Hibernation (2005) User Reviews

What the film meant to me.

[herbie53ohio · 10/10 · 17 April 2007]

It seems these days they everything has to be spelled out in black and white for the general public to understand it. This accounts for the predictable offerings from Hollywood, which seem to entertain the masses, but fail to challenge their minds or evoke catharsis; and are quickly forgotten. Why is it that imagery and symbolism are so often lost; does it all have to be spelled out word for word? When it gets to that point, we might as well chuck every known work of art into coal fired power plants.

This film, so beautifully done, simply attempts to express the feeling we all have at some point, the realization that death, in relation at least to life on our earth, is final. There were never going to be enough batteries to bring Robin back. He wasn't really in hibernation, he was gone. Sure we figure out what happened to him. That wasn't the point.

So often I find that there aren't word combinations the adequately describe my deepest emotions. This film drove right to heart of this one, and immediately put me in touch with my own similar moment. I remember the futility of that feeling, the void that was left and wondering if it would ever be filled. A+ for this one.

One of my personal top three.

[kyle_sund · 10/10 · 9 May 2015]

We all arrive at this moment at some point, the point when we realize that someone's death is final. No more phone calls or knocks on the door from that person. No hope that they're simply away or in hiding. There really are no words for this. It's something each of us has to define for ourselves in our own way. It's not about what they were doing, it's about how they arrived at the moment they accepted the one law of nature that's inescapable, and about how we still don't completely let go.

The policeman, Robin's father, knows exactly what's happening and lets it go on because somewhere down deep, as we all do, he's holding on to that one tiny shred of hope that somehow, it's all a bad dream and Robin will return. He's powerless to stop them from trying, or maybe just loves them enough to let the boys come to terms with it despite their crime.

I have never been more moved by a short film. Never.

Conceptually and visually interesting even if too much of it was over my head for my liking

[bob the moo · 12 April 2007]

Late at night, high in a treehouse, two children dressed as animals undertake an experiment. Using electricity, a jam jar, an apple and plenty of wiring, they seek to bring a bee back from its hibernation. Their experiment a success, they quickly move onto their ultimate goal, reviving a much bigger subject.

It would help my standing if I was able to blag this review and say I totally got Hibernation and blabber on about how beautiful and wonderful it was; not only would it prove how smart I was but it would make anyone disagreeing with me look like some sort of jerk who should just stay watching Home & Away. However I cannot say this and probably have no "standing" left to protect anyway with the amount of unprofessional opinion I have floating around the place here. At its heart this film is about the death of Robin from brain cancer and the impact on the two friends he left behind but the meaning of the actual content of the film was lost on me. I'm not sure why – it might be because the film was too personal, not put together in a way to make it easy to understand or that I'm just not too bright (or a bit of all of them). So at times I did feel a bit cut out of the action, which was a problem, but a credit though that I still managed to feel quite touched by the sense of loss and sense of longing for Robin that the characters had.

Williams as writer didn't totally have me in his spell because although it is imaginative and engaging, I did want more understanding or appreciation of the material. As director though, he is hard to fault. He mixes the animation well with the live action and visually the film is very strong. He doesn't do quite as well with his actors. I'm not sure if it was the intension or not, but I found both the boys to be too stiff and cold, not convincing as real children. I suspect that they were trying to keep emotion out of it as part of not accepting their friend's death, but if so then they took it too far from the middle.

Overall then an interesting and unusual film that has a surprisingly strong emotional core considering how difficult the material is to get through. Conceptually and visually interesting even if too much of it was over my head for my liking.

Nothing too memorable

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 9 August 2016]

"Hibernation" is a 15-minute live action short film from 2005 and one of the most known works by writer and director (but not composer) John Williams, probably his most famous short film. It is a British production that garnered a nice deal of awards attention, especially in the United States. Now a decade later, I cannot say I am familiar with any of the actors in here and some of them may have pursued other career paths, which is perfectly fine as nothing from this little movie is really beyond mediocrity. It is the story of two buys who come up with a very unusual plan. But watch for yourself. or don't as this little movie did very little for me, so I didn't mind it was over that quickly. I also felt the animal costumes made it look pretty ridiculous, even if they of course were a crucial component of the plot. Thumbs-down overall. Not recommended.