Wellness

The young man is Jack Baker, recently relocated from Kansas to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. At an exhibition, no one pays attention to his work—a series of Polaroid photos of bending trees—until a graduate student named Benjamin Quince takes interest. He invites Jack to join the artist space he is developing in an old factory. He will allow Jack to live in the building in exchange for assisting with and documenting the cleanup. Jack agrees.

Benjamin is taken with the photographs Jack takes of the building’s interior and wants to display them on the internet. Jack thinks about the young woman he watches in the building across the alley.

The young woman is Elizabeth Augustine. She goes to the “Empty Bottle” bar to hear a band, invited by Brad, a fellow student, who talks endlessly about music. Elizabeth only accepted the date in hopes of seeing Jack, who she knows photographs local bands.

Jack arrives at the bar. Elizabeth studies him, wondering why he has never noticed her. As a freshman at DePaul from a wealthy background, she feels out of place, but she is determined to leave her elite life behind in exchange for a bohemian lifestyle.

When the headliner arrives, Elizabeth notices Jack leaving with a woman who has been singing to fill a gap between acts. Suddenly, Jack approaches Elizabeth and invites her to leave with them.

Jack and Elizabeth go to a diner, where they eat and talk about themselves. Both admit that their parents disapprove of their coming to Chicago. Jack confesses that he never felt like he fit in on the Kansas plains. Elizabeth shares that she disapproves of her parents’ focus on wealth. They talk late into the night, then walk home. Elizabeth invites Jack in, thus beginning a pattern of the two sharing Elizabeth’s twin bed each night.

In 2014, Jack and Elizabeth, long married and now with an eight-year-old son, have invested in a building to be remodeled for condominiums. The project is managed by Benjamin Quince, who has left the art world for real estate. Having purchased a unit, Jack and Elizabeth cannot agree on designs. Jack worries Elizabeth is unhappy and that she wishes to change the life they currently live.

They meet with Benjamin to take a Virtual Reality tour of their not-yet built condo. Elizabeth loves it, but Jack is dismayed, especially when he discovers it has two separate master bedrooms. Elizabeth points out that they have been sleeping apart for some time—not out of any marital problems, but because of Elizabeth’s insomnia. Jack worries this is a bad sign for the future of their marriage.

Elizabeth attends a playdate with her son, Toby, who does not interact with the children. Instead, Toby is content to hover over his tablet, playing Minecraft. Elizabeth recalls her own difficulty making friends, as she was always the new kid at school, forced to frequently move around the country. She recognizes that Toby is socially awkward and has coached him in approaching a group and in making conversation.

When Toby’s allotted screen time is up, Elizabeth removes the device and instructs Toby to join the kids. Instead, he screams and throws a tantrum. Elizabeth tries unsuccessfully to calm him. Brandie—the mother who organizes the play dates and whom Elizabeth deems the social leader—manages to get Toby to calm down by suggesting Toby take some time alone in the other room.

Jack, who is trying to lose weight and gain muscle, subscribes to an online tool called The System. The System provides a plethora of data on all aspects of his physical, mental, and sexual health. Jack notices that everyone at the gym appears to be on The System too, evident by the orange wrist bands that gather the data. Jack worries that he and Elizabeth have transitioned away from romance into a phase of merely managing domestic life. He inputs all of this information—including his dissatisfaction with his career—into The System.

So far, though Jack exercises and has changed his eating habits, The System shows him making no progress.

Elizabeth bakes the apple turnovers that Brandie insisted Toby likes so much. Elizabeth decides to try an experiment with Toby: He can choose to eat one turnover now or two in 15 minutes. This activity is based on a famous psychology experiment with marshmallows; in it, children who were able to delay gratification and hold out for two marshmallows went on to be more successful in many areas of life. After 15 minutes, she returns to find Toby has eaten the turnover. She tries the experiment two more times, only for Toby to “fail” each time. Elizabeth is disappointed; she thinks about the fact that Toby’s pediatrician has not diagnosed Toby with any disorder.

That night, Elizabeth puts Toby to bed, which is always challenging because Toby has anxiety about going to sleep.

She then retreats to her bedroom; there, Jack hopes that they might have sex, but Elizabeth is not in mood. They briefly joke about whether Brandie is secretly trying to convert Toby to some kind of religion. Jack leaves the bedroom and heads to his office, where he will fall asleep on the couch. Elizabeth falls asleep quickly. She wakes soon, however, and must swallow a Xanax to fall asleep once again.

Jack, an adjunct professor, attends his university’s orientation, or Onboarding. There are lengthy explanations of the new mission statements and a discussion of purpose during lunch. Jack silently laments the corporate-speak of the university’s CFO. Toward the end of the day, a new initiative is announced: The Impact Algorithm calculates a faculty member’s value to the university by tracking his online mentions online (mostly on social media) and translating that into a dollar amount. Jack is dismayed to find his only online presence is his son’s YouTube channel, resulting in his “worth” being $13.

Elizabeth recalls how, as college ended, their friends gradually got jobs elsewhere and suddenly began having children. Elizabeth tried to maintain the friendships, but children changed the dynamic too much. When Toby was born, she begins to understand her old friends’ perspectives better.

One day, as Elizabeth drops Toby off at school, Brandie points out to her other parents, sharing their professions and gossip. One couple, Kyle and Kate, are recent transplants from California. Kate is 25 to Kyle’s 40-something, and they have an open marriage. They drop off Kyle’s daughter and Kate chats about the “sleepover” she had the night before with another man. Brandie responds politely but seems to disapprove.

As the school day begins, Elizabeth wanders into a nearby coffee shop instead of heading home. She finds Kate there and asks her more details about the open marriage. Kate willingly shares her philosophy: Marriage is a technology whose hardware is outdated. Elizabeth is intrigued, so Kate suggests Elizabeth and Jack come out on a double date.

The narrative flashes back to the early weeks of Jack and Elizabeth’s relationship in 1993.

They often neglect assignments for classes so that they can be together. One day, Elizabeth has a lunch date with Agatha, a drama student she befriended. Agatha laments that she has not been able to secure a part in any campus plays.

A few nights later, Elizabeth attends Jack’s first photography show, “Girl in Window.” There, he publicly thanks Elizabeth, calling her his muse. Their relationship develops a pattern: They socialize with other artists, attend concerts of musicians who would later make it big, and criticize mainstream consumer culture. Jack’s show is written up in the Tribune and Jack is praised as an up-and-coming artist.