Cutting Moments Review

Movie: Cutting Moments
By: Preach
Date: July 5, 2011

Controversial and realistic

Cutting Moments(part 1 of the Family Portraits trilogy) brings us to see your depressed but very disturbed suburban family in only 25 mins. Douglas Buck's short is as controversial as it is realistic and It leaves the audience feeling sorry or sick in that short amount of time. Let me start out by saying their is not much Dialogue in this movie. A few lines here and there is about all you get. But the actors did a fantastic job of playing their roles and really selling the emotions needed in the scenes. If your into monsters, zombies, vampires etc. this may not be the movie for you. But if your into realism and viewing 3 different family members in need of therapy and a high dose of medication, this is what you wanna see.

Sarah and Patrick are a middle aged couple who have been married for years. They and their young son Joey live in your typical american home in a quiet neighborhood. One day while Patrick is tending to the yard work he notices that Joey is playing with some dolls. He approaches him asking what he is doing and the boy seems to be standoffish. Replying only with "Playing" When Patrick looks down he notices that the toys are set up in a sexual position and he asks Joey to go in the house.

Later inside the house Sarah tells Patrick that their lawyer called today and that Joey might get taken away tomorrow. Patrick who spends most the time in this film with a blank stare on his face then stops and replies with "it will all work out'' As the family sits down for dinner later that evening Mom is the only one who makes any effort at all to start conversation. Showing care in her son and his day she asks him questions about it. The kid who you can tell is uncomfortable for some reason unknown to the viewer at this time does not wanna be around and asks to be excused. As the boy leaves she tries to hold her husbands hand and he shoves hers away not wanting anything to do with her.

Later that night in bed she stares at a wedding picture from all those years ago as Patrick lay as far away from her as possible. She remembers the things they said to eachother and their wedding guests said to them on that special day. Showing that she wishes things were what they once were all those years ago. Right then you hear Patricks voice and he is talking to Joey telling him he will "make it up to him, and that it's ok". Giving the viewer an uneasy feeling as you now find out why everyone is sad and depressed, and why the kid might be taken from the home.

Realizing that not only does she want her husbands attention, she wants his attention off of their son. So she puts on a nice dress with bright red lipstick to match and goes and stands in front of Patrick on the couch blocking the baseball game on T.V. Not impressed at all he gives her a look of anger sending her away as he continues to watch the game. Sarah at this point has finally hit the deep end. looking in the mirror she tries to wipe off the lipstick with a towel. Still seeing a shade of red she looks down seeing a brillo pad. She runs it across her lips with not so much as a flinch to rectify the situation. Still thinking lipstick is there she grabs a pair of scissors and removes her lips completely leaving a permanent smile. In nothing but her underwear she returns to Patrick covered in blood(still smiling). Looking up in shock he stands up slowly. He then puts his hand on her cheek, giving her that feeling she wanted and remembered from all those years ago. He then takes her into the bedroom and they find bigger tools and other objects to remove while having sex.

This film is definately different. not much dialogue and certain scenes seem to drag on. But the actors all do very well at selling their emotions to where words aren't always needed. It shows how low people can really go and the things depression can drive you to at the sametime. The first part of this movie builds you to the gore and very graphic scenes which finish you off in the end. Definately not much action in this film. I would recommend it to people who wanna watch something a little deeper and more realistic who can handle realistic gore scenes without getting sick.