TRIBECA REVIEW: ‘Curfew’

Writer-director Shawn Christensen’s Curfew, a short film playing the Tribeca Film Festival, shows what can happen when two disparate lives are brought together. Richie (Christensen himself) is just about to end his life by cutting his wrists in the bathtub. Before he can follow through with the act, his telephone rings. It’s his sister, a person he hasn’t talked to in some time. She needs help babysitting her daughter, and as she so kindly puts it: He was the last person she wanted to ask, but there is no one else.

From this premise, Richie and his niece, Sophia, spend a few hours together, getting to know each other’s personalities and sensitivities. It’s obvious that Richie is a recovering drug addict, a man estranged from just about everyone in life. Sophia is smart and assertive, almost to the point of being annoying. Together, they make an unlikely pair of friends.

Christensen has put together a nice 19-minute film that feels original, but still traffics in cliche. The entire premise is built around coincidental encounters and soul-searching events in Richie’s life. It’s nice to see this man brought from the depths of sadness to a more manageable state, but his journey out of the bathtub is tinged with almost sitcomish encounters with his niece. Everything feels a little too obvious (there’s even a bowling dance party).

The short is part of Tribeca’s Men-Hattan series.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

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