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★★★★ Directed by: Matt Nye Starring: Abbi Snee and Chris Brockway Short Film Review by: Alexandra James
This cleverly constructed short film, Teared Up, is more than meets the eye, as the audience are met with a seemingly French noir setting overseeing a couple sitting in a small bistro about to broach that ever awkward ‘break up’ conversation that sends cringes down everyone’s spine.
However!
Matt Nye places an extremely confusing twist into the storyline where both audience and the couple themselves are thrown out of balance. The editing and setting are rather simple but effective, as Nye uses a black and white, etched background and seats the couple within a small café in order to convey a classic soppy and seemingly ‘romantic’ feel. Nye has set the scene perfectly, making it that much more shocking when the true storyline is revealed…
All of a sudden the audience realise that the sadness and tears from the seemingly heartbroken girl over her emotionless, heartless boyfriend is not over a break up at all, but over the death of her beloved fish…Mr Guppy…RIP.
Matt Nye throws the audience at the centre of misperception, unable to determine one situation from another. The story suddenly grinds to a jolting halt (once more) as the audience’s previous assumption of the couple breaking up becomes satisfied. The romantic sob story quickly changes direction as actor Abbi Snee stomps rather abruptly over her hopeless partner.
The storyline, as described, seems forever changing, however, it flows extremely well and makes for a humorous premise. It can be said that the editing could have been a bit more diverse and a few shots of the setting itself could have helped to divert the audience’s assumption of the storyline. However, this short is entertaining, funny and certainly has a lot of potential. In some ways it can be considered a dark comedy, without revealing too much, Abbi Snee does relay some rather funny although humiliating dark truths about her ‘beloved’ before breaking his heart.
An enjoyable short film packed with funny quips, heartbreak and misery…an odd combo but it works! Some great acting from Abbi Snee, it is clear she has a lot of potential and could perhaps take on more roles which involve developed and evolved characters. As for Chris Brockway, it seems that his acting was more reserved, the storyline would have benefited if the audience had a stronger reaction from him, and he was the dumpee after all! Nevertheless, this small improvement did not bring down the tone of Teared Up at all, in fact I highly recommend.
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