“Broken” won the Best Short category at the 2005 Arpa International Film Festival. Apparently there were few entries. That’s not a total insult. The film is very well-done, but it’s also predictable (which is deadly in a film under seven minutes long) and a tad bit too symbolic.
A woman (played by Timilee Romolini) loses her husband and young son in a car accident. As to be expected, her heart is broken, so she tries to fix it. I saw where the story was going before it even got there, and I suspect others will see the same.
This isn’t a bad effort from writer/director Danica McKellar, but isn’t anything spectacular, either. There’s no time to lose in a short film, and if you can’t capitalize on what you have, your effort will ultimately fail, as it does here. A nomination was merited, but Best Short? I can only imagine what the other films were like.
