“Decaf” is a “short film about love, loss and regret … and other funny things.” I found the love, loss and regret parts of the film, but the funny things slipped right by me. What I did catch, however, was that people fall in love with people they don’t seem compatible with, and others stay as a couple despite the fact that all they do is argue and break up every ten minutes. I suppose it’s funny to some people, but to others it will be mundane and pointless.
The film has excellent production values and good acting, but that acting is punctuated by the kind of dialogue you only find in movies. You know the kind. It’s where the writer thinks he is writing something that sounds true-to-life and clever but is more like he’s copying a third generation Tarantino clone. I’m sure writer/director Jeremy Arth thought the dialogue sounded real, but it sounds “movie” and doesn’t work very well here.
If you watch a film solely for production values and acting, there are worse films you could see. If you’re like the rest of the world and enjoy a good story and characters you grow to care about, well, you’ll need to stay far away from this average cup o’ joe.
