A son ships off to an
unnamed conflict, leaving a father and sister at loose ends and at
odds, until a dramatic turn of events in that foreign land proves
that family bonds cannot easily be severed.
Director Steve Coulter’s
Fate Twisted Simply is a resonant family drama, surprising in that
the writer/director is still a college student. But Coulter is
able to deftly capture that father/son relationship from the
father’s perspective, with the emotional tenor hitting just the
right note.
Another pleasant surprise
is the performance of Coulter’s real-life father Bill, a
non-actor showing a nice understatement in a part where many
scenes play out over his subtle expressions. His nuanced role is
the tentpole of the drama, so much so that when he is absent from
the action in the feature’s closing minutes some of the steam
goes out of the work. Kate Kuehn is also warm as the sister, in a
polished performance.
Though some set pieces
were very sophisticated—a battle in a war-scarred church and a
memorable dream sequence, for two examples—some of the
production values were a little ragged in terms of lighting and
shot selection, and an uneven sound mix stings a bit at times. But
to balance the scales, Fate Twisted Simply features one of my
favorite scenes in all of microcinema, a crisply-edited,
joyously-performed dance sequence that springs up out of a chatty
party scene.
Fate Twisted Simply is a
sophisticated drama whose rough edges are smoothed somewhat by a
realistic depiction of family dynamics, and a pair of solid lead
performances.
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