Inspired by true events this is the story of a young child who finds himself alone in his flat after her mother dies suddenly. With everyone else in the building getting on with their day to day lives, the child's plight goes unnoticed and the seriousness of his situation is lost on her. The only hope seems to be a postman, Nick, who delivers daily to the flats.
Screened as one of the finalists in the TCM Classic Shorts competition in 2007, this film is based on a true story. With that hook I hoped it would do something interesting but, unfortunately I did not think that it did in regards the telling or the delivery. The film cuts between the postman Nick going about this day and the child in the flat all alone with her mother's body. This is a very straight telling of the scenario but what bothered me was that the narrative didn't so anything that was unexpected or interesting with the scenario other than simply tell it. Following Nick provided a secondary strand but I am not entirely sure why. It heads along until the point where the two strands merge and there we end.
Where the film did impress was in the delivery of the product. It looks good and was all shot out on locations but it was the working with the child that impressed me as the shots with her were all really well done, natural and convincing. This cannot have been easy and credit to Tsutsumi for dealing with that (and the various other challenges that the shoot threw up at her) but I did feel that maybe this had been the focus of the making and that more could have been done with the scenario and script to tell more than just the basics.
Overall then the film is visually and design-wise good but I struggled with the narrative being straightforward and surprisingly lacking an emotional core. The shots achieved with the child ring true but they are not used as well as I would have liked. Worth a look for what it does well, but personally I was looking for more.
Screened as one of the finalists in the TCM Classic Shorts competition in 2007, this film is based on a true story. With that hook I hoped it would do something interesting but, unfortunately I did not think that it did in regards the telling or the delivery. The film cuts between the postman Nick going about this day and the child in the flat all alone with her mother's body. This is a very straight telling of the scenario but what bothered me was that the narrative didn't so anything that was unexpected or interesting with the scenario other than simply tell it. Following Nick provided a secondary strand but I am not entirely sure why. It heads along until the point where the two strands merge and there we end.
Where the film did impress was in the delivery of the product. It looks good and was all shot out on locations but it was the working with the child that impressed me as the shots with her were all really well done, natural and convincing. This cannot have been easy and credit to Tsutsumi for dealing with that (and the various other challenges that the shoot threw up at her) but I did feel that maybe this had been the focus of the making and that more could have been done with the scenario and script to tell more than just the basics.
Overall then the film is visually and design-wise good but I struggled with the narrative being straightforward and surprisingly lacking an emotional core. The shots achieved with the child ring true but they are not used as well as I would have liked. Worth a look for what it does well, but personally I was looking for more.
