Length: 12:21
Logline: The arrival of a talking teddy bear brings new light into an agoraphobic widow's life.
This dark tale has a surrealist edge to it and centers around themes of loneliness and fear. The audience will have to guess for themselves whether the Japanese spouting bear really can make the tea or whether Maude's finally had too much booze and is projecting. Either way, this makes for interesting viewing.
Starring cream of the crop Susannah York as the elderly, possibly demented, Maude and Tim Woodward as Danny, the (keen) gardener, both do well to give their characters an unnerving edge and don't over do the naturalism. Dialogue is minimal but Maude's lonely existence makes it believable during scenes where she is simply talking to herself. Key to the plot is Maude's character arc. She turns from a cut-off woman loathed to interact with any other human into quite the sociable murderer. The teddy bear is a nice and subtle way of showing Maude's developing change.
Although pace is a bit slow, there is a sinister undertone which manages to be retained throughout. This is what turns what could have been a drab and depressing story into a rather intriguing one. Low lighting, which has been used to show how isolated and cut off Maude is, isn't great for the viewer though and some shot compositions look off. Chico's flashing eyes are a bit on the cheap side but the rest of the production is fine enough and a well suited soundtrack comes in to emphasise emotion at the right parts. Overall, creepy but entirely watchable.
This dark tale has a surrealist edge to it and centers around themes of loneliness and fear. The audience will have to guess for themselves whether the Japanese spouting bear really can make the tea or whether Maude's finally had too much booze and is projecting. Either way, this makes for interesting viewing.
Starring cream of the crop Susannah York as the elderly, possibly demented, Maude and Tim Woodward as Danny, the (keen) gardener, both do well to give their characters an unnerving edge and don't over do the naturalism. Dialogue is minimal but Maude's lonely existence makes it believable during scenes where she is simply talking to herself. Key to the plot is Maude's character arc. She turns from a cut-off woman loathed to interact with any other human into quite the sociable murderer. The teddy bear is a nice and subtle way of showing Maude's developing change.
Although pace is a bit slow, there is a sinister undertone which manages to be retained throughout. This is what turns what could have been a drab and depressing story into a rather intriguing one. Low lighting, which has been used to show how isolated and cut off Maude is, isn't great for the viewer though and some shot compositions look off. Chico's flashing eyes are a bit on the cheap side but the rest of the production is fine enough and a well suited soundtrack comes in to emphasise emotion at the right parts. Overall, creepy but entirely watchable.
Best Bit: Chico likes to kill.
Worst Bit: Low lighting makes it hard to see.
Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.
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