I Shout Love

This film seems well made, and more efforts should be made to promote films by women. That aside, this film is also profoundly disturbing in that it justifies the manipulative and psychotic machinations of a character that is profoundly disturbed. If you've seen any of the promotional material, you might think this is a poignant film about a relationship that's reached its end, but none of that suggests how really disturbing the central premise is:

A woman threatens suicide unless her soon to be ex agrees to relive here most treasured memories of their relationship. When told how unfair (to say the least) that such a threat is, Tessa (the purported protagonist) suggests that "life's not fair."

Huh??? This character also uses tears to manipulate her former lover into staying, and coaxes him into sexually oriented behavior (which she initially denies as a motive) all the while assuring him "this isn't sex."

Reverse the genders, have the leads played by Tracey Gold and Brian Austin-Green and this could air in feature length on Lifetime with a title like "Hostage to Obsession." There is no medically accepted definition of sound mental and emotional stability that would encompass Tessa's behavior in this film.

Props to Kristen Thomson for playing a border-line psychotic, manipulative ex to a T, perhaps too well because there is no well-adjusted person, male or female, who could watch this and not have shivers run up their spine.

So real and surreal, all in one. I remember feeling like Tessa. Heck, I remember being Tessa. This was a beautiful vignette of a relationship ending. I especially liked the protesters tangent. It is nice to see symbolism in a movie without being smacked over the head with it. If you get the chance to see this, take it. It is well worth the 30 minutes.

At the beginning of this film, which I found myself watching on IFC in the wee hours of the morning, I was filled with a sense of claustrophobia and general discomfort. The feeling of being trapped with no way to escape was so powerful that I didn't know if I wanted to continue watching...although it didn't really seem to me that I had much of a choice, so compelling was the situation.

Gradually, though, that feeling of discomfort waned (although it never really disappeared entirely), and I felt drawn into Tessa & Bobby's predicaments, and really just hoping against hope that they might get back together.

Really just a moving, powerful story fit snugly into a tiny package. I had no idea that Sarah Polley had anything to do with it until perusing her trivia, so now I love it even more.

I definitely recommend it. ...If your lucky enough to catch it on the Independent Film Channel sometime, or wily enough to figure out some other way to view it.

In moments of desperation were willing to do whatever it takes to win. I loved how the Maple Leaves futility was used as a metaphorical basis for Bobby and Tessa. The acting was accurate by far superior from the hogwash intake given by the film industry.

Great editing! At the end of the short I felt it was a bit incomplete but so is life and this is were life and art waltz into cinematic masterpiece.

Excuse me while I rinse off the cheese whiz, but I guess it's acceptable at certain times.

Two scenes which I must point out are: The bath tub and the couch scene.

The couch scene for Tessa was a defining moment and 360 of the human condition. Throughout the short I viewed her as a brute, but now we see her true reality. Her mind spoke before her heart. Need I say more about the bath tub scene.

I saw this movie as an opener for The Law Of Enclosures, and much preferred it to the "feature presentation." The dialogue was funny, the female lead was very effective, and overall the story was affecting. Has the potential to be a good tv series, I'm sure the CBC would accept a Sarah Polley project down the road.