Kevin's new job is to be a holiday rep and, unfortunately for him his assignment is an ice hotel in a frozen wasteland. His welcome from colleague Tuuli is not much warmer than the surroundings but he settles down to lose himself in the job. However, with no hotel guests for at least three months, Kevin begins to go out of his skull with boredom with very little to do other than chat to the mostly silent Tuuli, do a crossword and drink coffee.
Having seen (and disliked) an earlier short film from Cresser, I approached this with mixed expectations as I wasn't sure that it was aimed at someone like me; so I was quite pleased that I did enjoy this film on the whole. The narrative is slow but yet builds up expectation well because we know that there must be more to this story than we are being told I enjoyed the cold atmosphere and the way that this tended to imply mystery and tension even if I did feel it could have done a little more to imply something bigger was on its way. The downside of this is that the film didn't manage to deliver the goods at the end. I looked at the finale like 2001's light show; but with 2001 the light show was just the journey to the conclusion whereas with Light Work I felt that it was the conclusion and that it didn't match the level of interest that it had done well to foster in me up till that point.
The animation is not Hollywood standards but this was to be expected and, for £5k, it is surprisingly effective and the ice hotel worked well. One thing I didn't like was the constant fast-moving clouds in the background; I felt that having the sky move like a glacier in the background would have helped the feeling of boredom and isolation within the hotel and they could have moved fast during cutaways to show the movement of time. The animation at the end is cool but, like I said, they were not cool enough to be the ending in themselves and I would have preferred just a bit more of an impact or narrative after them. The cast came across a bit stiff early on but it may just have been me getting used to them being within the virtual setting. Goddard is good because her performance is quite unreal and she really only has to deliver on that remote level. Simmons has the harder job of pulling of the role of "regular guy" in this totally irregular setting; he does it pretty well on the whole but at times he is too deliberately and comic in a self-aware way that didn't sit well with the tone of the film (the scene where he tries to join Tuuli's Tai-Chi is one I felt he misjudged badly). Despite this he is pretty good and the film would have done well to finish with his confusion (well, wouldn't you be?) and at least semi-resolve it (and that of the audience at the same time) to produce a better ending.
Overall I liked this film a lot more than Cresser's other film (Sucked Up). The animation looks great considering the budget, the cast are pretty good considering the challenges of working in a virtual set and the director did a good job of establishing a mood of cold boredom but with enough mystery to it to keep me interesting. There were a few minor complaints along the way and I would really have liked a stronger conclusion but it is worth seeing for what it does well.
Having seen (and disliked) an earlier short film from Cresser, I approached this with mixed expectations as I wasn't sure that it was aimed at someone like me; so I was quite pleased that I did enjoy this film on the whole. The narrative is slow but yet builds up expectation well because we know that there must be more to this story than we are being told I enjoyed the cold atmosphere and the way that this tended to imply mystery and tension even if I did feel it could have done a little more to imply something bigger was on its way. The downside of this is that the film didn't manage to deliver the goods at the end. I looked at the finale like 2001's light show; but with 2001 the light show was just the journey to the conclusion whereas with Light Work I felt that it was the conclusion and that it didn't match the level of interest that it had done well to foster in me up till that point.
The animation is not Hollywood standards but this was to be expected and, for £5k, it is surprisingly effective and the ice hotel worked well. One thing I didn't like was the constant fast-moving clouds in the background; I felt that having the sky move like a glacier in the background would have helped the feeling of boredom and isolation within the hotel and they could have moved fast during cutaways to show the movement of time. The animation at the end is cool but, like I said, they were not cool enough to be the ending in themselves and I would have preferred just a bit more of an impact or narrative after them. The cast came across a bit stiff early on but it may just have been me getting used to them being within the virtual setting. Goddard is good because her performance is quite unreal and she really only has to deliver on that remote level. Simmons has the harder job of pulling of the role of "regular guy" in this totally irregular setting; he does it pretty well on the whole but at times he is too deliberately and comic in a self-aware way that didn't sit well with the tone of the film (the scene where he tries to join Tuuli's Tai-Chi is one I felt he misjudged badly). Despite this he is pretty good and the film would have done well to finish with his confusion (well, wouldn't you be?) and at least semi-resolve it (and that of the audience at the same time) to produce a better ending.
Overall I liked this film a lot more than Cresser's other film (Sucked Up). The animation looks great considering the budget, the cast are pretty good considering the challenges of working in a virtual set and the director did a good job of establishing a mood of cold boredom but with enough mystery to it to keep me interesting. There were a few minor complaints along the way and I would really have liked a stronger conclusion but it is worth seeing for what it does well.
