Vera (Short)
We’re immediately suspicious when Vera (Sofya Nova) walks in with Jack (Timothy J. Cox) to his sister’s home, putting us in the same boat as Laura (Tatyana Yassukovich), the sister. That’s the right perspective, but whom should be really be suspicious of? Laura is suspicious of Vera because she thinks Vera is using Jack, but do we really feel an emotional connection between Jack and Vera? For Jack, Vera might just be a trophy wife, of sorts, for some of the same reasons that Laura suspects Vera. But, it could be the maybe Vera is an innocent in all of this, left to wander America, a country she does not know, alone.
The screenplay by Wilder Carnes and Dante Iannetta is structured like an Old Hollywood melodrama, only it’s not a romantic triangle, but one sibling trying to save the other from a potential mistake. Our first scene in the film is Vera and Jack in a hotel together; Jack is on a business trip, and they are imbibing in alcohol- that’s a tip off to the truth to come. But the fact that Iannetta still makes it to where we are not sure of the intentions of either character is one of the things I appreciate about this film, which builds to a sad final image, done in a melodramatic fashion, akin to the Hollywood films Vera loves. It’s well worth spending 10 minutes with, and more thinking about.
