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Marginal People is a thriller about failed characters brought together in a kidnapping/ransom scheme that goes badly for most of them.
By circumstances of birth and choice, some people are on the outside looking in, with their noses pressed against the glass of life.
Richey Stanton is an aspiring, aging actor who never made it beyond regional theater. His artist girlfriend, Carmen Salazar, bears the childhood scars inflicted by an alcoholic father and dysfunctional family.
Marshon Johnson has overcome poverty and racism to become a criminal kingpin in the run-down East Side of town. He plans to liquidate his many shady business interests and begin life anew in the Caribbean, along with his accountant girlfriend, whose father is a judge.
A single mother of three, Kandie Givens recently moved to the city, where she ekes out a living as a waitress, and waits for her "prince on a white horse." She mistakes him for Ace Semanski, a classic manipulator who convinces Kandie that he will love both her and her children.
Semanski, an ex-con and rabid racist, recruits a dimwitted fellow employee, Country Long, to be his muscle in a brilliantly executed plan wherein Ace uses guile, blackmail, and murder to force the other "marginal people" to help him steal millions.
Your heart will break in its love of these innocent but flawed people, because they could be anyone you know. It's a psychological thriller and an examination of our society's values, and their impact on individual lives.
Like every good story, Marginal People has an unexpected twist at the end. Some people lose the game of life, and lose their lives; others survive and flourish, perhaps unfairly. Which characters you sympathize with will say as much about you as it does about them.
