Barbara, Vinessa Shaw is an aspiring Hollywood actress who visits the Northern English city of Bradford and has a fleeting, magnetic encounter with the town undertaker Richard, David Tennant. She returns home reveling in tales of a handsome writer she met while away, but Richard’s infatuation lingers. He makes a bold move, leaving Bradford for Hollywood without telling his fiancée, and is shocked to discover Barbara is already there in the same city, creating a jarring collision of ambitions and longing that unsettles both of them.
With the help of a man named Moss, Vincent Gallo Richard secures an apartment and a job while he waits for Barbara to end things with her jealous boyfriend Patterson, Cameron Bancroft. Barbara, meanwhile, attempts to navigate her own path to stardom, and the couple’s fragile connection is tested by the pull of other possibilities. Barbara finally reaches out, and they head to the beach, where she admits that she likes him but feels it’s safer for her future career to stay with Patterson. Richard counters with a sweeping, if impractical, vow—that he would have gone to the North Pole for her if needed.
Richard takes Barbara to a club where Moss and his band are performing, an atmosphere that crackles with music, chance, and blurred lines. There, he introduces Moss to Barbara’s waitress friend, Julie Delpy, and the two quickly hit it off, bridging different worlds through a shared sense of humor and music. Yet the personal storm around Barbara intensifies as she observes Patterson growing too familiar with the Head Waitress at the restaurant, prompting her to walk away from him and the life he represents.
The night unfolds into a road trip of impulse and escape: Barbara, Richard, Moss, and Julie travel together, with Moss and Julie eventually choosing time apart in a hotel. In a whirlwind turn, Barbara agrees to marry Moss, and the couple exchange vows in Las Vegas, a sharp pivot that tests loyalties and reshapes futures. Yet love and ambition remain tangled as Barbara arranges a meeting for Richard with Takowsky, a well‑known screenwriting agent, Takowsky being James Le Gros. Richard delivers his screenplay, Uzi Suicide, and retreats to continue crafting more ideas, while Barbara’s alliances continue to shift.
Patterson re-enters the picture by casting Barbara in his next film on the condition that she sleep with him, and she agrees, effectively ending her relationship with Richard. Back at Barbara’s restaurant, her coworker Julie reveals that Barbara no longer wishes to see Richard. He overhears talk of an impending party where Barbara will be waiting tables later, and is warned by the restaurant’s owner that if he cannot win her back, he should consider killing her. Instead, Richard procures a drug to render Barbara unconscious if he cannot persuade her to return. Moss accompanies him to the party and finds Barbara, and a heated confrontation ensues; Richard uses the drug, but Barbara deflects the blow with a sharp strike that knocks him down.
Richard spends a night in prison, aided by Takowsky, and returns to Bradford to find his funeral business kept afloat by a colleague. Barbara brings back Uzi Suicide, along with the news that Takowsky has agreed to take Richard on as a client. She presents Richard with his first paycheck, and the two decide to patch up their relationship, choosing to start anew in Bradford.
