Time to Kill

Balance between absurd and dark comedy. Impression of sketch. Bizarre end. Eulogy and nice parody to the legends about hitmen.

We've all seen the films where a character comes into a dark room and finds a killer sitting waiting for him, perhaps in the dark or perhaps switching on a lamp as part of a charismatic reveal. Well, in Time to Kill, we get to see a little bit more around this than normal as we join a hit-man trying to pass the time waiting for his target to return home.

There is a sketch quality to this short film that might have limited it, but it fleshes out beyond this by virtue of what it does. Our hit-man moves from observations of the messy flat around him, into family drama, yoga, therapy, and hopes – all of which add to his character while also keeping the chuckles coming. I say chuckles deliberately, because it is a short that is more consistently amusing than it ever is laugh out loud funny. Mostly it seems to stay on that side of the line, and I did wish there could have been some stronger laughs on the way, but it was amusing. I would also have liked the ending to be stronger than it was – it was a nice ending, but not a great one.

The film benefits a lot from the performance from Wood. He is alone on the screen for the majority of the time but he carries it well and is pretty funny throughout – making more of the material. It is an amusing film, I wish it were stronger and funnier, but it is solid and worth a look for Wood doing good work.