Deeply dark, but edged with comedy. Difficult to watch but so rewarding at the same time. Short Term 12 not only shows the events inside a group foster home, but really captures what it might feel like to be there. Watching Destin Daniel Cretton’s film brings out the same emotions, if only for a shorter period of time, as you would experience if you were in the position of the workers in the home. Focusing on Grace (Brie Larson) who is head of the line staff in the home, and her troubles both inside and outside of it, the film at once grabs you and does not let go until the end of this haunting but humorous journey of healing, learning and discovery.
The film, of course, is written with
personal experience seeping through every scene. Cretton spent two years in the
staff of such a home, and when his short film entailing his encounters there
went down so well at Sundance, the logical step was to allow it to blossom into
a feature length script.
Cretton is a very talented writer. At the
instant it feels like an opportunity might have been overlooked, he brings out something
even better, something not only logical but inevitable, keeping us on our toes
the whole time. If it ever feels predictable, it doesn’t stay this way for
long, with the direction of the scene being thrust from left to right, from comedy
to catastrophe. At times is it a true example of textbook storytelling, but at
no point does it tire or feel previously well trodden. On the contrary it is
fresh and explorative in a way that I have not seen before. Opening on a new
member of staff’s first day, we are immediately invited into the home and the
story, and before we know it we care about all of the children and our co-workers.
Larson, in a role that has allowed her to
show her full capabilities and that will no doubt make her a star, is excellent
as Grace who, on the arrival of a new girl, Jayden, realises that maybe it is
herself that is the most troubled child in the home after all. This simply
allows for some beautiful scenes between Grace and her loved-up boyfriend and
co-worker Mason (played by the equally brilliant John Gallagher Jr.) in a story
that otherwise may have lost direction getting outside of the foster home had
it been handled by somebody else. Also worth note are Kaitlin Dever (Jayden)
and Keith Standfield as Marcus, the two teens we learn the most about.
The film is shot with a hand held style and
mostly with close ups, which helps us engage and feel part of the anecdotes,
tragedies and celebrations straight away, and with a delicate score that can
lift the mood and bring it right back down in an instant, the elements of the
film work well together and are confidently handled to create a well crafted drama,
whose realness, openness and immediacy you will fall in love with at once. This
is a film whose success will hopefully not end at South By South West where it
won a number of prizes, but should see a lot more buzz around it as we enter
the awards season.
