The loneliest number

  Photos from Shooting Gallery Jason
Cairns stars in Tony Barbieri’s "One," written by Barbieri
and Cairns.

By Emilia Hwang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

According to songwriter Harry Nilsson, “One is the
loneliest number,” and Tony Barbieri, director and co-writer
of the movie “One,” tends to agree.

The story about two best friends in San Francisco focuses on the
loneliness and despair that results when people aren’t able
to communicate. Thus, the movie’s title was taken from the
song lyric.

“It just seemed like the right title,” Barbieri said
in a recent interview. “It was minimal and lonely and
bleak.”

In the film, the life long friendship between Charlie
O’Connell (Jason Cairns) and Nick Razca (Kane Picoy) is put
to the greatest challenge as their lives diverge after many years
together.

Barbieri’s arrives at a particular visual style that uses
camera-work to reveal what isn’t spoken.

  Photos from Shooting Gallery Kane Picoy
(left) and Jason Cairns go for a ride in
“One” which explores human communication. “I look
at the script from a visual standpoint, as I’m looking at
pictures not reading dialogue,” Barbieri said.

He explained that using minimal shots helped to create a
voyeuristic style, with a flow of pictures and a distant look that
emanated from the characters.

“I feel the camera is motivated by character,”
Barbieri said. “So being that these people were distant,
didn’t really talk a lot about themselves, I felt it would be
false to go in for coverage on these people traditionally. It
didn’t make sense to me.”

The film highlights the emotional distance that results when
people don’t know how to be honest and vulnerable. According
to Picoy, the story focuses not only on co-dependency and
loneliness, but also on second chances in life.

“The two lead characters … both get a second chance in
their lives,” Picoy said. “One revels in it and works
hard, the other basically shoots himself in the foot
again.”

Following his release from prison, Charlie discovers an inherent
self worth as he commits to a job, college and eventually love. On
the other hand, Nick, once a promising baseball player, only finds
absence of purpose and desolation.

  Shooting Gallery Tony Babieri directs
"One." The film’s different visual style captures the loneliness
and lack of communication between the main characters.

“What attracted me was the character’s
self-sabotaging,” Picoy said. “It seemed to be a
reoccurring theme in my life at the time … and I just found it a
very realistic script.”

While Nick goes down a self-destructive road, Charlie finds a
world full of new possibilities. Sara (Autumn Macintosh),
recognizes Charlie’s potential and falls in love with
him.

“My character represents possibility and the life that
Charlie could have and strives to build for himself,”
Macintosh said.

She explained how she had to play down her role, since the story
is not about her character.

“I just wanted to be there and support the transition of
what these two characters, Nick and Charlie, are going
through,” Macintosh said. “It’s much harder to
play normal and move silently than it is if you have the
opportunity to play a drug addict or a crazy person.

“If you’re just being calm and in the moment
it’s a challenge because you don’t have anything to
hide behind, as far as addiction or turmoil,” she
continued.

For Macintosh, “One” speaks of how terrifying it is
to be intimate. The movie’s main characters all desperately
want to have the courage to be vulnerable and express
themselves.

“In human nature we all so very much want to connect with
each other and there’s just a lot of fear ““ a fear of
revealing who we are, a fear of being hurt, being
vulnerable,” Macintosh said. “So I found that very
appealing about this movie, how everyone is so isolated and
yearning for connection, but not knowing, not having the skills to
go about finding that for your life.”

Lack of communication is the final straw that tears the Nick and
Charlie apart. When the two friends reach a crossroads in their
lives, Charlie refuses to take his own separate path.

“There’s a point in everyone’s life where
it’s hard to let go of the old days, whether it’s high
school, college,” Picoy said. “And my character Nick
just did not want to let go of those days.”

In the end, Nick ends up alone confirming that one, indeed, is
the loneliest number. Though the film’s tragic ending may
seem fatalistic, Macintosh sees the movie’s overall message
as an optimistic outlook on life.

“It’s a film about “¦ human frailty and human
strength and how life is beautiful, but it’s not a happy
ending, she said. “I don’t mean that in a morbid way
… but there’s beauty in the difficulties of being
human.”

“It’s about connecting with other people and
expressing these universal feelings that we all have,” she
said.

“It’s a mirror of who we are as humanity.”

FILM: “One” is now playing at select theaters.