Countdown to Thirteen: Hello Carter (2013)

This is the second Hello Carter featured on Countdown to Thirteen.  The first was a short about an out-of-work, unlucky-in-love guy who’s thrown into a surprising situation with Jodie Whittaker, while the second, made two years later, is a feature film about an out-of-work, unlucky-in-love guy who’s thrown into a surprising situation with Jodie Whittaker – and surprise, surprise, the same guy made both projects!  And yet, for all the similarities, Hello Carter the movie definitely isn’t a feature-length expansion of Hello Carter the short; it ultimately is a different story.

The titular Carter has been air-mattress-surfing with his brother since he lost the job, and the goodwill’s started to run out.  Kicked to the curb, Carter job-hunts while toting his worldly possessions in duffel bags.  He wants a job, but what he really wants is his ex-girlfriend Kelly back.  They broke up eleven months ago, but he’s determined to reconnect and calls everyone he knows trying to get her number.  A chance meeting with Kelly’s brother, a washed-up actor with anger-management issues, lands Carter in a quid-pro-quo arrangement that sets off a series of misadventures.

The last word I’ll say on the subject of the short is that I think it’s better on the whole – while neither is great, the short feels tighter, better put together.  The movie, on the other hand, has some major pacing problems that leave it dragging, even when crazy stuff is happening.  While the film includes some familiar faces and good actors – Carter is played by Charlie Cox of Daredevil, and the movie also features the delightful Judy Parfitt (Sister Monica Joan from Call the Midwife) – it also displays some powerfully-unimpressive acting on the part of the actor who plays Kelly’s brother.

The biggest knock against the film is probably its overall tone, which I can best sum up as “stilted.”  Part of it is the wonky pacing, and part of it is the particular way it illustrates how down-on-his-luck Carter is.  With a surer hand and snappier editing, this could probably be funny, but as is, it’s a little too sad-trombone to be enjoyable.  And Carter himself, despite being sort of proactive (if nothing else, he’s tenacious in his attempt to get Kelly’s number, which I find rather creepy,) still comes across as very passive – the sense I get is that life just happens to him, which doesn’t make him super-compelling to watch.

On a better note, this is the best showing Whittaker has had in a while on Countdown to Thirteen.  She plays Jenny, who works at a company Carter interviews for.  They have themselves an elevator meet-cute, and while I’m not really sure what Jenny sees in him, she’s intrigued and I won’t begrudge her for it.  She’s a little sad too, stuck in an unexciting job with a full-of-himself boss who won’t leave her alone, but she’s mostly keeping her head down and getting through it.  When they run into each other again, as Carter is in the thick of his misadventures, Jenny gets sucked into it and both are off on a crazy night.

I like Jenny.  She seems quiet but solid.  She’s smart enough to realize she should avoid whatever insanity Carter’s got going on, but when she gets tangled up in it anyway, she proves herself both tough and resourceful.  And even in the thick of the craziness, I like that she can take a small moment out to enjoy herself – there’s an amusing scene of her trying to figure out where she’s seen Kelly’s brother before.  Not to mention, Carter is probably at his best when, during their interactions, he gets out of his own head for a bit and connects with Jenny.

Accent Watch

Northern

Recommend?

In General – Probably not.  It’s okay, but not really enough to be worth it.

Jodie Whittaker – I think I would.  Whittaker does a nice job with this performance, understated but effective.

Warnings

Sexual content, language, violence, drinking, and thematic elements.