|
This entertaining short film takes a lighthearted look at the anxiety of modern
relationships. The mix up of the title - a play on the familiar WWII song
'Goodnight Sweetheart' - highlights the confusion and miscommunication that is the
film's premise.
The film crams a lot into its short span. In nine minutes, we get to meet the couple's parents, friends and neighbours. We
learn of their parents' health, their new dishwasher, the patients Juliet has
had to deal with at the hospital where she works. Further unnecessary details
include references to household items - the dishwasher, new cushions, the flush
on the toilet, the stiff lock on the door. This excess of information overwhelms
us just as the increasingly out-of-control situation does the hapless Peter,
reinforcing the feelings of entrapment that have, we sense, prompted his desire
to end the relationship. In the end, however, Peter's confusion is such that he
ends up expressing the reverse of his intentions.
With its sense of mounting hysteria and the
accumulation of increasingly absurd consequences stemming from a simple
misunderstanding, Sweetnight Goodheart has the narrative traits of classic British sitcom, and its
writer/director, Daniel Zeff, has graduated to such series as Fat Friends (ITV,
2000-05), The Worst Week of My Life (BBC, 2004-) and Ideal (BBC,
2005).
Nicole Maycock
|
1. Opening (0:42)
