Rope

A young man, mechanically repeating the mantra "rope, suit, park, hang" embarks on a journey to a wooded area with the intention of ending his life. Although there is no clear indication of what the circumstances may have been that led him to this moment, he does explain that his wife's car is in pieces. "She's in pieces," he says. His concentration is broken, however, by the appearance of a dog. The dog, a recent rescue from a Los Angeles shelter, may or may not thwart his intention but is enough to halt his obsessive dialogue.

Backed by an outstanding score by Jose Villalobos who also worked on the score for "The Kite Runner", Rope is directed by Ian Clay and aided by a standout performance by Jason Britt and stunning cinematography inspired by Wong Kar-wai. This short four-minute film is haunting, though-provoking, filled with mystery and humanity and is a remarkable achievement.

It's of course incredibly hard to really tell a story in a short that only lasts 4 minutes. It's important to have a real strong concept and premise but before you can get things developed you also need to wrap up things again. In other words, it's often harder to come up with a good short than actually one that lasts between 10 and 30 minutes, or so.

Having a good and above all an original idea and approach is already half the work. And I feel that this movie picked a good approach to things. This movie is certainly an unique and good watch, due to its approach. It's a visually strong movie, that only features narration and no actual dialog. There's even only just one character in the entire movie, not counting in the dog. It has narration throughout its entire movie but it are still the images that tell most of the story.

And it's a real good thing that this film has visuals that speak for themselves, fore the story itself isn't really self explanatory, at least not in the way it gets handled in this movie. It's a quite heavy-handed subject and story, that gets told rather confusingly and just in parts. I do know this was intentionally, since the story gets told from the mind of our protagonist, who is obviously confused, full with emotions and thoughts and is about to end to his life but that doesn't really make this movie that pleasant to follow, due to its storytelling. You can also perhaps say that its being a bit too grim. But this can only be a complaint for some of its viewers. It's just a personal thing for everyone that is not saying anything about any of its artistic and film-making qualities, since this was something intentional.

Seems a bit odd though that for a movie in which the narration plays such an important role they couldn't get some better equipment, or studio, for the recording of its dialog. It just sounds a bit muffled. The music on the other hand sounded great and the musical score fitted the movie real nice.

Perhaps you can say, that at least to me, I liked this short more for its style than its actual substance but for those who like to read a bit more into movies and get into really get into a characters mind, this is simply a great movie.

7/10

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Well crafted short about the loss of hope and the hope for a new beginning is palpable with some great editing - intimate, tight close ups,and a very immediate, visceral feel throughout. Short films always intrigue me and how a filmmaker manages to convey so much in so little time ; truly fascinating. Ian Clay, the film's director, allows enough tension and information about his seemingly dooemed protagonist, with his funereal appearance, but also lets the viewer feel the tautness of the rope around his neck (no mean feat!) There are echoes even of Poe and Ambrose Bearce's AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE - a tinge of the supernatural - but altogether original and compelling to its very (hopeful) end. *** out of 4 *s

Rope, no not the classic Alfredy Hitchcock film, but a short about a man who must make a life changing decision with a piece of rope, is a mere 4 minutes long. Is that enough time to engage the audience, tell a good story and let the viewer be absorbed in the filmmaking aspect of it?

Rope is done very well for a film shot, directed and written by the same man, Ian Clay. The film has a rough and tough vibe to it that in some strange way connects with the character who is at a crossroad in his life. It's dark subject matter and the film doesn't look clean and pretty. It works for it rather than against it.

Great music that heightens the tension and pulls the viewer in. You can have a crappy looking film and people will still enjoy it, but if it sounds like crap, people will hate it. The music does it's job of creating a sense of emotion in the viewer as well as hide some obvious dodgy voice over recordings. The voice over is done in a room, it's obvious and should have been hidden better.

The dialogue is repetitive, some of it works some of it doesn't. It's hard to tell a story in under 5 minutes, Clay does it in 4. We get the basic idea of what is going on and why within the dialogue of this guy's head. His constant rambling is nonsensical and at times might make irritate you, but the overall message and theme are all present.

The film is not nicely tight up in a bow, it is left ambiguous. The question you must ask yourself at the end of the film is if you care whether or not this man decides to take his own life or not. If you don't care, the film has failed. If you do care, then it is a success. If you even make a conscience choice of whether or not he dies makes the film a success. When watching the film, you assume it will be left open ended and it is.

For a film on such a small budget and super small crew, I can't really fault it for anything that doesn't look great. The film actually does look good. The writing is good despite some lazy/nonsensical parts and the film is only 4 minutes, so give it a watch. You can spare 4 minutes of your time.

This is the second film I recall having reviewed for a young film maker, Ian Clay--the first being "Absent". Often after reviewing a short by a rising film maker, I get emails asking me to watch and review other films by them as well--and this was the case with "Rope".

This is the sort of film that many, I am sure, would find unpleasant. It's about a guy who is going to hang himself! And, what I found interesting about this was how disjoint and confused his narration is as you see him working up to the ultimate deed. That's because people usually do NOT kill themselves when they are thinking clearly and rationally--and this man certainly is not. It captured this mental disintegration well and technically it was a well made film--showing the people who made it are quite skilled and have a very professional film. I really thought it was visually striking and the sedate sound track really worked well. But, as the subject is suicide, it's probably not for everyone! But it sure is a good showcase for talent and I look forward to seeing more from these folks.