Sweet Stained

If there is one thing Uisden Murray’s short film has in spades, it’s ambition. From camera technique to quick cuts and story complexity – courtesy of Mary-Ann Ceruti, who also stars, it’s all here.

Ceruti plays Kate, a woman in deep with drugs – although possibly only due to her sister and/or boyfriend. If that sounds a bit vague, I’m sorry, but the film’s plot complexity is the very thing which holds it back – as it is, this is a good film, with superior technique boding well for the cast and crew’s future - yet it is not quite an excellent one.

The story is deliberately fragmented and the timeline frequently puts the ‘tock’ before the ‘tick’. This probably wouldn’t matter with a longer runtime, where there would be time for the viewer’s brain to breath between scenes.

Here, however, the loose ends mount up, leaving you frustrated for what might have been if only the makers had dared to linger that bit longer over some of the character building scenes and cutback and little on the stylistic excesses. The cinematography is good but the microphones less so. It may well be down to the small-screen version I watched, but I found myself frequently reaching for the rewind button to replay a chunk of dialogue. Mention must be made, however, of Philip Kovac’s excellent score which is atmospheric without being showy.

I suspect there is more to come from Murray and Ceruti – and next time, with a little reining in of their ideas, it’s liable to be a stunner.