How
cool is the variety you find in British programming? This series featured a slew of respected
writers, directors, and performers in short films that were, yes, ten minutes
long. Each film has some sort of
Christmas theme and little-to-no dialogue.
“Syncing”
is an odd little thing, and I’m pretty sure it’s wonderful. The story follows an unnamed Man through a
few ordinary days, which are filled with monotony and quiet loneliness since he
and his wife (partner? girlfriend? non-specified lover? The film doesn’t make
it clear who she is) parted ways. He
finds that nothing sounds right anymore; the problem starts as a muffled
water-in-the-ears distortion and gets stranger and wilder from there. Only in his dreams of her can he hear with perfect clarity.
Actually
– just bear with me – it reminds me a little
bit of the film A Single Man. The book too, I suppose, but especially the
film. You have the basic similarities,
that both are about men in their 50s going through the motions of their dull,
dreary lives after they’ve lost their partners.
But then, there’s the way the films convey the loneliness and depression
in unspoken, cinematic ways. In A Single Man, all the colors are muted
and sepia-tinted, only letting the full brightness of the images seep in on
George’s memories of Jim, as well as on the rare moments when he connects with
someone in the present. “Syncing”
doesn’t have the same heavy, weary sadness hanging from it, but it too plays
with the morose protagonist’s sensory perceptions. The Man’s fractured hearing shows isolation,
confusion, and all-out bewilderment, and again, the problem is soothed only in
dreams and memories.
PC’s
performance of the Man is rather impressive.
Despite the fact that none of his dialogue is intelligible, a clear
picture is painted of the Man in a short amount of time. I feel like I really get where he’s coming
from and what he’s about. Also, if a lot
of the film’s tricky sound effects were put in during post-production, then his
reactions to his increasingly-bizarre sense of hearing are the auditory
equivalents to green-screen acting against CGI monsters; not too shabby.
Accent Watch
Not
applicable – no clearly-heard dialogue.
Recommend?
In
General
– Why not? It’s interesting, it’s
inventive, and it takes a little less than ten minutes to watch.
PC-wise – I think so. Nicely understated performance that conveys
plenty with limited resources.
Warnings
Nothing
much – there’s a couple snippets of the Man in the shower, but you don’t see
anything.
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