Stutterer (Benjamin Cleary, 2015)

Stutterer (Benjamin Cleary, 2015) is a 13 minute short film that follows a man living in London who suffers from a severe speech impediment that renders him virtually mute, and how he handles the fact that he may be finally meeting his online girlfriend in person for the first time.

I liked the simplicity of the plot and the way that interesting techniques were used to take the audience through it. We can hear the protagonist’s thoughts, as they struggle to communicate them with anyone else, which gives the film a very sympathetic narrator who can give the audience his thoughts and emotions without directly communicating with them and breaking the fourth wall, as About A Girl (Brian Percival, 2001) does. This brings the audience into a close and understanding relationship with the protagonist, allowing us to understand him and why he is making the actions he does in the film, and his coping mechanism to help him through his disability. This was an interesting technique that stuck with me. I also liked the way that he makes “snap-judgments” of people he sees. It emphasises his loneliness and creates a simple coping mechanism for the protagonist which makes the audience sympathise with him. It is also a good way of creating brief moments of comedy in an otherwise gloomy short film.

The film also takes time to establish its protagonist before the conflict that sets the plot in motion. This is important as it helps the audience to understand him and why he behaves the way he does, and when the conflict is established , it changes his behaviour. This change then affects the way he behaves day to day, which the plot mostly follows, his daily life. There is no dramatic buildup to the ending, and no intense climax, just an intimate portrayal of someone in an otherwise romantic situation who struggles due to an unfortunate disability. So the film shows how a plot can remain interesting just through its protagonist and the audiences connection to them, and their development in the short time frame used, and how this can be communicated to the audience in a unique and explainable way.

The climax is resolved, but only right at the ending, which makes for an ending that is partly a cliffhanger, as we do not know what will happen after, but also a happy ending, as we understand the protagonist has worked through the issue they face throughout the film. The use of silence at the end of the film is also a clever but simple use of symbolism that reflects the main characters silence, but also immerses the audience and raises tension as to what is going to happen, but also making the moment feel much more powerful and impactful, as all else if forgotten except for what is important, the distance between the two characters in that moment. About A Girl, Stutterer only follows one main character, but it shows how this can be made to work by establishing a likeable and sympathetic person in an interesting situation, and how the audience can be brought closer to them through intimate and personal narration, and how a detailed or progressing plot is not crucial to a film, as long as the characters are enjoyable and their navigation through it is entertaining.