Well, this is a curveball.
I love the visual design. The sound design is outstanding. The makeup and blood effects are swell. I think Laura Jane Turner gives a pretty great performance, portraying the fright, alarm, desperation, and determination of the single unnamed character. Writer-director Tim Egan's camerawork zeroes in on every meticulously coordinated, deliberate movement of Turner as the character grapples with her plight, and especially in the final moments especially, his editing serves that same purpose. From a technical standpoint, this short is very well-rounded. I appreciate this unique, somewhat fantastical take on the film genre of "lone person, trapped and in peril." As viewers we can readily identify with the character in the instinctual urge for survival, and the heightened emotional and physiological state that accompanies it.
Yet I can't help but feel that something's missing, that some greater truth has bowed out from the finished product.
It's easy and natural to theorize about the nature of the scenario, though without anything in the short beyond what we see, this is a fruitless pursuit. It's also easy and natural to try to read some meaning into the abridged arc on hand, and one could readily say this is a metaphor for Life, Struggle, or any grand overarching idea. That could be true - substance is in the eye of the beholder - but that pursuit also feels superfluous here.
The result is a short that's simple in concept, finely realized, handily (if not wholly) engaging, and peculiarly intriguing. What's it all for? I honestly don't know. But that doesn't mean we can't appreciate 'Curve' for what we plainly get on the face of it.
