I'm not sure where to start with this one. I wanted to like this film, really I did. I thought it must be something really special, for a film from a complete unknown to have so much exposure is almost unheard of. Sadly the final product falls short of its young director's ambitious aims by a long way.
Basically everything you can think of that could fail in a film fails in this one: the acting, the direction, the script, the editing, the cinematography. It is painfully obvious that Jewson has never had any film training, and I would be surprised to hear that she has ever seen a film outside of the romantic comedy genre. Her script is full of cliches and cheesy moments stolen from Working Title's back catalogue, the plot development is sloppy, and the two supposededly pivotal events fall completely flat and make no sense within the context. The actors, many of whom have been successful on the small screen at least, sadly suffer from a lack of direction and are mostly incredibly wooden; confined to an unoriginal script, they either look bored or are reduced to over-acting in order to wring some humour or emotion out of the tedious dialogue. Phoebe Thomas is the exception to this - she really tries hard and will be the only one to come out of this project looking good.
Personally I could have done without the unrealistic love story and would have liked to have seen a short but well-crafted film about Jemima's Art Factory project and how she helps her friend Tommy overcome the bad start he has had in life. This very worthy story felt somewhat pushed to the edges by the over-earnest love story. I remain in awe that anyone so young could get a film like this released, but feel that the director's talents may ultimately lie in a different direction.
Basically everything you can think of that could fail in a film fails in this one: the acting, the direction, the script, the editing, the cinematography. It is painfully obvious that Jewson has never had any film training, and I would be surprised to hear that she has ever seen a film outside of the romantic comedy genre. Her script is full of cliches and cheesy moments stolen from Working Title's back catalogue, the plot development is sloppy, and the two supposededly pivotal events fall completely flat and make no sense within the context. The actors, many of whom have been successful on the small screen at least, sadly suffer from a lack of direction and are mostly incredibly wooden; confined to an unoriginal script, they either look bored or are reduced to over-acting in order to wring some humour or emotion out of the tedious dialogue. Phoebe Thomas is the exception to this - she really tries hard and will be the only one to come out of this project looking good.
Personally I could have done without the unrealistic love story and would have liked to have seen a short but well-crafted film about Jemima's Art Factory project and how she helps her friend Tommy overcome the bad start he has had in life. This very worthy story felt somewhat pushed to the edges by the over-earnest love story. I remain in awe that anyone so young could get a film like this released, but feel that the director's talents may ultimately lie in a different direction.