A man tells a story of when he was young and in the summer worked in a coffee shop. Daily an old man would come in, order a tall plain black coffee to go and, on his way out, would pocket a couple of handfuls of packet sugar. This continues as the young man at the counter tries to figure out what on earth he is doing with the sugar each day.
This film is delivered in a soft tone and a narration which is wholly in rhyming couplets which rather clues you in on how this film is going to go because it is generally sweet and slight. The "what does he need it for" question and the curiosity of the narrator did help to draw me in and the solution was nicely presented. At this point it heads with determination down the "sentimental" route but it more or less keeps it from being too sickly even though it is a bit mawkish. The conclusion (final shot) is a bit too much for me though and I thought that, although the marriage is part of the poem, the film should not have made it right at the point of proposal as this was too much and also seemed unnatural that he would be there for 7 minutes telling the story while his partner stands before him.
The direction is nicely warm though and generally the tone of the film leans towards sentiment but not too far – but the material pushes it to be more cloying by the end with the detail of the man's dedication to his sick wife (even though taking her sugar packets doesn't make much sense), the death of the wife and then the death of the man and then to top all of that off, the mawkish appreciation of a young couple in love and the proposal. The cast carry it well, Scott (That Thing You Do) uses his voice well and just a shame he has the ending to carry. Hyland is nicely expressive in an essentially silent role while McHugh is a nice presence as the old man.
So it is a nice film if you are in the mood – perhaps deeply in romantic love and staring at lambs frolic on a sunny meadow would be good time to watch this film, but it is sentimental at the best of time and, unless you really go with it, you will find it getting quite sickly sweet by the end.
This film is delivered in a soft tone and a narration which is wholly in rhyming couplets which rather clues you in on how this film is going to go because it is generally sweet and slight. The "what does he need it for" question and the curiosity of the narrator did help to draw me in and the solution was nicely presented. At this point it heads with determination down the "sentimental" route but it more or less keeps it from being too sickly even though it is a bit mawkish. The conclusion (final shot) is a bit too much for me though and I thought that, although the marriage is part of the poem, the film should not have made it right at the point of proposal as this was too much and also seemed unnatural that he would be there for 7 minutes telling the story while his partner stands before him.
The direction is nicely warm though and generally the tone of the film leans towards sentiment but not too far – but the material pushes it to be more cloying by the end with the detail of the man's dedication to his sick wife (even though taking her sugar packets doesn't make much sense), the death of the wife and then the death of the man and then to top all of that off, the mawkish appreciation of a young couple in love and the proposal. The cast carry it well, Scott (That Thing You Do) uses his voice well and just a shame he has the ending to carry. Hyland is nicely expressive in an essentially silent role while McHugh is a nice presence as the old man.
So it is a nice film if you are in the mood – perhaps deeply in romantic love and staring at lambs frolic on a sunny meadow would be good time to watch this film, but it is sentimental at the best of time and, unless you really go with it, you will find it getting quite sickly sweet by the end.
