MrsBrumettsGarden

Mrs. Brumett’s Garden (2008)

You know I really look forward to any packages I get from director Patrick Rea and Senoreality pictures. Rea’s stuff has consistently been some of the best, if not the best, independent short movies that I’ve ever watched. Mrs. Brumett’s Garden is the latest in that long line of great short films. We are introduced to an elderly woman and her husband who is her caregiver. The old woman spends most of her day staring at the garden talking to the fairies. We are lead to believe that she is suffering from dementia and there are plans in the works to have her moved to a home. Her friends in the garden make her an offer and after thinking about it she accepts. But her husband is having no more talk of fairies and is ready for her to go to the home, which makes the old woman’s friends not so happy.

Again this is a short movie, maybe 20 minutes long, and is a blast. The story is very tight and manages to pack a lot in. Plus I just really enjoyed where the story was going and how well developed the characters were for a short film. The dynamic between the old man and his wife is really interesting, and there is something sort of violent hinted at under the surface. In the end this really reminds me of an episode of Amazing stories and is more of a fantasy than it is a horror story. The acting is solid, especially for the actor that plays the elderly man (sorry couldn’t remember his name). He is a very interesting actor and puts quite a bit of character into the part.

As always this is a beautifully shot and looks like a million bucks. The scenes with the flowers in the garden are amazing looking. Again it just goes to show that Patrick Rea really knows what he is doing with a camera, and as I always say when writing a review for one of his movies, when will someone give him enough funding to make another feature? The guy has the directing chops to really do something special and it makes my head explode when I’m forced to watch some of the low budget crap movies that I do for the site. Hell imagine what he could do with ½ the budget of one of those Sci-fi channel originals?

This is another really neat short film from a great independent director. Check out there website at http://www.senoreality.com/ for information on where you can check out this and his other short films.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer