How to Lose Her

A very low-budget film here, seemingly made in a very short period of time by a group of film students. The idea is actually decent, if familiar: the end of a relationship told in key stages in reverse. So we join the male character in the bathroom, thinking about how he lost his girlfriend, we then jump backwards through the fights, the fun, the first time, the first meeting, and then jump back to the current time. It is a good subject for a short because it focuses on the people and the familiar feelings, so no great set-pieces or complex shoots to deliver. However, this assumes that it is well written and well delivered.

The low budget of course brings with it a limit on how great it can look and sound, and for me I was fine with such things in a low budget short; the bigger disappointment was that the writing meant the idea was pretty much sunk from the beginning. There isn't a realism to the delivery, in fact just the opposite – the film is reasonably short but yet uses the "Starbucks soft-rock song to tell you how to feel" thing several times, none of them working. Likewise an extended love scene meant to draw us in with intimate shots just seem awkward, intrusive, and wholly unreal. The performances are reasonably natural when given the chance, but mostly they are forcing dialogue that doesn't flow or fit, and as a result the connection I had to these people was really limited, even if one could relate to their situation.

How to Lose Her should have been a textbook example of a short film – going without budget or flashy effect, but drawing in the viewer due to strong ideas and strong writing; sadly the story-telling is a base made of sand and, as weak as the rest of the house is, it really doesn't matter.