Anxious People

Jack is a young cop driven by the desire to save people. This desire first arose when he was a young boy and witnessed the death of a man who jumped off a bridge, and it’s perpetuated by his inability to save his sister, who has a heroin addiction. He respects his father, Jim, who is also a cop, but his approach to life and work is vastly different from his father’s. He is lonely and desires genuine connection, but he’s too wrapped up in his work to pursue friendship or romantic relationships. Though offered a promotion, Jack rejects it because it would mean moving away and leaving his father alone. Since his mother died and his sister is inaccessible, he can’t bring himself to abandon his father.

Jack’s desire to save and help people reaches a turning point when he learns that his father helped the bank robber escape. Though Jack struggles with this turn of events, he also sees helping the bank robber (who is a woman) as a way of helping his sister, and his father’s actions ultimately inspire Jack to go find his sister and once again try helping her recover from her addiction. Once defined by rules and guilt, Jack becomes a person who sees life in terms that are more complex than just good versus bad.