This short film is quite a simple affair in terms of setting and setup. A group of siblings and a few significant others are in the garden of the family home where they get together a week after the death of their mother. Brother Robert has looked after his mother his whole life, and didn't tell anyone she died for 5 days; but now they are all together they have a matter of inheritance to decide – and everyone has their own opinion on what they are owed.
Technically the film benefits from the simple static setting and to be fair to it, it does a decent job as it has good sound and looks alright. It doesn't do anything special with the camera and it is a bit clunky in its simplicity, but it is pretty clear why they did what they did and it does make the most of the limited resources. Unfortunately, it is not the technology which is the most limited resource, but rather the writing because, although it is billed as a comedy, Kamm's script really doesn't have too much in it that works as any sort of comedy. There are stabs at dark humor, clownish humor and others, but nothing really works and I could not tell you if I even laughed or chortled one time in the 20 minutes.
Of course this is a problem for the viewer, but in this case it is also a problem for the cast. The lack of material but direction that it is supposed to be funny does mean they overplay somewhat; an affect not helped by them often being shot speaking in isolation rather than as a group. So it does feel forced and unnatural as a piece – Blugrind probably suffering the most with his ham, but the rest do the same to differing degrees. Their overplaying doesn't really help the film be funnier either, if anything it sort of exposes that it is falling short of where it should be and ultimately, while I liked some small aspects of it, as a total film it just doesn't work because it doesn't get it done on the page, leaving everything else struggling to try to cover for that central weakness – which they can't.
Technically the film benefits from the simple static setting and to be fair to it, it does a decent job as it has good sound and looks alright. It doesn't do anything special with the camera and it is a bit clunky in its simplicity, but it is pretty clear why they did what they did and it does make the most of the limited resources. Unfortunately, it is not the technology which is the most limited resource, but rather the writing because, although it is billed as a comedy, Kamm's script really doesn't have too much in it that works as any sort of comedy. There are stabs at dark humor, clownish humor and others, but nothing really works and I could not tell you if I even laughed or chortled one time in the 20 minutes.
Of course this is a problem for the viewer, but in this case it is also a problem for the cast. The lack of material but direction that it is supposed to be funny does mean they overplay somewhat; an affect not helped by them often being shot speaking in isolation rather than as a group. So it does feel forced and unnatural as a piece – Blugrind probably suffering the most with his ham, but the rest do the same to differing degrees. Their overplaying doesn't really help the film be funnier either, if anything it sort of exposes that it is falling short of where it should be and ultimately, while I liked some small aspects of it, as a total film it just doesn't work because it doesn't get it done on the page, leaving everything else struggling to try to cover for that central weakness – which they can't.