No wonder this worked so superbly! At first, realizing that Rocky Morton was the director of 1988’s “D.O.A.” and 1993’s “Super Mario Bros.” (he was also the director of the TV program, “The Max Headroom Show”), and watching “The M Word”, I was beginning to think that Morton’s significant contributions to this short showed that he had just been led by the balls when he was doing Hollywood studio work. “Poor son of a bitch,” I thought to myself just before the credits came up. However, the bigger surprise came when “Alan Ball” was listed in the credits as the writer. Ball, as countless people know, wrote “American Beauty” and runs things on “Six Feet Under” on HBO. Morton’s more than capable in his directing activities here, but you need a script that entertains and Ball has written it.
Essentially melting down the emotion of potential marriage proposals, we’re put into the fray as a man and a woman discuss the finer points of marriage. These are businesspeople, and the man has a business meeting to get to, but just wanted to stop by, before he headed there. They discuss what they’re both looking for in a procreative partner, what the man’s midlife crisis looks like, and when they both intend to be wealthy; he by 40, and she by 45, though she’s surprised by his answer of “40” due to said midlife crisis. It’s all spoken quickly and succinctly as the negotiations keep going on. Both the actor and actress involved in this (of whose names I do not have because the Sundance Online Film Festival does not have any controls that allow you to pause the film. That’s one significant change that needs to be made next year for people like me) are electric in their roles, with Ball saying that when all is examined, marriage is simply a major business. This is first rate, and Morton and Ball should really consider doing more shorts together.
