and Emmett hugs her for the first time.

That evening, Emmett cooks dinner and reveals that his wife Christine died three years ago, though he declines to explain how. They discuss art and read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban aloud. When the power goes out, Emmett dissociates on the porch, briefly returning to suicidal thoughts. Back inside, he shows Tallie his backpack's contents: Christine's wedding ring, his grandfather Samuel's New Testament, $10,000 in cash, and small butterfly wings he will not discuss. He reveals his full name as Emmett Aaron Baker. Late that night, Emmett sends another email to Joel as Tallie; Joel's reply reveals that Lionel knew about the affair and had once cheated on his own wife, Zora. Emmett decides never to tell Tallie. They burn his old backpack and her wedding photos in a grill on the deck.

On Saturday, Tallie's mother, Judith, arrives unannounced and meets Emmett, assuming he is Tallie's new boyfriend. Later, Tallie and Emmett walk to a pub for lunch, holding hands. Emmett shares his family history: His Black grandmother Virginia and white grandfather Samuel fell in love in small-town Kentucky, where they faced death threats. He describes the feud between his family and Christine's, rooted in racism. Tallie presses him to contact his family, but he refuses.

That evening, they dress for Lionel's party. Emmett privately acknowledges he has been lying: His real name is not Emmett Aaron Baker, and he is not from Clementine. Throughout the weekend, several people have told him he looks familiar. At Lionel's house, Tallie introduces Emmett to her family, including her sister-in-law Zora. She briefly encounters Nico Tate, her college ex-boyfriend and casual romantic partner. As "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House plays, Tallie pulls Emmett into a slow dance. Fireworks go off, and they kiss for the first time. When the kiss ends, Emmett sees Lionel standing too close to a fire pit, the right side of his Bigfoot costume engulfed in flame. Emmett sweeps Lionel to the ground, throws his jacket over him to smother the flames, and talks to him calmly until EMTs arrive.

At the hospital, Zora reports that Lionel will survive, though he will need skin-graft surgeries. Tallie and Emmett return home and, overwhelmed by the weekend's intensity, sleep together. On Sunday morning, they visit Lionel. As Emmett prepares to confess his lies, Tallie's ex-husband Joel appears in the hallway. Joel has flown from Montana after receiving the fake emails and hearing about the accident. He recognizes Emmett from news coverage and identifies him aloud as Rye Kipling, from Bloom, Kentucky.

Rye's true story unfolds: His real name is Ryland Miller Kipling. He married Eleanor Christina Bloom, whom he called Christine, at 23. Their daughter, Briar Anna, whom they called Brenna, was born on Christmas Day. Christine was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder after Brenna's birth and sometimes refused medication. Rye cooked, cleaned, and cared for Brenna when Christine could not. One October evening, after a fight about medication, Rye left for a walk. When he returned, the garage door was closed and the car engine running. Christine was slumped in the car, and Brenna was dead in her bed from carbon monoxide that had seeped through the house. Rye was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. A biased all-white jury in the small town named after Christine's powerful family convicted him and sentenced him to life without parole. After 694 days in prison, he was exonerated after Release, an innocence organization, and a new attorney found security footage proving he was miles away at the time.

Outside the hospital, Tallie and Rye argue. She is furious about his deceptions. He is furious she is a therapist rather than the teacher she claimed, feeling betrayed by her professional kindness. Rye demands she take him to the bridge. Tallie calls his bluff and drives him there. He gets out and walks toward the railing. She follows, praying aloud, telling him she will not give up. He stops and gets back in the car. She drives him three hours south to Bloom, where his father throws his arms around him at the door. Before leaving, they exchange apologies and forgiveness. She has slipped the cash back into his backpack, along with a postcard of Gustav Klimt's The Kiss tucked into his grandfather's Bible.

In the months that follow, Rye begins seeing a therapist Tallie helped find and moves to Nashville after a short hospital stay. He starts cooking at a restaurant and painting. Tallie and Nico become an official couple. Lionel, grateful Rye saved his life, offers to invest in a restaurant for him. In the spring, Rye stops responding to Tallie's messages, and she worries and checks obituaries. She and Nico travel to Florence, where she finally sees Michelangelo's David. Tallie completes the adoption process and brings home a baby girl, Andromeda Lee.

On Halloween, one year after they met, Tallie waits by a sculpture at the Speed Art Museum with three-month-old Andromeda slung around her. She has invited Rye but received no response. Just as she prepares to leave, he appears carrying sunflowers and a gold canvas he painted for her, the color of her energy. He looks healthy. She introduces him to Andromeda. Rye places his finger in the baby's tiny fist. The baby squeezes tight.