Piggy Bank

In many ways Jade Carmen's short film PIGGY BANK reminded me of SHALLOW GRAVE or A SIMPLE PLAN for much of the running time . Claire and Karl move into a new house little realising that a couple of bank robbers have left their stash underneath the floor boards . For the premise to work you have to suspend disbelief . I mean why didn't the robbers drive to Essex or Surry where there's enough rural woodland to dig a hole and hide the money till the heat is off ? Probably because if they did that there wouldn't be a story . I guess also to make the story work you have to forgive the unlikely duo of robbers , I mean if they're violent crooks how come they seem to be so forgiving to Claire and Karl ?

PIGGY BANK works mainly because there's a fairly clever twist at the end and it's this what makes this short memorable . I have to be honest though and say it probably doesn't deserve the average rating of 9.3 since both the not too dissimilar SHALLOW GRAVE and A SIMPLE PLAN were better stories but I guess because they were feature length the stories had more space for development so comparisons are unfair

Two men knock off an armoured car and decide to stash the loot until the heat goes off. They go to an old house that has been empty for years and hide it beneath the floorboards before going their separate ways. Later that evening though, the new owners of the house finish moving the bulk of their stuff into the house and continue their nightly routine of trying to make the place inhabitable. Doing some electrical work the next day, the owner finds the cash and his girlfriend decides the money must have belonged to the old woman who passed away – so naturally they spend like crazy; but the criminals will come back at some point.

Starting out with a scenario that is similar to Shallow Grave (sort of) this short film tries to take a slightly different path and, in doing so, is both better for it and flawed at the same time. Up until the conclusion it is actually quite good – mixing menace and humour well and producing an air of tension while I waited to see what would happen. However the final minute or so is silly and nowhere near as funny or clever as it wanted to be; it doesn't ring true at all and feels like it has been tacked on as a way of finishing on a gag. It is still quite entertaining but it needed a better finish.

The cast are good enough with several recognisable faces including an Eastenders actor and Paul Kaye to name (sort of) two. The direction is a bit ropey at times but most of that can be put down to budget constraints – although the use of slow motion and a fantasy sequence that doesn't work should have been dropped from the final film. Overall it is distracting and does enough to fill the short time even if it isn't worth trying to track down.