Doug and Rachel are the perfect couple who have a loving relationship. We join them as they are making love and then attend an art show together. However later that night Rachel gets angry at Doug and breaks his nose with a single blow. The abuse continues until she takes Doug to hospital for attention, all the time apologizing to him and asking for him to forgive her and continue their perfect relationship.
I apologize for the spoilers in this review and suggest you read no further if you know these will annoy you, although this film is effective even if you know what is happening. The film starts with a love scene and you should notice the scratches and marks that are glimpsed on the man's body during this, a sign of what is to come. We then see this couple having fun and outwardly appearing to be perfect for each other if anything Rachel is perfect but Doug is a bit of an arse and appears to be a bit into himself. This is a key thing at this point we are siding with Rachel but this does not continue.
The next scene is not gory or overly violent but it is shocking for it's sudden brutal nature. Rachel attacks Doug for his treatment of her and now we are forced to side with Doug. Yes, he forgot when her interview was but he is a person and nobody is perfect we hurt even those we love and can often make our partner feel ways we never intended them to feel. Rachel's overreaction is brutal but never exaggerated, the truth is that the film does really well to keep this a real situation an important feat to make the ending impacting. As is so often the case, the abused partner believes the apologies of the abuser and will often blame themselves. That is what happens here and it is delivered with an one-word ending that is sobering, downbeat and totally depressing.
It is to the credit of the cast that the film works as well as it does. Essentially this is a two-hander and the two actors cast in the roles really deliver the goods with two great performances. Ashfield has the more obvious role in terms of fireworks but to note this alone takes away from the work in the first half that she did in the first half of the film, keeping the audience on our side and doing a great job in making her character's change all the more sudden. She may be now enjoying herself in Shaun of the Dead but here she shows real ability. I'm not a massive fan of Warren (Hustle didn't impress me that much) but here he is great and this is one of several short films I have seen him in recently. As with Ashfield, he does best in the second half but his work in the first half makes the second half work as well as it does.
Overall this is hardly fun viewing but it takes a simple story and uses it to tackle not only the difficult subject of domestic abuse but also the less common aspect of men beaten by women. It allows us to view a situation of abuse with such simple clarity that it is realistic, shocking and ultimately depressingly bleak not only because of it's telling but also because it is not exaggerated or made up for the sake of shock value.
I apologize for the spoilers in this review and suggest you read no further if you know these will annoy you, although this film is effective even if you know what is happening. The film starts with a love scene and you should notice the scratches and marks that are glimpsed on the man's body during this, a sign of what is to come. We then see this couple having fun and outwardly appearing to be perfect for each other if anything Rachel is perfect but Doug is a bit of an arse and appears to be a bit into himself. This is a key thing at this point we are siding with Rachel but this does not continue.
The next scene is not gory or overly violent but it is shocking for it's sudden brutal nature. Rachel attacks Doug for his treatment of her and now we are forced to side with Doug. Yes, he forgot when her interview was but he is a person and nobody is perfect we hurt even those we love and can often make our partner feel ways we never intended them to feel. Rachel's overreaction is brutal but never exaggerated, the truth is that the film does really well to keep this a real situation an important feat to make the ending impacting. As is so often the case, the abused partner believes the apologies of the abuser and will often blame themselves. That is what happens here and it is delivered with an one-word ending that is sobering, downbeat and totally depressing.
It is to the credit of the cast that the film works as well as it does. Essentially this is a two-hander and the two actors cast in the roles really deliver the goods with two great performances. Ashfield has the more obvious role in terms of fireworks but to note this alone takes away from the work in the first half that she did in the first half of the film, keeping the audience on our side and doing a great job in making her character's change all the more sudden. She may be now enjoying herself in Shaun of the Dead but here she shows real ability. I'm not a massive fan of Warren (Hustle didn't impress me that much) but here he is great and this is one of several short films I have seen him in recently. As with Ashfield, he does best in the second half but his work in the first half makes the second half work as well as it does.
Overall this is hardly fun viewing but it takes a simple story and uses it to tackle not only the difficult subject of domestic abuse but also the less common aspect of men beaten by women. It allows us to view a situation of abuse with such simple clarity that it is realistic, shocking and ultimately depressingly bleak not only because of it's telling but also because it is not exaggerated or made up for the sake of shock value.
