A Clockwork Heart – A Short Film Review
David Lawson’s debut short A Clockwork Heart puts a steampunk twist on the old-age fairytale tropes and delivers a heartwarming, well thought out film.
What’s It All About?
A fairy tale inspired, stylized short film that explores the complexities of human emotion through the lens of Steampunk Fantasy Sci-Fi.
My Opinion
David Lawson makes an excellent start in his filmmaking journey with this debut short. The first time writer and director delivers a steampunk twist on classic fairytale tropes. His visual storytelling takes a lot of inspiration from the early silent movie era with the actors having to rely on their performance as dialogue is kept to a minimum, much of the story being told through the use of narration and the actions of the actors. On that note I must comment on the beautiful narration from Catherine O’Donnell whose warming words make this short feel almost dream like as she pulls the audience in as she tells the tale.
The simplicity of the story is what makes this short such an endearing one. The tale of a character without a heart who learns to love is one that has been told many times before. Clearly taking inspiration from classic tales before it. The minimilistic nature and the dream-like storytelling along with a steampunk inspired elements is what make this story unique.
The story has clear scenes, almost like chapters, as title cards are presented at the beginning of each scene and a great effect is used to make the scene look like a picture from a storybook before it springs to life. This does a good job of making the audience feel like the film is being brought to life from the pages of a book.
We are presented with three locations in this film. The forest, the workshop and the bedroom of Geoffrey Copperhead, the inventor of Abigail. The forest is a beautiful place, a natural setting and everything you would expect from a fairytale forest. The workshop is an Aladdins cave of tools and gadgets, a feast for the eye’s, every bit what you would expect this inventor to have as a workshop. The bedroom did feel as though it was a little basic. With the film having only a microbudget, this is what you would expect, however because the other two scenes have such a luxurious setting, certainly giving the impression that the budget is much larger than it is, the bedroom set feels a little basic. Now I can’t take this away from the film as the budget is so small, but I think because the standards are so high with the other locations when we skip to the bedroom scene I felt that I jumped out of the immersion a little. On the other hand it is a great to see what can be done on such a small scale. The workshop and the forest were very impressive.
I also have to mention the score. This beautiful piece of music is so fitting to the film adding to that dreamy feel. The score helps to guide the story along, never becoming to overpowering but as the dialoogue is limited the music certainly does a fantastic job of helping the story move along.
Notable Performances
Aiysha Jebali gave us a brilliant performance as Abigail, the mechanical daughter. I thoroughly enjoyed her robotic performance, Jebali really nailed the stiff movements of a mechanical human with each movemnt being slow and methodical and her facial expressions not showing any emotion. When she does get her heart the transformation is handled very well, with her movements becoming less rigid and more human like and she starts to express emotions. Jebali really made this short work.
Gary Dean plays the inventor Geoffrey Copperhead. Being a tale with little dialogue the actors have to rely on his physical acting ability and Gary certainly delivers. He manages to protray the correct amount of emotions without over-acting, which is something that happens so often in these instances. He gives a leveled performance keeping this fantasy grounded.
Although never seen on camera Catherine O’Donnell’s soft narration is perfect for this dream-like tale. Her words pull the audinece in, her warming voice such a good fit to tell this tale.
The Verdict
David Lawson has really made a fantastic first impression with his debut short and hopefully has more to come. A Clockwork Heart is a dreamy tale that makes for great viewing thanks to some excellent writing and direction from Lawson. An fantastic performance from Aiysha Jebali ensures we are invested in the character. A simple story told with all the care it deserves. It will be interesting to see what Lawson does next and exciting to see what he would be able to create with a bigger budget.
