As a guy gets his bike off the pavement, a girl on a bike nearly clatters into him. This starts them chatting as they walk together along the street – a conversation that continues as the images cut ahead to their relationship as they get closer, have fun, move into together, start to get distant and eventually fall apart.
Delivered in only 3 minutes, this short plays out the light flirty first meeting of our couple, while at the same time we see their fun relationship turn into moments of distance, hurt and eventual separation. Filmed in only one day, the film is a success in the way that it convinces in the passage of time that isn't happening outside of the camera. Not only do the characters change their appearance during the film, but they manage to change their expressions and body language towards one another – with the final close-ups now being totally different from the people that we can still hear underneath. As such it works well, taking us on a journey and perhaps working best to those with break-ups still fresh in their minds, since a lot of this will strike a chord.
The downside of the approach is that if you don't bring something to the table to help it, then the film is only ever superficial in its content. The dialogue only serves as a line in the sand to judge how far from there the relationship goes, it doesn't really give us much in the way of character, while the messing around scenes don't develop a relationship so much as do what one expects from a montage. The cracks in the relationship are similarly superficial as there is not a lot to them apart from looks and moping around – on the level which it aims for, it does work and it fulfills the remit well, but it understandably skims along the surface while it does it.
