Hang Up! (Short)
One of the worst feelings you can have in a relationship or marriage is the thought of inadvertently being made aware of the real thoughts of your significant other, thoughts that fundamentally change your view of them. Richard Powell’s “Hang Up!” is built on that very premise, and it is a riveting 13 minutes to watch.
Gary (Robert Nolan) is at work one day when he gets a call from Emelia (Astrida Auza), his wife. When he picks up, she is already mid-conversation; it’s obvious that she has butt dialed him by accident. He goes to hang up, but something she says about him, and their marriage, compels him to stay on the line. The more he listens, the more unnerved he is by what he’s listening to. This is a critical moment in his marriage. What will he do? What if she realizes he’s hearing her speak?
Robert Nolan was the star of Powell’s “Familiar,” another production by Fatal Pictures. In it, he was a husband who was deeply unhappy with the life he had with his wife and daughter, but we find out later in the short that there’s something off about him, and where those feelings might be coming from. “Hang Up!” feels very much in line with what they did with “Familiar,” but they attack it from a different angle, and storytelling perspective. Here, the film just keeps eyes on Gary as he is listening, but Emelia paints a vivid picture with her words, and we feel like we’re getting more visually than we really do. This is a brilliant use of dialogue to create images in our head while we watch something else happen, and the use of score adds to the tension felt as the film reaches its conclusion. We are left speechless by the time the credits roll, as we think about what we just saw, what we just heard, and try to process it. The characters have already made their choices- we’re like their daughter- left to deal with the consequences.
