Hot Mother

Saw this at my local film festival and it was probably my least favorite of the block that I saw it in. It's starts out promising. The shots and imagery are very nicely done and we get the set up of a mother and daughter who don't see eye to eye trying to reconnect at a spa. But the true trouble doesn't actually start until they try to leave the sauna and the door handle breaks off leaving them trapped. For several minutes we cut back-and-forth between shots of them making attempts to get out before cutting to the clueless spa workers being distracted by funny videos online. Not only does this go on longer than it should but it feels so tonally off. The spa workers being happily oblivious doesn't work as dark humor because that's clearly not what the short film is going for, but it also doesn't mix with the rest of the film's tone. At one point the mother makes frantic apologies to reconcile but there was no lead up or introspection to this moment. It's just something she does because she's worried they might both die so the moment doesn't feel rewarding it just feels hollow. We then get the tragic ending before dropping the bomb that this was based on actual events like that's supposed to automatically make it admirable. I honestly think that makes it worse, because now these real lives are being used in a story that likely doesn't do them justice. The ending just left me with a miserable feeling of "seriously?!" instead of some thoughtful sadness. I feel bad for the crew who clearly put in a lot of work to make this film look good. Their effort is noted but this was a misguided attempt to tell this story.