This 41st sonnet is a man betrayed; his wife is beautiful and the downside of this is that she is a temptation for others to try and win her over. Although to a modern ear it did surprise me that the blame on the women seemed to be just a natural one, suggesting men couldn't help themselves, the tone is more directed at the other man even if the words refer towards the woman – berating him but also understanding why the wife would have been a prize for him. Since the sonnet could be taken as a monologue towards another, I was happy to see that the short didn't just deliver it but actually build a narrative around which to deliver it. I liked the idea of having the husband confront the cheating pair in the park having been tipped off by another man, I really liked the idea of having the confrontation filmed on phones by bystanders!
I don't mean to be harsh, but my happiness faded quickly when I saw how poor the delivery was of these very good ideas. The acting outside of the sonnet is poor and it isn't helped by the terribly variable sound quality. The filming outside of the sonnet is also not particularly smart, with odd framing, awkward edits and 'first day with a camera" style effects. The music is also some awful tinkling piano which I guess is meant to raise tension but just grated on me as an idea and as a delivery. The cast all seem to suffer from poor direction too. The delivery of the sonnet seems to happen within the narrative, as opposed to being the beating heart of it – the actor is very static, although not compared to the object of his speech, who may as well have been carved from wood for all the reaction we get from him – it was disappointing that the two men did not play off each other, even if one has all the dialogue.
Sonnet 41 is poorly delivered here, and it is a real shame because it tried to make a short film out of it rather than just film the sonnet. That said, it doesn't add much with what it adds and, when it does come to the actual sonnet, it does pretty much just deliver it. Top marks for the ideas and the effort – I hope other films in the Project try similar things, but if they do I hope they do it much better than this one. In the final credits Kohn's credit-heavy name seems to be deliberately highlighting that the credit is all his – the blame should be put there too.
I don't mean to be harsh, but my happiness faded quickly when I saw how poor the delivery was of these very good ideas. The acting outside of the sonnet is poor and it isn't helped by the terribly variable sound quality. The filming outside of the sonnet is also not particularly smart, with odd framing, awkward edits and 'first day with a camera" style effects. The music is also some awful tinkling piano which I guess is meant to raise tension but just grated on me as an idea and as a delivery. The cast all seem to suffer from poor direction too. The delivery of the sonnet seems to happen within the narrative, as opposed to being the beating heart of it – the actor is very static, although not compared to the object of his speech, who may as well have been carved from wood for all the reaction we get from him – it was disappointing that the two men did not play off each other, even if one has all the dialogue.
Sonnet 41 is poorly delivered here, and it is a real shame because it tried to make a short film out of it rather than just film the sonnet. That said, it doesn't add much with what it adds and, when it does come to the actual sonnet, it does pretty much just deliver it. Top marks for the ideas and the effort – I hope other films in the Project try similar things, but if they do I hope they do it much better than this one. In the final credits Kohn's credit-heavy name seems to be deliberately highlighting that the credit is all his – the blame should be put there too.