Martin Freeman, well known at the time this short film was made for his work in The Office U.K. as Tim Canterbury, sort of a foil to David Brent's (Ricky Gervais) delightfully gauche boss, was given here a chance to flex his acting chops in a story revolves around the technological advance in modern comms called caller-ID/call-register, a thing now taken for granted almost two decades on. Freeman plays Kevin, a bit of a charming slacker-type, who seen with his buddy Julian, played by James Lance, who gets to be the film's designated straight-laced no-nonsense character where the interaction between the two actors was a joy to watch, and then when Neve McIntosh's character Amanda was dragged into in the fray, the result, a short film that's crawling with cringe-comedy components.
The perils of overthinking simple situations devolving into such a huge mess that comes back to haunt someone, in this case, that would be Kevin, and such has always been a successful trope in comedies, and Freeman's superbly brilliant subtle characterization was what kind of compelled me to just "drop by" and express my appreciation for this one.
My rating: B-plus.
The perils of overthinking simple situations devolving into such a huge mess that comes back to haunt someone, in this case, that would be Kevin, and such has always been a successful trope in comedies, and Freeman's superbly brilliant subtle characterization was what kind of compelled me to just "drop by" and express my appreciation for this one.
My rating: B-plus.