The Lunch Date is a 1989 short film (ten minutes) written and directed by Adam Davidson.
A well-to-do fifty-ish white woman is in a train station, rushing to catch a train. She seems ill at ease, especially around black men; she practically recoils in fear when she bumps into a well-dressed black man and drops her purse. She refuses his help as she gathers up her belongings. She misses the train and then discovers that she can't find her wallet.
With little else in the way of options she goes into a diner and buys a salad. She puts down the salad, goes back to get a fork and napkin, only to find on her return a homeless black man sitting at her table and eating her salad. Or so she thinks.
Tropes:
- Chiaroscuro: The black and white cinematography makes for some striking images as the light streams in from the windows high up on the walls of the train station.
- Deliberately Monochrome: As befitting an arty student film, it's shot in black and white.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Seemingly no more than a couple of hours as a rich lady misses a train in Grand Central Station.
- Homeless Hero: A low-key version. The homeless man not only lets the rich white lady eat half his salad, he even buys her a cup of coffee.
- Nameless Narrative: None given.
- Neat Freak: The woman is rather fussy, wiping down the table in the diner and wiping down her fork. This only adds to her unease when a homeless man shows up in her booth.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Ends with the woman's train zooming away.
- Percussive Pickpocket: A man bumps into the woman in the main hall, causing her to spill her stuff. When she gathers it up, her purse/wallet is gone.
- The Quiet One: Other than an inarticulate yell when the woman first tries to take the salad, the homeless man never says a word, even when she starts eating off of his plate and when he buys her a cup of coffee.
- Retraux: There's the black and white photography, the rather old-timey musical score, and the old-fashioned font in the opening title card.
- Significant Background Event: A sharp-eyed viewer might figure out the Twist Ending by noticing that, while the woman sets her shopping bags down in the booth, they are not there when she returns and the homeless man is sitting on the other side of the table.
- Twist Ending: It wasn't her salad, it was his salad. She sat down at a homeless man's booth and ate off of his plate. She finds her salad in the next booth untouched.
