Mouse

Covid-19 and lockdown-living brought with it a trend of artists, often filmmakers, wishing to lend their personal perspective on the hardships they’ve had to face. Mouse! is a prime example of a dramatic piece managing to maintain a sense of genuine sincerity while grappling with the contentious issue. The worst Covid films have tended to be icky, big-budget productions which exploit global mourning as a way of attaining an audience – with the absolute best recent films addressing Covid being ones which simply incorporate it into the background realism of the narrative (such as Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths). The short in discussion, however, is certainly ‘about’ Covid, yet on a personal level. It’s political – as it should be – and provides authentic critical commentary on the pandemic. Operating on multiple levels of perspective and social implications, writer-director Max Fisher is concerned with how we deal with death in all forms; from the perspective of a hopeful child, to that of his jaded father feeling alienated by the flawed systems he’s forced to confront.

We follow two separate stories belonging to the same family. The dad is having to deal with irksome bureaucratic pains following his father’s tragic death, in addition to processing the resentment he felt towards the man; his young son, on the other hand, spends his time playing with an adorable mouse, whose presence in the house the dad is less than pleased about. This is an effective storytelling device, for it allows the filmmakers to explore national implications, as well its microcosm - to portray the internalised poetry of a boy and his pet. Audiences are bound to enjoy the film’s parallel narrative, and the profound emotions that then reveal themselves when juxtaposing a child’s perspective of mortality with that of an adult. You could argue that the screenplay is too simplistic for a film about the pandemic; however, one could very well argue that it has enough of a perspective, and a tone which reflects upon the challenges we face in life through different ages - even if it simply scratches the surface - that the viewer is able to empathise fully with both viewpoints.

There’s some great lens work in Mouse! As the majority of contemporary short films do, the visual style consists of a wide-aperture, shallow focus look. This is pleasant to the eye and definitely lends the film a sense of production value. With an anamorphic, widescreen format, and an image with plenty of fall-off and constant shimmering flares, the cinematography draws our attention to the quality of the filming equipment. Although, if there’s one problem with the mise-en-scène, it’s that it occasionally misses a trick by not holding on wide shots. It’s very much a story being told through closeups, which is apt for the emotional and grounded nature of the content; but sometimes you wish that the director and cinematographer had allowed further opportunity for complex compositions. Then again, it’s still a handsome looking piece, and made with a competence which shouldn’t go unnoticed. A genuine, well-considered and heartfelt work, it successfully moves the audience and leaves us on a sentimental note.