I did notice, however, that there were a couple of shaky camera movements throughout the film. While one or two at the beginning weren’t too bad, there was one right in the middle of a very intense moment that seemed very jarring and out of place, especially since the camerawork had been so smooth up to that point. There were also a couple instances of washout coming from the windows when Michelle and William were getting ready in the morning. However, it was only slight and not very pronounced.
While William tries to
get on with his life...
...Michelle tries to convince
herself that her son is still alive.
Use of Audio
There was some really nice background music in this film. It was subtle and set the scene well without being too overpowering. There was also some great upbeat music in the scene in which Michelle is packing bags for a family vacation. However, in this scene the music was very loud in comparison to the audio of the rest of the film which had been rather quiet. I had to turn the volume down during this sequence, then back up again in order to hear the next scene. But this is something that could easily be fixed in FinalCut.
Due to the low levels of the rest of the film, there were a couple of instances where the dialogue was a little hard to understand, but this didn’t happen very often. In addition, there was really good room tone that matched well and wasn’t inconsistent.
Use of Budget
A budget of under $5,000 is a pretty impressive number for a film of this quality, although as the director is currently in film school, there were probably a lot of resources available to him. But the final product is a great movie, and – even if it doesn’t get any distribution (which I doubt will happen) – it should serve as a great resume to open doors for this director further down the road.
In order to keep
herself from insanity...
...Michelle asks her husband
to help her keep up this charade.
Lasting Appeal
The goal of a dramatic movie such as An Open Door is to evoke feelings within the audience. This one definitely did that. Grief is difficult to deal with, especially that of the loss of a child, and viewers who have not experienced this tragedy will get some idea as to what it may be like. However, for those audience members who perhaps have dealt with this situation first-hand, even a short film like this may be overwhelming to watch.
Overall Comment This is really a great movie. It’s a compelling and heart-wrenching story that is very well-told, besides being very visually appealing. While it may prove disturbing to some viewers, I think most would agree that this is a difficult subject to tackle, and has been handled quite well.
The
author of half a dozen screen plays, two novels, and a proficient
camera-woman in her own right, Monika
DeLeeuw-Taylor is Microfilmmaker's lead writing analyst and
one of our top film reviewers. When she's not writing a critique for
Microfilmmaker, she's writing screenplays for Viking Productions.
