This short film could have gone in so many different ways since, in its twenty-minute run, it managed to develop several story lines quite successfully.
The young lead is an avid baseball player and fan, but his family keeps an impending minor league tryout from him. He idolizes certain (highly fictitious) old time ball players whose character even more than their athletic abilities led to their success.
Then, there is the family dynamic. Both his older brother and his father make his life's path crystal clear for him: he must study law and enter the family firm. While benignly aloof from all their protestations in this regard, the protagonist maintains a charming persona that one can never really dislike.
Then, there is the imposing girl-next-door who makes her presence known by announcing that they are sure to become friends and egging him on both with respect to his baseball obsession and his frustration with the main sub-plot of the story: the safe.
Coming with the room, the safe has not been opened for who-knows-how-long. A summoned locksmith claims that he not only knows this safe, but that he is incapable of opening it. On a fanciful whim, the young man tries a series of numbers and opens it!
To say that the contents are somewhat of a letdown would be putting to casual a dismissal to this fine film. It is just that all of the four major subplots are essentially left unresolved.
Very well done, and exceptionally acted, with Ashmore's diffidence sharply contrasting the brash theatrics of all those with whom he comes in contact.
I only wish that the denouement could have been more compelling and conclusive.
The young lead is an avid baseball player and fan, but his family keeps an impending minor league tryout from him. He idolizes certain (highly fictitious) old time ball players whose character even more than their athletic abilities led to their success.
Then, there is the family dynamic. Both his older brother and his father make his life's path crystal clear for him: he must study law and enter the family firm. While benignly aloof from all their protestations in this regard, the protagonist maintains a charming persona that one can never really dislike.
Then, there is the imposing girl-next-door who makes her presence known by announcing that they are sure to become friends and egging him on both with respect to his baseball obsession and his frustration with the main sub-plot of the story: the safe.
Coming with the room, the safe has not been opened for who-knows-how-long. A summoned locksmith claims that he not only knows this safe, but that he is incapable of opening it. On a fanciful whim, the young man tries a series of numbers and opens it!
To say that the contents are somewhat of a letdown would be putting to casual a dismissal to this fine film. It is just that all of the four major subplots are essentially left unresolved.
Very well done, and exceptionally acted, with Ashmore's diffidence sharply contrasting the brash theatrics of all those with whom he comes in contact.
I only wish that the denouement could have been more compelling and conclusive.