The overly melodramatic last 10 minutes. This film is a vertical short produced for the ReelShort app released today. Seth Edeen and Nicole Mattox have become quite the popular pairing in the vertical world as their prior releases have shown their onscreen chemistry growing. Nicole Mattox has always been a competent and engaging actor. Seth Edeen's acting has improved over his earlier releases when he had a tendency to over-act....here he comes across more natural and less manic in the dramatic scenes. The two child actors were quite impressive with their script delivery and of course, they elevate the 'cuteness quotient' of the film.
This film runs for 105 episodes, which is well beyond the typical vertical. In fact, its runtime is more akin to a regular feature film rather than a 'short'. That offered a great opportunity to fully develop the romantic plot arc.....and this was actually done pretty well. The first 90 episodes or so were more enjoyable than most every other vertical I've seen because it kept the stupid antagonism low enough to not fully distract from the romantic plot arc. However, I guess the writers felt compelled to return to the standard vertical formula as they headed into the final home stretch. Consequently, the antagonism ramps up, including a wholly unnecessary and over the top trope having one child develop leukemia out of the blue, etc. It was like the writers realized they were writing an entirely enjoyable film and then felt like they could not let that happen. The last 10 episodes jump around with unnecessary time spent on antagonists and the resolution of the romance is squeezed into the last half of the last episode. A poor wrap-up to what otherwise was a very enjoyable short.
