A plane crash. We begin a journey backwards through the life of Harry to a pivotal moment in his childhood.
I have seen a few films from Colin Levy recently and although I have had issues with them, the ambition of the films has never been one of them. Out of interest I came to En Route, listed in IMDb as his first short as director, and immediately you find that same ambition in terms of the film and the story. We open on a massive plane crash with the emergency services responding and this begins a series of jumps back through time in scenes involving airplanes and the goal of building a life for the viewer in only a few moments. Again, in terms of ambition and the technical construction of the production, it is hard to fault and indeed the film impressed in this regard.
Unfortunately when it comes to the narrative, it doesn't work so well. As an idea it is good but the delivery is too pat to make it work. In particular though the flashbacks are too focused on being reflective and meaningful within the context of reflection, rather than being real scenes from our character's life. This fault is matched by the performance of Dor as Harry, because every single scene seems to be filled with a reflective sigh, or some other thing that links to the tone of the film but feels forced and overdoing it. Unfortunately this all transpires to rob the film of emotional impact and genuine engagement.
Levy's technical skills and ambition remains intact and he joins an increasingly impressive list of people working in short film that I will actively look out for work from, but unfortunately while En Route highlights his strengths, it also reminds of his weaknesses too.
