A Thin Dry Roar

I found this seven minute short to be a good example of the reach of the writer/director far exceeding their grasp. Yes, there is an impending tragedy in their family. Yes, the husband and wife seem at odds over the appropriate manner in which to react to it. Yes, their son seems to a quiet, sensitive onlooker trying to grasp its meaning. But each and every one of these three vital aspects could have been enunciated in a much clearer manner for the viewer to highlight the tensions involved. And what with the trampling of an obscure object on the beach by the children? And what with the son creating a mound of earth, supposedly over the dead body of whatever (a bird?) they were trampling?

While striving to depict a fairly significant event in the life passage of a young boy, to do so with such a muted, foggy mthodology seemed to detract severely from whatever point they producers were trying to achieve.