 |
|
Monica, Tess and Andrew find themselves in a New York art museum, each
assigned to a different individual. The museum is full of visitors of
all ages, including a class of young children on a field trip. Keeping a
wary eye on these youngsters is Bud, an older security guard whose
retirement begins at the end of the day. Bud has emotional walls between
himself and the rest of the world, and it is Tess's assignment to help
knock them down. Monica is talking to Antonio, an artist who despises
his displayed painting, a modern art piece comprising of yellow above
black whose dividing line is flawed by a solitary bump. In another wing,
Andrew has revealed himself as the angel of death to Constance, a woman
who has just discovered that she has cancer and is trying to determine
what she has contributed to the world. Tess discovers that Bud is
obsessed with a painting of a little girl holding flowers. Bud protects
this painting more than any other in the museum, and even makes the
children move to another section when they almost damage it. As the
field trip relocates to the modern art wing one little boy, Morgan,
pauses to look at Antonio's painting and then catches up with the class.
Antonio complains that a quick glance like that is all his painting ever
gets. When Monica picks up his sketch book, she finds that he has hidden
a knife within it. Antonio tells her he wants to use it to destroy his
painting because it doesn't seem to create any emotional response from
people, and the failure of this work seems to be a continuation of
neglect he has felt. Monica makes Antonio that God has a message for
him, and he agrees to wait for fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, Tess finally
persuades Bud to open up and talk about why the painting of the girl is
so important to him. The girl in the picture seems to be asking him if
the world is as beautiful as the flowers in her hand, and Bud tells Tess
of a harrowing experience in Vietnam that has kept him from seeing the
world as a beautiful place for the last thirty years. He further reveals
that this painted child has been his only friend for those years, to
which Tess responds that God loves him and has living friends for him.
Fifteen minutes have passed, and Antonio is about to destroy the
painting when Monica reveals herself as an angel to him. She tells
Antonio that God inspired him to paint what he did, though His purpose
may not always seem clear. At that moment, Morgan approaches and shows
Antonio a picture he has drawn. It is Antonio's painting reproduced
except now the black bump has a plant growing out of it. Morgan tells
him that the painting reminds him of how he has grown from his mothers
seed into a plant, and Antonio realizes that his painting does have the
ability to stir emotion in others. Watching this are Andrew and
Constance, Morgan's mother. Constance realizes that her son is the gift
she has given to the world. Their assignments finished, Andrew and
Monica rejoin Tess, who is still trying to get Bud to open up to other
people. As they all approach the painting of the young girl, they see an
older woman with a young girl who strongly resembles the one in the
picture. It turns out that the older woman posed for the painting when
she was young, and Bud's friend on canvas has suddenly become the living
friend Tess spoke of. A now happy Bud does his last closing of the
museum, and the angels disappear.
|
