Miss or Misses

Miss or Misses has many strengths, but its screenplay may leave audiences confused and uncomfortable. The film showcases many admirable attributes, but they struggle to shine through the troubling plot. We follow Alicia and Paul as they begin a relationship, get married, and fall into a world of manipulation and resentment.

I’ll discuss the main narrative problems... Lines of dialogue feel clunky, lacking a kind of organic patter that would allow us to believe in and empathise with the characters. Yet the main issue is the muddled morality of the story. Concerning itself with a woman who wants to escape from a life of domestic abuse – depicted rather cartoonishly early in the piece – she uses her marriage as a ‘means’ of escaping her situation. From that moment on, this tragic individual is seemingly characterised as the monster of the movie; the figure whose lack of gratitude, and disregard of the “role” of a wife (if you can believe it) is promptly punished from scene to scene.

Perhaps inadvertently, the most enjoyable scenes involve her making fun of her new husband, reaching heights of bizarre absurdism that you can’t help but be entertained. Whereas we can infer from the sympathetic dialogue of third-party characters (namely, Alicia’s friend stating “a fool doesn’t know how good she has it”) that we’re supposed to fall almost entirely on the side of the husband. This is an issue, since his behaviour is unnatural – and, in the beginning, predatory. The viewer is left not knowing what to think of the man. While, on the other hand, we should seemingly be rooting for the abused individual’s Shakespearean downfall. Moral ambiguity can often prove an interesting or provocative layer to a story of this kind, although its handling in this instance verges on being mean-spirited. The character of Alicia is helped along, however, by a strong performance from Hazel Caulfield, who manages to bring emotion and believability to the persona.

To discuss the film’s strengths, the main positives relate to the camerawork, sound and editing. There’s a definite competency to the cinematography, particularly in terms of lens choice and framing. With many pleasant two-shots on display, in addition to some smooth and professional dolly shots, this is undeniably strong work on a level of camera direction and shot sequencing. The standard concepts of blocking are adhered to nicely, so the writer-director should take pride in their inherent ability to construct a clear and cinematic sequence, for this is some really promising stuff. As stated, other virtues included the crisp and consistent audio, and the well-considered editing, which never gets heavy-handed. There’s also a solid colour-grade on display, which lends the footage a finished quality.

One never enjoys giving independent work a wholly negative review, particularly when so much effort has gone into bringing the piece to life. On a level of creative collaboration and practical organisation, this movie is an irrefutable success, and it’s always exciting when a movie gets made. However, I also hope that the creatives behind the picture develop their craft further, and consider any weaknesses which they can potentially work on.