Stutterer

Like the character in the short, we're all charged with difficulties which we have to overcome, whether sooner or later. It's important that we may never give up. That's what matters in the end. You would want help to come from outside, but you know today you gotta help yourself first in order to move forward in life.

This film is about a young man who stutters. His stutter is not a minor stutter but debilitating. He often has difficulty even talking out loud to others and has even pretended to be deaf in order to prevent him having to talk out loud. However, he's had an online relationship with a girl for many months and when she tells him that she's coming to London and wants to see him, he's in a panic. What is he to do? She has no idea that he's a stutterer and he's very apprehensive to writer her back at all. What is he to do?

As a father of a deaf daughter, I found it fascinating watching the main character practicing British Sign Language--a system that is surprisingly very little like American Sign Language. It appeared to be done well...which I appreciate. My biggest reason for not being so enthusiastic about this film isn't because the short is poorly made--it's quite good. But I saw another short this year that was very, very similar except that instead of struggling with stuttering, the main character struggled with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder when going out on a blind date.

UPDATE: It really surprised me but this film took the Oscar.

Wow forget long blockbuster movies but the new thing should be watching Oscar nominated or winner short films. This one was so good. Bravo.

From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/

The task of any Short Film is to seize the viewer's attention in literally a matter of seconds, at once inspiring and sustaining an emotional connection with the story and it's characters. It is a most formidable undertaking indeed. I'm here to declare that Writer/Director Benjamin Cleary's 2015 British production "Stutterer" succeeds in not only meeting, but surpassing, this genuinely daunting mandate.

In an instant I felt the helpless frustration that Greenwood projects as he struggles with all of his might to convert the ever flowing thoughts in his head to bear upon his tongue and lips. But he can't. I found it consistently gripping and, moreover, painful to behold this roundly riveting performance which Matthew Needham (The BBC's "Casualty") gifts to us in the title role of "Stutterer".

A couple of quibbles if you'll allow. I found it a bit difficult to understand how an adult man with at least one apparently caring parent could not have received at least a measure of effective therapy for his severe affliction at some point in his life. And as the movie drew to conclusion I had already anticipated how it was likely going to end, my hunch proving accurate.

Still, these amount to but minor distractions in an otherwise richly satisfying and touching story, one that is ultimately of a lonely soul's search for his kindred sweet spirit.

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Stutterer (2015)

*** (out of 4)

Benjamin Cleary wrote and directed this tender short, which picked up a Best Short Oscar nomination. A man named Greenwood (Matthew Needham) has been having an online relationship with a woman named Ellie (Chloe Pirrie) but things take a turn for him when she asks to meet him in person. The thing is that Greenwood has a major stuttering problem, which he fears might cost him a chance at a real relationship with the woman.

STUTTERER certainly wasn't the best nominated short that I saw but there's no question that it has a rather tender story as well as a very touching ending that I certainly won't spoil here. I thought director Cleary did a very good job at building out the story and I thought it was extremely well-made. I liked the laid back nature of the picture and I thought the story was rather clever in the way that it eventually played out.