Memories of Kevin

Wow. What a superb film. Simple concept and so perfectly executed. The cinematography is the best Ive seen in the festival thus far! The acting was great and with so much of the film resting on the performance she pulled it off perfectly.
That was a treat!

After asking for 5 minutes of their time to say goodbye to loved ones in her now empty house and being given 3 by a cold faced demolition company, a woman struggles for something, anything in her barren former dwelling that will give her the closure she needs to move on.

So I can see 2 clear reasons this made the Auckland final (well done) which were superb cinematography and a superb performance by your lead actress. She sold pleading, desperation, longing and love through classic acting but at the same time was restrained in her delivery to the point that everything presented as very emotional and believable.

The fact that this was all done in one shot was very impressive. Sound was also really good with a very well layered film in that regard.

If I was to put my theoretical judging hat on as to why this didn't make the national final, I think a big thing for me is that the ending didn't personally stick. My intepretation was that it was a little bit open, either being in her head, or that Kevin had moved on and I think for full engagement I just needed one more dramatic beat to be satisfied.
But it might have also been that the story was a little light. Very well told, absolutely, but the weighting of the key question the film asked (it's crucial to find Kevin) contrasted with us as an audience not knowing why it was important. It was told and sold through the performance and script, but maybe just a little too open would be my guess.

Story: 2.5/5
Technical: 4.5/5
Elements: 3.5/5
Overall: 3/5