Bumble's Burden

As a piece of story telling Anthony Goulding's scripted short film BUMBLE'S BURDEN works very well because it opens with an audience " hook " of a man dragging a long plank of wood behind him . An opening hook is very important to any story because it drags the audience in . A photograph of an elderly man drops out of his pocket so he picks it up . Who is this man ? Why is he dragging the plank of wood ? Who is the elderly man ? The audience are already intrigued and we're still in the first minute of the narrative . As the story continues we're shown flashbacks and it quickly becomes clear that this is a story of revenge

Where BUMBLE'S BURDEN fails is down to director Vanessa Fielding or more specifically in her casting . None of the performances are bad as such ( Though perhaps Maria McDermottroe is a little over emphatic ) , it's just that Tommy Tiernan doesn't come across as hard bitten or violent enough to be physically able to overpower the ruthless money lender who looks far too much like Ricky Gervaise's David Brent for my liking . Undoubtedly this is a short film whose credit lies with the writer rather than the director

Bumble works for loan shark and bookie Bottle. His father died with gambling depths and he sees his neighbours all suffering at the hands of the cruel and demanding Bottle. Can he stand up to the burden he has to carry or will it defeat him? The film asks a simple question and builds engagingly to a rather overblown but striking conclusion. The characters are not detailed enough to really satisfy but it is not really a film that is overly concerned with this side of things. Instead the imagery and moral conflict is all and I suppose it does that well enough to work. The religious stuff is all there although it feels a bit overblown with the whole crucifixion and carpentry thing going on, but at least it is interesting. The performances are good but it is the material that needed to be stronger to provide more depth to the images and action – as it is it almost feels like a hollow attempt to shock (almost). Interesting enough but needed more to it to really have a lasting impact on me.