Neal Oliver, James Marsden a yearn-filled grocery warehouse worker from St. Louis, dreams of becoming an artist while feeling adrift under the shadow of a father who wants him to follow a conventional path and a girlfriend who isn’t surprised by the status quo. On the eve of his 22nd birthday, during a party where O.W. Grant, the enigmatic wish-granter with a pipe shaped like a monkey’s head, acts as the waiter, Neal wishes for a clear answer to what his life should be. The moment is charged with possibility and pressure: his father hands him a law-school admission letter he never wanted, and a gleaming red BMW convertible—meant for his dad, not him—sits on display as a reminder that others may control his direction. A sudden accident—Neal is struck by a falling bucket—sends him into a stark, waking fog.
In the hospital, a doctor named Ray, Christopher Lloyd, administers a peculiar test: Neal must identify the suit on a set of playing cards, only to discover that appearances deceive him—red spades and black hearts contradict the rules of the deck, a sign that the world isn’t always as it seems. When Neal returns to life outside, he glimpses a woman he has been dreaming about on a billboard. The billboard company insists the image is blank, but Neal discovers a new portrait, this time accompanied by an inscription that reads “Call 555-1300.” A call leads him to an appointment at 555 Olive Street, Suite 1300, and there Ray entrusts him with a package to deliver to a Robin Fields in Danver, Colorado (not “Denver”). The roadmap claims Interstate 60 will take him there, but the road map itself reveals a puzzle: there is no Interstate 60 to be found.
Undeterred, Neal heads west and encounters O.W. Grant along the highway, who reappears with a sly, guiding hand, steering Neal toward the elusive Interstate 60. Along the journey, Neal meets a gallery of strange, almost fable-like figures: a man who can gorge himself on unimaginable quantities of food, a woman chasing an unattainable perfect sex, a mother desperate to locate her son in a city where a government-controlled drug has chained the population, a dying ex-advertiser crusading against deceit, and Mrs. James, who runs a Museum of Art Fraud that houses real masterpieces masquerading as fakes.
In Morlaw, a strange town where every resident is a lawyer who spends their days suing one another, Neal finally encounters Lynn Linden, the imprisoned dream-woman from the billboard. Their encounter becomes intensely intimate in a motel, and Neal sketches the motel in paint. Although he continues toward Danver to deliver the package, Lynn remains behind, drawn into a different life with the aid of Danver Publishing.
Meanwhile, news of a murderer on the loose travels through the airwaves and seems to describe Neal’s own car, pushing him to abandon his vehicle and hitchhike. When he reaches Danver, the person who presents herself as “Robin Fields” is revealed to be O.W. Grant in disguise. Neal opens the package, which contains a replacement monkey-head pipe for Grant’s broken one, and Grant uses his supernatural abilities to bend time itself, waking Neal up back in the hospital before the moment of his initial encounter with Ray.
Back in the world of the hospital, Neal finds the courage to confront his father and claim his own life path, free from parental control. His sister leads him to an art gallery where Neal discovers that his painting of the motel—the image Grant had “left” there on his behalf—now hangs in the flesh of the real world. Lynn appears again, not as a passive dream, but as a woman who works with Danver Publishing and has become genuinely interested in Neal’s art. She speaks of commissioning more roadside motel and diner paintings, suggesting that Neal’s future lies in a blend of his creative vision and the new life he’s chosen to chart.
Together, the threads of reality and illusion tighten into a vision of agency and artistry. Neal’s encounters—both the fantastical and the grounded—culminate in a choice: to live beyond others’ expectations, to embrace his art, and to see Lynn as a partner in shaping his own story rather than a mere dream. The tale lingers on the edge of wonder and consequence, inviting the audience to wonder what is real, what is wish-made, and what it means to finally decide who you are.
Note: Key characters appear with linked actors for cross-reference: Neal Oliver James Marsden, O.W. Grant Gary Oldman, Ray Christopher Lloyd, Lynn Linden Amy Smart, Dad John Bourgeois, and Mrs. James Ann-Margret. The narrative circles back to Grant’s influence and Neal’s awakening, emphasizing personal choice, artistic pursuit, and the blurred boundaries between dreams and the waking world.
