Brisbane native Josh Lawson directs Long Story Short, a romantic drama with a Twilight Zone-like twist centered around a man (Rafe Spall) who mysteriously jumps forward one year in time every few minutes after his wedding day.
Josh Lawson is the definition of a true up-and-comer in the Australian indie scene, with this being his return to directing feature films after his low-budget debut, the raunchy anthology film, The Little Death (2014). It also comes after years of juggling TV production, acting, and his own personal life. According to Lawson in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, he mentioned how life occasionally felt “brief” and “cruel”, it being the driving force for the central plot for this movie.
Long Story Short is constructed as an examination of life through the lens of a man who has recently gotten married, emulating the feeling that life goes by in the blink of an eye after that day. Lawson being both the writer and director makes this feel like a very personal story, grounding it in a human way within a bizarre cosmic story involving time travel.
The movie’s secret weapon is definitely Rafe Spall in the lead role. He carries Long Story Short with a very big performance and isn’t too afraid to dip into some improv, with a lot of the better scenes in the film feeling aloof and not so regimented. He gives a lot of life to this movie, really leaning into comedy to give it a light-hearted tone. Another positive is the supporting cast; they all do a fine job with what they are given, although the best friend character played by Ronny Chieng is the weak link here, unfortunately. Although Chieng is given some of the best zingers and funniest scenes, he felt far too stilted, like he lacked the appropriate direction to get a great performance out of him in some of the emotionally demanding scenes.
The narrative structure hinges on a Groundhog Day-type scenario (they poke fun at this in the film), where every few minutes Spall’s character will travel exactly one year forward in his life, but only he knows it. This seems like it would work best as a 20-25 minute short film, as at times the tone and plot are all over the place, mainly due to the need for this to be a feature-length film. Certain scenes that are genuinely heartfelt and quite distressing immediately precede a lengthy improv comedy scene, making the tone quite confusing. At no point does it really feel like we know the characters because the film’s structure doesn’t give the more impactful scenes any time to breathe, with every scene given nearly the same amount of time, and it really suffers for that reason. The ending too, was quite disappointing, with it being a bit of a narrative cop-out, abandoning a very bold and emotional finale for a typical, feel-good conclusion instead.
Long Story Short is not the most original or tonally consistent movie ever made, but it does succeed in good comedy throughout, fine character studying, and some entertaining scenes hinged on a good premise. Unfortunately, it’s quite low impact and doesn’t stick much after you’ve left the theatre. However, if Josh Lawson’s next endeavor keeps the comedy and narrative expression presented here while giving more attention to being tonally consistent, he could be onto a real winner.
Fun Fact:
Ronnie Chieng was the first person cast.
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