- A disillusioned medical student is stranded for a summer in a remote community of counterculture pot farmers, the last place in the world he imagined he would discover himself.
- Peter is burned out: finishing med school at UCLA, failing the bedside manner class his father teaches, no sleep in days. He spends the night with Bogart, a woman he's just met, and the next day, sleepily gets in her car. He wakes up in Arcata, where Bogart's foster family lives in the woods: Max, his daughter, mom, and step dad. They grow marijuana for their own consumption, except for Max, who has planted six hidden patches for one big score. Bogart hates pot farming - feds are on constant patrol - so she splits, leaving Peter to depend on Max for a ride to the bus. A day stretches into two, and Peter puts off leaving. A reckoning with his dad is inevitable: is Peter's rebirth possible?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
- Warning!! This synopsis contains spoilers from the movie!!
At the start of the movie, we see the main protagonist Peter Hadley(Jeremy Strong) listening to a woman(Fairuza Balk) talk about her recent experience of having her fourth abortion. She talks about how she came home from the clinic and how she lives out in the middle of nowhere but her boyfriend, who hears everything, heard her come home. He went in to her room to see her and she tried to pretend she was asleep but she couldn't hold it in. She said she started to cry and she regrets that she did it and how she wishes her baby was still inside of her alive. She also claims that she wants to kill herself and how whenever she makes love she can't "feel anything ". As the camera zooms out we see that Peter is really a medical student trying to take an exam in front of his teachers and other medical students. We also realize that the woman speaking about her recent abortion is just an actress playing the role of a depressed woman who's had four abortions. After her speech, Peter is supposed to say something about her diagnosis and what he recommends she should do, but Peter gets lost in the story and becomes just as depressed as the role she is playing for the exam. Finally, he looks over his clipboard and says that prescription Paxil is right for her. After that his teacher asks him if there is anything else but Peter just looks nervous and unsure of himself and remains silent. Then his teacher gets up to the podium and sarcastically says, "Paxil. Really??" He then calls the next student up to take her exam. We then see the opening title of the movie "Humboldt County", while we see Peter walking down the hall of the medical school with his hands in his pockets. The camera then cuts to him sitting down with his arms on his knees looking even more nervous and depressed than before. The actress who was playing the depressed woman then comes out of his teachers office and tells him that he says Peter can go in now. Peter says thanks to her and she notices he looks nervous. She adds that hes a bit of a "curmudgeon" and Peter says he isn't so bad. She glares at him for a few seconds then says she has something for him. She pulls out a piece of yellow paper and hands it to him while saying "later alligator" and leaves.
Peter then goes into his teacher's office and he tells him that this is an acceptance into one of the best Residency programs in the country. He was also hoping that the day would be a celebration but instead he fails Peter. Peter is shocked and says that he can try harder, but he's been studying non stop and hasn't slept in days and is doing rounds. The teacher then says that if the exam had been real, Peter would have put a life in danger and that even though he thinks Peter would be a great doctor, he has his own moral imperatives. We then see that the head teacher is Peter's father after Peter calls him Dad and tries to explain that if he fails he won't graduate and will lose the Residency. Peter's father then says that they both worked so hard for this and that he's unbelievably disappointed. The next scene cuts to Peter in the men's room looking over his letter saying he failed. He then crumbles up the piece of paper in anger and puts it in his mouth trying to eat it in frustration. But right when he does this, we hear a toilet flush, followed by a man that comes out of the stalls and Peter looks nervous again not wanting to be embarrassed that he just ate his "failed acceptance letter". The man washes his hands, gives Peter a funny look, and leaves the rest room. Peter then spits the piece of paper out and says, "idiot" to himself.
The next scene shows Peter waiting at a bus stop looking depressed. He then takes out the yellow piece of paper the woman gave him before she left. He looks at it and we see the paper read, "Jazz tonight one night only! the lovely and talented miss Bogart Truman. The next scene cuts to a bar where a Jazz performance is going on and the beautiful woman we saw before is all dressed up singing Jazz onstage and getting the crowd into it as well. Peter then walks in and looks at her smiling and she notices him onstage. She gives him a big smile and then finishes her song. She then walks to the bar, sits next to him, and stares at him curiously. He looks very nervous as she is staring and keeps trying to look away from her but he can't help it. They make eye contact for a second then she smiles, gets up and leaves. We then see Peter run after her as she starts walking down the alley outside of the bar. She makes a comment that the place is too noisy and that's why she ran in such a huff. They both then get into an elevator and up to a motel room that appears to be her temporary residence. She goes up to him as he closes the door and starts to undress him starting with his jacket. He manages to finally ask her if she is an actress or singer and she tells him with a smile that those are just little gigs she does as she goes through L.A. She then comments that he looks very sad and then she kisses him. He again gets nervous and stops her to tell her his name is Peter Hadley and she says, "Hello Peter Hadley, I'm Bogart." He asks if that is her real name and she says no. She continues to undress him and he proceeds to tell her that he doesn't have any money, assuming that she is a Prostitute. She then blushes and starts to laugh saying, "Wow!" He then feels so embarrassed, knowing he just said the wrong thing. She doesn't take it too seriously however, thereby asking him, "Can't a girl just have casual sex anymore without being labeled?" He immediately says yes she can and she moves closer to him on the bed and he apologizes, admitting that he didn't think she was actually interested. She then takes pity and tells him, "You're just not too good with people are you Peter?" Upon saying this she throws herself onto him and they enjoy sex. Afterwards, Peter lies in bed exhausted as Bogart starts to get dressed. He asks where she is going and she says home, followed by asking him if he wants to come. The next scene is both of them in Bogart's car and Peter looks dead tired. She tells him its a long drive and asks him if he's sure he wants to come. Tiredly, he says sure. She asks him if he needs anything and he says no.
The next series of scenes shows Peter sleeping in the car throughout the whole drive. We eventually see beautiful mountain landscape followed by a sign that says, "Humboldt County Lane". Eventually, the camera shows Peter waking up in the car and Bogart isnt there. He gets out of the car and walks down a path that leads to the Pacific Coast where Bogart is standing off a cliff looking out into the beautiful horizon sunset. Peter asks where they are and Bogart says home. He asks if they are in Malibu but she says no. The next scene is Bogart driving really fast down a series of roads talking about how they are in the Lost Coast, but how its not lost much anymore because Walmart is moving in. She also talks about how
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