Directed by: Reynaldo Dumas Written by: Reynaldo Dumas Genre: Drama |
Moving-In-Law
Lisa (Deandrea Brown) is moving with the help of her husband and sister. We assume that normally she wouldn't need as much help but she is suffering a shoulder injury. No heavy lifting for her. As the bringing of boxes and unpacking continues with the help of some wine, Lisa gets a call from work, and must go in to help with something or another.
As Lisa's husband Aaron (Terence Sims) and his sister-in-law Brigitte (Chanell Bell) are left to their own devices, something unforgivable happens. It's no shock that as soon as Lisa is gone the two begin to make out. As luck would have it, Lisa then re-enters the room and startled, Aaron drops his wineglass mid kiss. What happens next? Not a lot, and that was my main problem with this short film. Moving-In-Law looks pretty good, has a few minor sound issues but overall is not that bad. It has some good performances by the cast and is definitely not lengthy. So what is my problem with this title? There's really no complete story, and I'm not even kidding. There is a start, there is a middle, and that's pretty much it. Almost as if the entire third act was edited out. If any independent film needed a bit more length, this one was it. What Moving-In-Law does do well is to capture the worst kind of adult behavior. The seedy family dynamic that so many times go unsaid or untold. I could write a novel about why cheating is bad, and as Dumas points out in his film, why cheating within an extended family is even worse. But most of us already know that and the missing third act of this film could have addressed these issues. Did Lisa ever find out? Did they get divorced? Did she lay a beating on her husband or sister, after healing? An argument, an emotional situation, anything would have been better than nothing. This is a decent title but will leave many feeling as if someone stole the third act out from under them. As a micro budget indie, it looks and sounds pretty decent. It's even got a reasonably tight edit. For those merits, I've awarded a 2.5 out of 5 stars. Had there been a little bit more of a story? My rating would have been higher. Thank you for reading. |
