Film Review: Guilty Bunch of Flowers
New York Film Awards Best Ensemble. The cast of Guilty Bunch of Flowers
When lovers, husband, sister, wife and mother all share their guilt through the same bunch of flowers, anarchic chaos ensues.
Guilty Bunch of Flowers is a great independent comedy that in just 8 minutes presents several storylines revolving around (you guessed it) - a bunch of flowers. Cleverly written by Keith Large and Maria Smith, Guilty Bunch of Flowers leans on a simple, yet excellent story, and proves that a good story really IS the basis for any successful film.
A terrific character. Kenny Davies as Tommy
The short opens with a couple, Eddie (Joe Hughes) and Heather (Rachel Nottingham), as Eddie hands her the flowers before she leaves for a couple of days. They kiss goodbye, and moments later we learn that (spoiler alert!) Eddie isn't the most loyal husband. Back to Heather, she's not too sentimental either, and she leaves the house throws the flowers to the nearest bin. Next to that bin sits Tommy (Kenny Davies), a lazy pizza-delivery guy and football fan who always comes back home with a different excuse. This time, however, he arrives with… a bunch of flowers! Sadly, this doesn't impress his wife Alison (Eleanor Burke), who leaves the house and goes to see her mother Enid (Ingrid Evans). She offers the flowers to her mother, who then throws them out of the window, right to the hands of Rachel (Olu Adaeze), who… you get the idea.
Joe Hughes and Rachel Nottingham as the loving couple (or not)
The characters are well written and beautifully portrayed by a wonderful troupe of actors. They are almost grotesque and are a perfect fit for the plot. Kenny Davies as Tommy stood out especially, with strong reactions (the epic sneezing), clever and well-timed dialogue delivery ("Is there any tea?", right after his wife leaves), and a near-exaggerated performance that made Tommy a terrific character to watch.
One of the biggest challenges in such a short film is telling the multiple stories in a fast, yet clear way. The dialogues must be as short as possible, the conflicts between the characters should end moments after we get to know them and their story, and the decisions they make in order to move the plot further must be very quick. All came into play in this hysterical short! This is undoubtedly the result of a precise screenplay, written by skillful and imaginative writers.
Ingrid Evans as Alison's sarcastic mother
Guilty Bunch of Flowers won 4 awards at the New York Film Awards (April 2019), including Best Comedy, Best Actress in an Indie Film (Rachel Nottingham), Best Duo (Eleanor Burke & Kenny Davies) and Best Ensemble (Eleanor Burke, Olu Adaeze, Rachel Nottingham, Ingrid Evans, Joe Hughes and Kenny Davies).
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