The Wedding (2011) [N/A]
Written by:
Jack Vening
Directed by:
Simon Cottee
Release Date:
January 20, 2011
Original Title:
The Wedding
Production Companies:
Griffith Film School
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 5
A melancholy boy attends his estranged Father’s wedding to a large Latina woman aboard a small and cramped boat on a shark infested sea.
There is a wedding in this short film but it is as strange a wedding as the rest of the film is odd. It occurs on a small boat in a sea filled with sharks and it occurs between the estranged father of the main character, and a large Latino woman. As the boy travels to the wedding, he muses over things in the narration.It is hard for me to describe this film adequately and it is harder for me to say whether or not I actually liked it or not. The narration is delicately written so that it feels totally detached from anything – throwaway remarks are made regarding abandonment and illness, and they are made in such a way that you wonder whether all of them are true and not exaggerated from a kernel of reality, but at the same time you can see that pushing things down and trying not to feel things is something that the main character has done for a while. The events of the wedding are equally exaggerated but yet the core of the story remains folded inwards and almost soothingly calm.The impact is that it feels wryly amusing throughout but yet written with a heart based in the main character. If its content feels controlled and still, the film matches it visually with a style that doesn't overdo anything in terms of movement and action – not because it can't but because it makes that decision, and visually that works really well.What did it mean and what did I take from it? That I'm not sure but it delivers a great tone and odd content that is engaging and visually appealing, which means that it remained engaging even after several viewings. It is odd and understated and I'm not sure totally whether I enjoyed it or not, but for all those reasons it is worth a look.
