Time 2 Save the World

A stressed out single dad is forced to take calls as his daughter prepares for school before rushing her out the door with barely a kiss or a goodbye or any show of affection. However he cannot remain on the periphery of his daughter's life for very long when her two `imaginary' friends take him to deserted woodland to do battle with a mysterious world threatening force.

Shown as part of the Birmingham Film Festival this short was one of eight to be shown that were produced by Screen West Midlands and were predominately set in the Midlands using Midlands based actors and crew. I had hoped this short would be one of the stronger ones from the group but it didn't quite manage that feat.

The central idea was good, that a stressed out father is taught the importance of his daughter's world when it comes to him. It is imaginative and could have worked better but instead it's weaknesses take away from it. The first section is good despite the daughter's isolation being painted on too thick, the second bit is where it falls down. The drama and fantasy of the battle for the world didn't work and disbelief set in. If it had had more tension and excitement then I could have suspended disbelief totally. The little epilogue didn't help either and I thought it could have done without it.

The cast do pretty well all being equal and any weaknesses in them is mainly the fault of the material rather than them. The makeup on the final three characters is pretty good considering the budget but their actual characters should have been better - instead they were just weird voiced (hard to understand) little goblins.

Overall a good idea that had potential and is quite good onscreen but I couldn't shake the feeling that another 3 or 4 minutes on the running time would have allowed the film to expand past it's weaknesses.