Linda LeThorn & the Musicbox (Short)
What a peculiar, lovely little short film this is. The only way a film as singularly strange as “Linda LeThorn & the Musicbox” works so well is if it comes from a personal place, and while I don’t know that all of what Meg Skaff depicts in her film is autobiographical, it feels very true to life when it comes to her protagonist. That protagonist is Linda LeThorn (Aundrea Fares), a young woman who looks after pets for people and walks them for a living. She’s been doing this for quite a while, and despite her oddities, she is responsible. One day, that changes in a dramatic way when she receives a package of items from her Aunt Lucinda (Susan Kirby), who has passed away. One of the items is a musicbox, and it’s sound has an unusual hold on her as we get an idea of the type of woman her aunt was. It isn’t a pretty picture, and soon enough, Linda has appeared to detach from her regular life, and goes on an interesting road towards creating a fascinating support group inspired by one of her aunt’s peculiar requests. There, she meets someone inspired by her courage, who may be able to get her out of the trance her aunt’s musicbox has her in. This is a hard film to gauge during the process of watching it, but by the time you get to the final scenes, Skaff’s story has engaged us fully in it’s unique way. The lead character feels a bit too distant at times to realize sympathize for, but it’s because of the way the story progresses, and how we see what Linda does for other women with her support group, that we come to care for the character, and want to see her move away from the past that seems to haunt her. You haven’t really seen anything like it, and you won’t really forget it when it ends.
