paulgeaf

What a gem of a film this was. I went into it with no information, not knowing what to expect, only knowing it was 'a short film about death' (as so eloquently written in the TV guide)

There were many statements from different people with different attitudes to life, and death. Some attitudes seemed driven by the circumstances the person found themselves in, like the patient in the hospital. A hospital for those who were sick enough to die from their sickness. The nurses gave their opinions and statements on life and death and the dying and their feelings on the subjects were not as predictable or obvious as you might imagine. This is a short film with a lot of depth and meaning packed inside.

The cinematography is of a high standard and I found myself mesmerised often, feeling I had been lured into a world of existential dreaming and a kind of gentle procrastination. At times, I almost felt as if I was there in the room with the people lying in their hospital bed, as their gaze took in the flickering light being scattered by the leaves of the tree and their minds wandered a thousand miles away.

I recommend this film to anyone who is even slightly bothered by their own existence. To anyone who has denied themselves the guilty luxury of pondering one's own death, of being curious about the circumstance, or perhaps only the mundane aspects such as the timing and if they'll have lived enough by then!

This film reminded me that beauty is found in this life, in the most unexpected places and to not forget, in the hectic or the peaceful days that all seem to merge and fly by us in a haze ... to not forget to do that one thing

... Live it.

It is funny to see another review going on about something which really shouldn't be part of any review and yet, something which I am also planning to say something about. I already did, in my Title.

The presenter.

He isn't only mediocre. He's downright irritating. I wouldn't go quite as far as the other reviewer here. I don't want to punch the guy in the face. Maybe just a slap with a rotten haddock would be enough.

So anyway the show.

This show r3ally is a good one. In the shadow of connections and cosmos, you find yourself watching something which kind of feels like the twisted little brother of those two. Not quite as clever as 'Connections' and not quite as deep as 'Cosmos' but certainly a contender to sit at the same dinner table with both of them and hold its own. I will recommend this to anyone who would enjoy those other two shows. In fact that is exactly what I will be doing. In this world of on-demand binge watching TV and no longer the popular show watched by the nation the previous evening at 7pm before we all talk about it at work the following day, I just have to remember to recommend my friends also go download or stream I should say, this I threshing and we'll made TV series.

Oh but only 3 episodes?

Why?

It felt like a warm up that wasn't followed by the main feature!!

If you liked Cosmos and Connections and all things sciencey about the earth, this is for you.if you DONT find the presenter irritating then do please leave a review here telling us your secret!!! 👍😉

Ok so Sleight is about a young guy who does magic on the streets, when he isn't selling drugs, apparently he needs to do that in order to look after his young sister as their parents have died and so he is on his own with her.

I do magic myself and so I must admit to only being interested in this in order to fill a need for me to watch magic performance, even whilst supposedly relaxing with a movie in a Sunday afternoon. So, did it fulfill even that simple remit and give me some good magic to watch?

No!

If you are into magic, or are a magician then do jot get any hope for seeing anything of value on this film. Even a simple Alex Elmsley 4 card trick is way beyond anything you'll see in this. For the simple reason that every time he is shown performing a trick it is of the variety that can only be done in movies - for example, at one point a girl holds a card up, at arms length, whilst he, the magician, stands back and definitely does not go anywhere near it. He asks her what it is and I think she says ace of spades and then shows it around to be exactly that. Then she holds it still at arms length and facing him in front of her when he waves his hand in her general direction albeit too far away to actually touch or influence the card in any way, he then smiles and says what is it now and she turns it to face her and it is now a totally different card even though if this was in real life it would simply not be possible for any magician to do. There are no real effects or tricks in this movie, just impossible things like that. So that was that as far as is a concerned. The magic parts of the film were totally rubbish and not worth even watching.

So did it deliver in other areas? The drug dealer life and the plot about the drug supplier being a total dick and someone who was a threat to our main character and his whole life?

Not really. It got boring. I don't want to give away spoilers w/o that's all I will say. In my opinion the drug dealing plot got boring and a bit silly. The electromagnet in the arm was kind of interesting, until it got silly.

This just wasn't really for me. Whilst I can appreciate that some films require the suspension of disbelief, which I did take part in for this movie, I found that the pay-off just wasn't there. I had to suspend my disbelief that this movie was boring me to tears, which was more difficult.

All the above notwithstanding, I did enjoy relaxing to this film and did not find it offensive or difficult in any way. It was easy on the eyes and the mind. It flowed quite nicely from beginning to end. A good pace where nothing was too fast or rushed. I think I went into this thinking it was something different to what I got served up. So I couldn't help feeling disappointed but over all it wasn't THAT bad.

4/10.