When a phone-sex operator becomes troubled with intense migraines each time she speaks to a particularly disturbing caller, something bad is certain to happen to that client—and it isn’t pretty.
Nicole Witte Solomon’s Small Talk tells the story of Allison (Al, for short), a beautiful, and most believable, phone-sex actor. Al’s best friend Tania wishes that Al would take a much safer and more respectable temp job, but Al tells her that bad economic times won’t allow her to quit her more lucrative career. Unfortunately, the men that call in are becoming more and more deviant, and Al’s threshold for tolerance is dwindling to nothingness…
Up until the final few minutes of Small Talk, I really LOVED everything about this film! I found Witte Solomon’s narrative-infiltration of uncomfortable issues handled with a dexterity most investigative journalists lack. These include pedophilia, and the trafficking of the very young into prostitution.
Small Talk moves quickly, even though almost twenty-four minutes is pretty long for a short film. The acting is also excellent across the board, with particular kudos to Manini Gupta, who brings the character Al to extraordinary life. Witte Solomon also grapples with the philosophical-unknown, the dark spaces that shake up the world we believe ourselves to understand.
All of these make me take notice of this filmmaker in a very big way. But it’s those last few moments of Small Talk that completely destroy the magic for me, reducing the movie’s intrigue to silliness.
I viewed Small Talk twice, hoping I was missing something, but still could not come to terms with the film’s ending. And since Small Talk is Nicole Witte Solomon’s movie and not my own, I’m not entitled to edit her final scene. The best I can do is offer my opinion, which can be taken or left, and keep my eyes peeled for any feature-thrillers she may be willing to share.
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