With a remarkable eye for telling detail, writer and director Elisabeth Subrin explores the tangle of middle-age — a time of attachment, loss, anger, envy, and guilt. Those who experience crises during this stage of life need to know that there are people who are rocked by turbulence and still respond creatively to these challenges. This film tells one of those stories.

Anna (Maggie Siff) is the 44-year-old star of a popular television melodrama who has been brought low by a mysterious auto-immune disease which has drained all her energy and caused her to sink into depression. Anna has been taking drugs for the disease and is hooked on them.

Although her TV show has made her into a celebrity with legions of adoring fans, she has reached a point where she wants to quit acting. Her manager Leslie (Khandi Alexander) suggests that she take some time off to consider the possible consequences of a lawsuit and the end of her career if she were to break her five-year contract.

Returning to New York City where she was a member of a 1990s experimental theatre troupe, this burnt-out actor wants to work out some closure on her conflicted past. This involves close encounters with Kate (Cara Seymour), an ex-actress and recovering alcoholic, and Isaac (John Ortiz), a creative soul who yearns to be a playwright. With her own flaws and vulnerabilities, Anna fits right in when one of the members of the old troupe sums up their mutual vocational situation with "We're all a mess!"

One of the many positive mysteries of life is that truly resilient middle-agers are capable of moving through the messes they face and emerging on the other side in fresh territory. Maggie Siff skillfully captures and conveys the emotional vibrations of a woman in a tricky transitional period in her life and career.