Review of To Olivia

After a very promising start with an entertaining scene of peaches establishing the 1960s in England I felt this short film was directed rather as a stone skimming across a lake - making contact here and there with strong vignettes but never delivering anything powerful or moving. Later it seemed to be take a spiteful swipe at the character of the late Paul Newman in a scene that added little. Had the film concentrated soley on the bout of measles that claimed Olivia, the effect of grief on parents who dealt with it so differently and the impact on the rest of the children I think it could have been more rounded. But it seemed to try too much in too short a time. A small distraction was the complete lack of regard for young son Theo - it is mentioned he survived a car accident but neither parent engages with him and he spends most of the time abandoned in a cot. Anything which takes the focus from the scene is, for me, a mistake.