30 Mar 2012

Nightwalking ★★★★☆



Review of 'Nightwalking' which can be found here on the BBC Film Network.

Length: 02:45
Written by Ben Clover & directed by Daniel Cormack
Genre: Comedy
Date: 2008
Rating: ★★★

Logline: A woman walking home alone at night begins to panic when she believes she is being followed.

Don't let the title or the dark ominous opening shot deceive you. It's straight into comedy in this nice little short. Voice over is key here as we get two differing perspectives on the whole 'woman walking alone at night' thing. Raquel Cassidy and Lloyd Woolf are both great delivering their lines comically. And kudos to the writer who put in some great lines too. "This would be less embarrassing if I was a rapist", lol. It's the dialogue that carries the comedy for the majority of the time but a good variation was making the punchline a purely visual gag.

The editing is good at keeping our eyes happy as technically we are only watching two people walking down a street, twice, but there is a good mix of shots plus the use of black and white as a device to show thought rather than reality. Both characters get the same heartbeat soundtrack along side their stories and this works well to heighten their own internal emotions as well as increase suspense for the audience.

I detected a slight imbalance with the structure of this piece. It felt like the innocent guy's story was longer. (though on a second look, I'm mot too convinced of this any more) I think it's because he gets more lines than she does. So you could argue that he takes over the role of protagonist as it is really his story we are left contemplating, not hers. I don't mind that too much as his [Spoiler Alert] falling down a hole is the punchline to the entire film but as we start off with Cassidy, it would have been nice to have had a stronger ending for her.

A refreshing take on a common scenario performed well with a nice twist at the end. Pacing a bit off but hardly a concern. Well done.

Best Bit: Excellent use of voice over.

Worst Bit: The blokes story is longer than the woman's.

Final thought: It'll take more than reassuring a perfect stranger to make me phone my mother.

Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.

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