Stottern

Stutterer (2015)

*** (out of 4)

Benjamin Cleary wrote and directed this tender short, which picked up a Best Short Oscar nomination. A man named Greenwood (Matthew Needham) has been having an online relationship with a woman named Ellie (Chloe Pirrie) but things take a turn for him when she asks to meet him in person. The thing is that Greenwood has a major stuttering problem, which he fears might cost him a chance at a real relationship with the woman.

STUTTERER certainly wasn't the best nominated short that I saw but there's no question that it has a rather tender story as well as a very touching ending that I certainly won't spoil here. I thought director Cleary did a very good job at building out the story and I thought it was extremely well-made. I liked the laid back nature of the picture and I thought the story was rather clever in the way that it eventually played out.

If Everything Will Be Okay is this year's most favorable Oscar-nominated live action short, then Stutterer is a close runner-up with its light-hearted, albeit slightly tragic, narrative about a man who's thoughts in his head are crystal-clear but the words out of his mouth are shaky and lack confidence. The short revolves around a lonely typographer named Greenwood (Matthew Needham), who has struggled with enunciation and basic communication all his life due to his stammer, to the point where it's easier to use sign language than to even try to muster up the strength to communicate - let alone have the other party be patient enough to hear him out. He makes the street-corner preacher in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing sound like a public speaker.

Greenwood has spent most of his days on Facebook, communicating with a woman he's been in an online relationship with for six months. He desperately wants to meet her, but knows she'll be disappointed. In his head, his words flow perfectly, with a buttery consistency and melodic depth that makes his presence assertive. Despite this, it takes Greenwood a good forty-five seconds to get eight words out and we can see the mental hopscotch and exhaustion it takes just to get those eight words out of his mouth.

Benjamin Cleary doesn't position Stutterer in a way that makes us sob or even tear up at Greenwood's situation, largely because he creates a character and not a vessel that demands manipulative sympathy. He wants us to see Greenwood as a person, with deep thoughts and ideas, rather than an empty soul manufactured so we can have someone to look down upon and feel sorry for. It's also arguably the most tonally consistent short film of the lot, largely because of its brevity and its very simplistic structure and makeup (very direct, straight-shot sequences with many close-ups and bust shots making for a very serviceable look).

With that, Stutterer becomes a beautiful little romance, and actually has the weight and potential to turn into a charming, full-length feature similar to Shawn Christensen's Oscar-winning short Curfew and its eventually evolution into the terrific film Before I Disappear in 2013.

This film is about a young man who stutters. His stutter is not a minor stutter but debilitating. He often has difficulty even talking out loud to others and has even pretended to be deaf in order to prevent him having to talk out loud. However, he's had an online relationship with a girl for many months and when she tells him that she's coming to London and wants to see him, he's in a panic. What is he to do? She has no idea that he's a stutterer and he's very apprehensive to writer her back at all. What is he to do?

As a father of a deaf daughter, I found it fascinating watching the main character practicing British Sign Language--a system that is surprisingly very little like American Sign Language. It appeared to be done well...which I appreciate. My biggest reason for not being so enthusiastic about this film isn't because the short is poorly made--it's quite good. But I saw another short this year that was very, very similar except that instead of struggling with stuttering, the main character struggled with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder when going out on a blind date.

UPDATE: It really surprised me but this film took the Oscar.

Like the character in the short, we're all charged with difficulties which we have to overcome, whether sooner or later. It's important that we may never give up. That's what matters in the end. You would want help to come from outside, but you know today you gotta help yourself first in order to move forward in life.

Before watching this film, I went in knowing it won the Oscar in the live-action short film category, so I had pretty high hopes. I was surprised to find that the film was very simple.

It's not bad in any way, but Oscar material? Short films that win Oscar's typically cover topical or important issues, or are very moving. While this film is touching, I wouldn't have given it a win. I do believe it deserved its nomination, but there were certainly better shorts that year. The main actor in this is very good. But good acting doesn't necessarily make a good film. I guess I was just left wanting more. The plot summary is literally the film. Good, but not at such a level it warranted an Oscar win.