There are usually two questions to answer after watching a short film.
The first: Did it work on its own? That is, was it a completely self-contained story, and didn’t necessarily need to be fleshed out any further? And the second would be: Would you want to see it fleshed out? Did it leave you wanting more?
For “The Sea is All I Know,” from writer/director Jordan Bayne, the answer to both questions is a resounding yes. The film, which stars Oscar winner Melissa Leo (“The Fighter”), Peter Gerety (whose recent work includes “Prime Suspect” and “Blue Bloods”), and Kelly Hutchinson (whose credits include a guest spot on “Law & Order”), clocks in at 28 minutes, but it shows that a powerful, well executed story isn’t bound by the measurement of time.
Leo and Gerety are Sara and Sonny, an estranged couple with a lot of miles between them and a volatile history. Their daughter Angelina (Hutchinson) is dying, and returns home with Sara to live out her final days. Watching this illness torture their daughter may seem like too much to handle in itself, but it is Angelina’s request—that her parents help her end her life—that truly frays their emotional edges.
In lesser hands, the set-up may play out as trite, or like an emotional game of gotcha. But Bayne has written an understated script and allows her cast to breathe inside of the story. Leo’s Sara draws you in as a mother who doesn’t look like she has slept in months, and is about to completely break down at any moment. Not only is she dealing with the impending death of her daughter, but she has to allow Sonny back into her home because her child needs her father—not because she wants Sonny back in her life.
Gerety’s weather-beaten face seems perfect for the part; Sonny carries himself like a man whose carefree lifestyle not only has caught up with him, but sleeps next to him at night, and rides shotgun with him wherever he goes. As a macho fisherman, it is his helplessness that makes him the most human.
Hutchinson has minimal dialog, but conveys serenity as a young woman who has accepted her fate. While she knows that her parents are past the point of reconciliation, her request has at least gotten them to be in the same room together.
If “The Sea” is ever made into a feature, there of course would be backstory—what is Angelina’s illness, what her life was like before, how Sara and Sonny became the way they are, etc.—but as a short, the viewer has to trust Bayne and her cast, that this half hour slice of life should interrupt the usual bombast that we watch on a daily basis.
Bayne started her career as an actress, and her connection to the craft really does make this an actor’s piece. It of course doesn’t hurt that she has Leo, who most recently won an Academy Award for her role in “The Fighter,” as the lynchpin of this movie. She exudes grace and toughness at the same time, and her rage at Sonny seethes just below the surface (occasionally exploding through the surface), while trying to do right by her daughter. Gerety plays Sonny like a boxer—constantly bobbing and weaving and trying to avoid the emotional landmines that make up his marriage.
With cinematography by Eun-ah Lee, Bayne has gotten the most from a tight shooting schedule and a limited budget. “The Sea is All I Know” is now officially in consideration for an Academy Award, and Bayne is slated to take the short to the Tacoma Film Festival (currently going on until October 13), Hamptons International Film Festival and Carmel Art & Film Festival, all this month.
If you are a festival goer, or get the chance to see “The Sea” as Bayne and the production team seek distribution, it would be well worth your while. The word “powerful” may get thrown around like so much confetti at the hands of movie marketers, but its use here to describe this short isn’t hyperbole.
