Length: 06:07
Logline: A business man expecting a promotion snaps when the girl of his dreams falls for another guy.
For some reason this was in the Best of British category on Films Short. Thought that was a bit optimistic myself. Although I was initially disappointed to see the characters drawn as stick figures, I ended up quite enjoying the enactment of emotions and story through body movement instead of facial expression or dialogue. Characters move slowly but deliberately and the animation is well done. Scott Johnson does a good job with the narration and does well to make best some poorly scripted words. It almost sounds like someone is just reading out a short story that they wrote rather than a screenplay. Some characters names get pronounced in full every time they are mentioned while others aren't worthy. Ether way, it gets a bit annoying over time.
That said, this is one of those animations that you want to watch more than once in order to spot the background action and catch those little details that are occur while you are following the main characters storyline. I don’t find stuff like that distracting and like to take extra time to savour every detail.
Another idea I liked was the one location setting where we move up and down through the building to follow the action. An effective time saving device which fitted stylistically with the retro 1950’s Americana feel. And although I was reminded of ‘Mad Men’, ‘The Pink Panther’ cartoons and countless animated film title sequences, I felt a little let down stylistically by this effort. The accompanying jazz soundtrack is also too subtle and could have been used to greater effect.
The plot is the weakest part for me. It’s all okay until Keith thinks it’s a good idea to try and remove a dead body from the building. The window cleaner/ ambulance scene is left unresolved and has probably been shoved in there to create a reason for the ladder to be there. It also falls folly of my biggest gripe about short films. It doesn’t have an ending (at least a satisfying one) it just cuts to black. Shame on you. Just because the main character is left hanging in mid air doesn’t mean you should leave your audience in the same way.
Best Bit: The nicely done realistic movement of the stick figures animation.
Worst Bit: The narrators dialogue. Not least that incessant repetition of the name Keith Reynolds.
Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.
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