Written and directed by Alex Rosales, silence follows a mourning couple back to their hotel room. Watch resentments build during a difficult period of grief. Starring: David Reilly, Lauren James, Len Bellezza, Christine Impara, Joan Marie Flaherty, Jennifer McClinton, Yuliana Sleme and MaryAnn Amato.
Even if you were to dive into Small Showers knowing absolutely nothing, you can immediately sense the themes as soon as the film opens. Alex Rosales sets a strong air of sadness and loss, perfectly setting the tone for what’s to come. The visual style is of a great quality and holds a keen focus, letting itself have a lot of stillness and quiet. They’re ideal choices to respect the complicated and sensitive nature of grief.
It’s not always easy to create a relatable, sympathetic tone when you’re also trying to grapple with such a heavy subject but Rosales does well in that regard. He captures the intense weight of the emotions but also adds in a touch of black comedy. Holding the story up from being entirely bleak by leaning on the awkwardness of everyday interactions.
The way Rosales explores how both parents in that situation need support, but it can be very difficult to find the right balance of selflessness and self-care, is another strong aspect. It’s nice to see a story touch upon how that support needs to be reciprocal, to give them both someone to lean on in such a difficult time.
Although it does feel like there was room for a little more development to the story. It had some space to go deeper into their marriage to further understand their situation. It still holds plenty of emotional layers, but it might have elevated it further to give extra room to get to know these characters and their history. However, as always with short films, there are budget and time constraints so keeping things simpler can be the smarter move.
Of course, with a short that has such an emotional nature, it would be impossible to pull off without strong performances and David Reilly and Lauren James both tick that box. Especially as they both provide different perspectives of grief. Reilly takes the lead and gives us a highly sympathetic, kind father who is doing his best to hold everything together, being the capable and stoic one.
While also showing how much he’s struggling to hold up that persona, it’s a very moving and relatable performance. Whereas James gives us the more quintessential side of loss, the turning inward, pushing everything away and folding into the darkness, unable to process the earth-shattering situation. It’s a great balance to be able to have both sides of that experience.
Small Showers is a moving and thoughtful short, taking on a very difficult topic and approaching it with a relatable, everyday lens to make it nicely accessible and not too heavy. Alex Rosales’s direction has a great grasp on the sincerity needed to tell this story but also isn’t afraid to add in a little humour which is lovely to see. David Reilly and Lauren James provide a genuinely broken heart to the film with strong performances, portraying both the tragedy and the need to forge ahead in the face of a terrible loss.
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