Damage

This film is a very welcome addition to the vernacular of the 60's genre which at present is undergoing a major uplift. Whether this is due to the 50th Anniversary of Love Me Do release I do not know, but this film captures the moment of time very well. In places it reminds me of the film "Darling" with Julie Christie.

HOWEVER, this is where any similarity ends, Damage is quite clearly a atmospheric focusing on the eternal triangle of love and the third person. The directing is sharp, focused and very much to the point. The cast portray this very well and the film has some fine tense moments. Photography is tightly edited, and this really adds to the general effect of the film which is excellent.

In short it is a film which i would like in my collection, and one to which I wish I had been involved in myself in any way. WELL Done Kris and the cast.

I watched Damage no more than a few weeks ago, and I thought that the film was close to perfection! I admit there are a few criticisms that were here and there (like sound editing and possibly being a little slow at times) but in all honesty this wasn't that bad. Especially for quite clearly a low-budget film. It's a good storytelling of a love triangle between a photographer, a model and her fiancé and it brought so much suspense, tension and chemistry though out the 40 minute flick. The one I thought who stole the film was quite clearly the photographer character - Felix Reid. A mysterious and yet charming fashion photographer with the dark past that no one knows. I like it. He's ambiguous, dark and in all honesty scary! His originality was somewhat interesting to watch throughout the film, seeing what exactly he'll do next. I admit this isn't the most perfect film but in all honesty I admire the amount of work that these people have put into it, creating a period 90's drama with creative writing put into it - brilliant!

In this narrative drama, the camera plays a vital role which I believe is the eyes. Adam Burton plays Felix, a model photographer who takes pictures of a beautiful wannabe model Caroline Murphy. During Felix and Caroline's conversation about her marriage, Felix picks up on her true emotions due to his experience in capturing the essence of inner beauty through women and tells her she's unhappy with her fiancé James. This is a powerful point of the whole film and therefore I felt director Kris Smith used the camera as a very significant role that's more important than all the characters combined. Everyone is pretty much blind and naive however Felix and his prop can identify people's proper emotions which I felt was very creative and clever!

Throughout the film we are drawn to a tense build-up that causes the 'damage' of two ordinary beings that are getting married. I felt watching this that I was actually there not wanting Felix to destroy the 'special day' but I couldn't and to me that's so amazing to experience. This is not a film for people looking for action and adventure as quite the opposite happens here. It's a film about an antihero who has a moment of self-righteousness and decides to take action to what he feels is right, and is left suspended at the end.

Bookmarking the two lines "So Miss Murphy, what do you do for a living?" is pure genius and I couldn't agree more to the sheer amount of praise and respect this film keeps getting.

Smith's short film has an immediate effect and an after effect. We are taken immediately by the "preciousness" of the image. Limpid, exquisite and slightly detached. The after effect is a whole other story. Burton's face comes to haunt you. His pain and his deep period of reflection has a powerful, contagious effect. Adam Burton creates a character that contains a doses of his D'Arcy of Pride and Prejudice and a pinch of his Adrian LeDuc of Apartment Zero but the rest is totally inedited. Love without other implications, because love is all there is and I wouldnt doubt it for a second. A marvellous effort.

I've been a movie buff since early childhood and must have seen about 5000 movies by now. I grew up in the 60s and 70s so I think I got my fair share of the best of the best. I watched this film tonight and it completely blew me away. A great storyline, great music and lovable characters. I felt that Kris Dillon Jr was terrific in this film as he practically played the bastard of the storyline and his jealously between Caroline and Felix is astonishing.

The whole look of it convincing us that it's the sixties simply came to life in this very believable film (the smoking, the design) This film has it ALL ! It makes you laugh, makes you cry, there's tension, excitement,... what can I say ? Well, this film is a MASTERPIECE which captures the spirit of the mid 60s just p e r f e c t l y.