There are few things more tragic than the loss of a spouse, and anyone who has ever gone through this heartache will be able to connect with this movie.
Sean (Johnny Alonso) is completely distraught over the sudden death of his wife Annette (Geanie Alan). He seeks support from his close friend Adam (Clayton Myers) and his wife Mary (Lisa Rogers), but there is only so much help that a friend can provide in a situation like this. Ultimately, it falls to the individual to deal with grief in his or her own way.
Content
I really liked the structure of this film and how it avoided the use of plot exposition lines by hinting at the story throughout. For example, when Adam and Mary are getting ready, Mary tells Adam that it will be ok for him to get emotional, and he responds by saying, “I’ve been to funeral before, Mary.” The very next scene is of Sean stumbling out of what looks like a hotel. His hair and clothes are a mess, and there are tears streaming down his face. Later on, when Sean and Adam leave the funeral home to go to a bar, Sean vents all his anger, frustration, and grief in several great bits of dialogue. And, after Sean returns home, there is a great scene of him crying and throwing things that reminded me of Charles Foster Kane’s tantrum-esque episode of tearing his wife’s room apart after she leaves him. In this film, an audience doesn’t need the plot spelled out for them because the characters convey it perfectly with their acting.
There are also some nice flashbacks of happier days, when the two couples are hanging out together. These are identified by a white flash at the beginning and end, and – a rather subtle by very nice touch – the colors seem much brighter and more saturated.
Toward the end of the movie there was one moment that seemed as though the plot was going to suddenly change into a murder mystery. Mary mentions to Adam that Annette’s parents had said that Annette was unhappy in the marriage and considering leaving Sean. That, coupled with her sudden death and the fact that Sean left the funeral, made Annette’s parents very suspicious of him. This additional plot point brings up new thoughts in an audience’s mind, but it is never explored. It seems as though this is just brought up as the way in which Annette’s parents are dealing with their grief, but since that is an awfully big accusation to bring up so near to the end of the movie, it might be a good idea to take it out somehow.
Visual Look
Visually speaking, this film has a good look, but there are some issues in the are of camerawork. There are a lot of shots that should be stable – mostly one-shots of the characters – and let they seem to twitch from side to side or move around a bit too much. It seems as though these filmmakers didn’t have access to a tripod and just used the camera handheld. In this case, it’s probably better to set the camera down on something or to make your own Steadicam, because the slight twitching is very distracting to an audience.
There were many shots that moved on purpose, and they also seemed to be on the move a bit too much, though in a scene outside the bar where Sean is frantically pacing back and forth, the camera following this movement seems to match well with his frantic mindset.
