Mark Cantu’s submission for the San Antonio 48 HR Film Experience is a decent effort under those restrictions. But without the prior knowledge of its 48-hour stipulations, one would be hard-pressed to recommend Love After. This eight-minute short stars Jamye Cox as Jessica, a 27-year-old who yearns for love and fears getting pregnant. She meets Calvin, a young cop, and the two quickly fall for each other. But with the good comes the bad. Jessica gets pregnant and debates about how to handle the situation.
The short is drenched in Nia Vardalos-styled voiceovers. They serve no other purpose than to tell the viewer what Jessica’s conflicts are rather than having her actions show them. At first, the narration is off-putting and humorless and, by the end, it’s just annoying.
The performances are lackluster and disappointing. Cox plays her role seriously but isn’t compelling in her delivery. Scarbrough gives the best performance of the film. He’s believable as a young officer and despite stumbling in a few scenes, he’s the stand-out performer.
But it’s clear that neither actor has strong dialogue to work with so it’s difficult to place the blame on just them. Either of them could be impressive in other work but the writing here just isn’t up to par. Overall, this is a weak short and does little to show the cast/crew’s talent and potential. It’s always a bad sign when the production company vignette is more interesting than what follows.
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A little harsh, don’t you think? Not at all as you described.