Amelia and Michael (2007) Directed by Daniel Cormack

(Review originally written at 25 September 2007)

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

To put it simply, this is a really well made short film. It's only 10 minutes long, so it's obviously and notably restricted with its story development and characters but the movie does a very good job at telling the story in its limited amount of time in a very effective- and above all also realistic way.

The movie is kept deliberately small, in terms of its dramatic elements and character emotions. It's the reason why the movie feels very real and warm, even despite of its depressing story and overall atmosphere. It's the main reason why I regard this movie as a very well made one.

The editing still feels quite clumsy in parts. For instance the back- and forward cuts from the internal and external shots in a sequence don't always feel consistent. It feels like it's taking place in a totally different time-line and universe so to speak, even though it very well might had been all shot on the same day and on the same location. Some music in those sequences could perhaps had worked miracles. It at least would had made it more consistent. The movie also uses one or two too many fade outs right in the middle of the movie. I never have been a big fan of fade outs. To me it always seems like the cheapest, most lazy and most simple way to make a jump in time and to end a sequence. I prefer a more creative solution, though in this particular case the fade outs are sort of suiting with the film its 'slow' pace.

The cinematography on the other hand was really superb. It gave the movie a totally professional look and feeling. I especially liked the lighting in some of the sequences.

Anthony Head plays a real solid role in this film. Also his presence alone is already good enough to uplift the movie. The other main part is being played by Natasha Powell. She's obviously not too experienced but her performance feels very natural because of that, which is a real positive thing.

I also really liked the ending of the movie, in which nothing has changed, despite of what happened all and everything is just the same as it was before, as if nothing had ever happened. It's a real good and interesting ending of the movie that is also brought very well to the screen; The movie ends basically just in the same way as it started out. No words are spoken but everyone know what the ending means. It makes it very effective but it however also at the same time feels quite abrupt. But I think this is more because of that the movie HAD to be below 10 minutes long. Or perhaps it's just because of it that I don't too often watch these short sort of films.

The film is about as good as you could expect from a 10 minutes short. Good story development, professionally put together, with an overall good sense of realism.

8/10