Love turning sour and the preparation for things going bad seems to be the theme of this sonnet and it is also the theme of the film as a young man stands in a park and delivers a hurt and withering assessment of his relationship and how it has taken him to the point he now finds himself. It is an odd film because it does seem like it comes at a turning point between the lighter more adoring sonnets of the lower numbers, and some of the darker sonnets that the Project has already done, which sees obsession, suicide and pain as regular themes. This film seems to be the starting point for some of those and we join the man at the point of feeling sick of it all.
The film doesn't do a great deal with this. If the gardens of the location have a relevance then I am afraid it was lost on me and what I was left with was a man standing in greenery delivering his lines to the camera with only a lipstick (a vanishing one at that) as a prop. As such the delivery is pretty clear – or at least it is once your ears adjust from the louder music at the start, down to the on-set recorded dialogue, which could have been sharper on the soundtrack. The actor's performance is the key thing here and mostly he is good – Jeffers maybe ducks his head in an actory way here and there, but his emotion is what counts and the eyes and voice are both important in the delivery – particularly since so little else is going on.
All told, the sonnet is delivered and it is clear in doing so. I'm not sure how much the props of lipstick and blood added to the film or to the text, but they were very much at the end and not too big a factor. Not the most memorable or engaging of the films for sure, but the dialogue is clear and Jeffers is committed.
The film doesn't do a great deal with this. If the gardens of the location have a relevance then I am afraid it was lost on me and what I was left with was a man standing in greenery delivering his lines to the camera with only a lipstick (a vanishing one at that) as a prop. As such the delivery is pretty clear – or at least it is once your ears adjust from the louder music at the start, down to the on-set recorded dialogue, which could have been sharper on the soundtrack. The actor's performance is the key thing here and mostly he is good – Jeffers maybe ducks his head in an actory way here and there, but his emotion is what counts and the eyes and voice are both important in the delivery – particularly since so little else is going on.
All told, the sonnet is delivered and it is clear in doing so. I'm not sure how much the props of lipstick and blood added to the film or to the text, but they were very much at the end and not too big a factor. Not the most memorable or engaging of the films for sure, but the dialogue is clear and Jeffers is committed.