I have seen short films where the scale of the ambition is amazing, whether it be huge stories delivered in effective microcosm, sci-fis with special effects much greater than their budget suggested possible, and so on. And then there is Gerry's Garden, which is essentially a skit in a 5 minute short. The narrative is that a man wakes up downstairs in his dad's house. He walks to the window to see some weirdo listening to an MP3 player and dancing around like he owns the place. With the backdoor locked, the owner of the garden confronts the dancing man who, it must be said, appears to give zero f**ks about this bloke and his claims over the garden.
Treating this as a skit, it must be said that it is very funny and has a strong ending too. Unfortunately this means I really don't want to say too much about it beyond that it has a very nice build and that the payoff is satisfying and works very well. The guts of the film is the two men on either side of the glass door – one a free-spirited arty type who annoyingly does what he wants while the other man is wound up pretty tight and is made worse by the arrogance of the other man. Both men deliver their roles very well. Patten is convincingly furious and more and more so during the short, while Leach does well even if he did remind me a bit of Russell Brand in some ways.
The oddity of the whole interaction draws the viewer in very well, because it is so random and yet engaging, and this makes the resolution work even better. It is a simple contained skit, but I found it refreshing enjoyable and funny.
