So far this blog did not review short films. Friend Request Pending is a short gerontological film, and is the first of its kind to be reviewed on this blog. (Actually, Martin was also a short movie - but it was a documentary...).
Like books and stories - while it may be easy to tell a story in a two-hours films - it may be much more challenging to tell a good story in a 10 minutes film.
In general, this is a 2011 short comedy-drama film, written and produced by Chris Croucher and directed by Chris Fogin. It stars great and well known gerontological stars such as Judi Dench (which has already been reviewed many times in this blog), and Penny Ryder.
As for the movie itself - I decided to watch this movie with my youngest son, Shahar, (23 years old) - and here are his thoughts:
"Sit" my dad told me. We're watching a short movie with older people on it right now! So I set down and the movie began.
In this short film, there is a main character and her friend (both are older women). The hero, Mary, which the movie focuses on her (played by Judi Dench), is trying to navigate meeting, dating and interacting with a man she is interested with, using her laptop computer through social media (specifically, via chat).
Both women are exited like little kids with the computerized interaction. Once Mary finds the courage to send a message to a man she is interested with, she is impatient to receive the reply immediately. The film focuses basically on this technological interaction of the older women.
My father instantly thought badly about the movie (I think). He doesn't like when films portray older people as technologically incapable, or "compare" them to young kids.
However, I must admit that I actually found the naive and childish-like behavior of the hero in the movie to be quite beautiful in a way. May be it is because my father (and mother) do not need to deal with dating these days. However, in my experience, this is actually how dating looks like: messages on social media, consulting with friends, getting exited (and disappointed) once receiving (or not receiving) the online replies. New love is always exciting even it is filtered through computers, laptops and smartphones. Moreover, the film is sometimes funny, using British slang which I had sometimes difficultly to keep up with. Finally, Judi Dench (which even I know well) is playing wonderfully. So overall my grading is 3/5."
So, beyond my son's excellent review, I would only add that this can be an excellent movie to show in any gerontological class on "technology and aging" with a special "twist" towards social media and new relationships in old age.
2011
UK
Director: Chris Foggin
Movie trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0NLGgCVH-Q
Comments