Length: 19:06
Logline: A friendship is tested and a mystery to solve when a tragedy pushes a woman over the edge.
This is another effort from the director of Deid, but there's not much to laugh about in this serious drama. It's good to see a film with parts for middle aged females. Yvonne Morton, playing Beth, pops up again and shows she has more strings to her bow than just comedy and both Louise Ballantyne and Steve Webb both flourish in their emotional roles. The performances, dialogue and writing are perhaps the stronger elements of the film as there are a few technical flaws that must be mentioned.
This is one example of how budget constraints, not enough equipment or crew ability can clearly effect the end product and where the story isn't enough to save it. The camerawork isn't the best here. Dodgy tracking, badly composed shots and shaky hand held scenes may distract audiences. Bad lighting, both indoors and out, make some scenes hard to make out. This looks like a one camera shoot but there aren't enough cut aways or differing angles to make the edit as well paced as it could be. While the lingering camera works well in some emotionally engaging scenes, it doesn't in others such as the husband/wife argument towards the end. On the plus side, the continuous shots are testament to the acting ability on screen.
I can see that there's been a conscious effort to maintain tone through the pacing of the film but for me, (as per usual) it was a bit on the long and slow side. It's hard to strike a good balance with the pace in a moody piece like this. Some trimming in the edit suit is advised. The soundtrack is atmospheric and in tune with the feel of the film but is a little underused and could have been a bigger factor in accentuating emotion as well as disguising background noise during external shots. I enjoyed the plot, and the husband turning up in act three is a nice twist to the mystery Beth is trying to solve. the characters were genuine and real showing the writer has good understanding. Overall, this feels more like a work in progress rather than a final cut. It's a good genre piece to add to a writer/director portfolio and hopefully has taught the filmmaker a lot of worthwhile lessons in the process.
Best Bit: Great performance by all.
Worst Bit: Disappointingly executed shoot.
Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.
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