Dark, somber cello strings provide atmosphere as a brooding, resentful company man (Tom Gulager) voices an internal monologue about the inadequacy and impotency of a bumbling brown-noser of a coworker (Thomas F. Duffy). After casually ignoring a few written or electronic messages from the "secretary," Carl Tucker, of a mysterious "Society for United Action," Burton gets a visit at the office from Mr. Tucker himself.
I saw Robert Picardo listed in the cast and I was immediately invested in a viewing. He's an outstanding actor, and he portrays Tucker with such an amiable and casual yet purposeful delivery that his every word is like music. It's truly entrancing. And Gulager, as Burt, very relatably boils over with his impatience, skepticism, and malcontent.
Wait, Meghan Markle is in this, too? Well how about that?
If Picardo's involvement weren't enough, the twist at the end absolutely makes 'The candidate' worth watching. It's exquisitely executed, and Tucker's swift, seamless departure speaks to a seemingly unnatural power, though he is yet only human.
I do have a little bit of an issue with suspension of disbelief here, as the Society's mission is essentially predicated on wishful thinking and the rejection of coincidence as so much as a concept. Still, the short is otherwise so very well done that the credibility of the scenario is bolstered by its quality.
I was expecting a bit of fun, but I wasn't expecting this to carry with it a small sense of thrills. Well done! - and, I think , worth 20 minutes of your time.
