Looking to sell off all his stuff, a man places all his belongings out onto his front lawn in the formation of a proper room. After doing almost no business during the day, a young couple arrive and begin haggle over prices before eventually trying to get the whole lot. The man invites the couple to stay (outside) for a drink and some music and, while the man is clearly lost in thought, the couple get into minor squabbles.
Whenever this short film opened with the usual whimsical, slightly jazz score my heart dipped slightly as I recognised this from almost all the other Short Story Cinema films from the same stable. Like these other shorts the focus here was a small drama that takes a while to deliver it's goods. The film opens slowly and continues that way without giving anything away at all. I stuck with it because I have seen other shorts do the same only to deliver their payload at the very end to really good effect. However this short totally failed to do that; I'm open to the suggestion that I am just thick and not able to understand hints and subtle plotting but when the film faded to black on the shot of a bed I really was at a loss to understand what I had just seen.
With little meaningful dialogue or background to the characters I was left stranded. My best guess would be that the bed symbolised the man's failed marriage (or relationship?) and that it will come to us all at some point nothing is forever; like the girl at the end of the short, she thinks she has got the perfect deal (partner) but it will grow old soon. This is my personal spin and it comes from my personal life as much as the short film but I was left no choice to interrupt things because the film gives no help at all. The film has no characters and as such the three cast members have nothing to do. Boyd drinks, rips up paper and look soulful but gives us nothing while Lori Petty and Charlie Stratton just hang around with some lines but again nothing to deliver.
Overall this was a basic short that looked (visually quite flat) and sounded (usual jazz score) the same as the other films I have seen in the Short Story Cinema package but this was even more frustrating because it appeared to be saying 'come with me & I'll slowly let you in on my secrets' only to deliver almost nothing and end as a film that can be watched by ten different people and interrupted in ten different ways well, to be honest, most likely ten people will say 'what was all that about'. Frustrating and dull, even if someone explains it to me I still think it is a weak film that really should have done more to help the audience rather than bore and alienate them.
