I wasn't sure what to expect when I went to see Missive at its Australian premiere. I'm not all that familiar with the short film format, probably because there are so few public outlets for their exhibition. The handful of other short films that screened with Missive at the premiere usefully provided a context which highlighted the film's apparent uniqueness within the often-neglected format. A couple of the other films were based around a joke, building to the punch line within the short running time. Another presented an abstract reflection on life, which also seemed appropriate for the format. Missive, however, presented a film which actually felt like a feature. Consider the premise: A hit-man receives a request from a victim which leads to deep internal turmoil and a major moral dilemma. Pretty heavy stuff to cover in 15 minutes.
But Missive does it. The film gives the viewer a real sense of the emotional unrest within the troubled hit-man, in part due to the appealing performance from Paul Reichstein (who looks like a Hollywood leading man), and the surprisingly good score provided by Paul Houseman.
Having said all that, it is probable that the subject matter would benefit from a longer running time; there is little doubt that this would make a great feature. But this is Australia, and feature film-making is simply out of reach for the majority of this country's aspiring talent. So kudos to the creative team behind Missive for taking the chance to do something different within this seemingly limited format. Missive is an extremely original film, and hopefully it will open some promising doors for the filmmakers.
