One need only relate to the conflicting human impulses of wanting to hold on to love while needing to let it go. Quelled by that self-inflicted injury, he must spend a lot of time not speaking, which naturally invites everyone around him to offer advice.

His debut Broadway role offers him a chance at redemption and turns this bracing book into a considered meditation on the evil of celebrity and the demanding yet restorative power of theatre.He must examine himself, and who he has become, under the brightest of lights and the keenest of eyes. And I only remember two actors from that movie -- Robin Williams as the teacher standing on the desk and the kid who ultimately offs himself at the end (tall, thin, dark haired, and most certainly not Ethan Hawke). This recycled gossip is tiresome, but what’s most irritating about “ A Bright Ray of Darkness” is that it’s really good.

Actor William Harding has been caught cheating on his rock star wife and the press have descended upon him.Add to that the raucous insanity of a bunch of people whose real emotions don’t know the difference between what they’re pretending and being a regular schlub, and even if they do, sometimes they get overwhelmed by the professionally evoked stuff, but, unlike regular schlubs everywhere, these schlubs get distorted by all the applause, so they think what they do is a matter of life and death.