Partitioned Heart (2017)

David: Hello and welcome to DoubleFeaturePreachers.com! For all our new readers, welcome, and to our returning readers, welcome back! Today we have the privilege of reviewing a short film from Matt Morris called Partitioned Heart. Here’s the IMDB page. The film features actors Travis Mitchell (Reina) and Malik Uhuru. The film features a father who discovers that his deceased son has returned and is a program on his desktop. Essentially merge something like Frequency with Her and you’ll get there.

Shannon, what were your first impressions of Partitioned Heart?

Shannon: I thought the overall concept of the short film was interesting and brings forth more than just a science fiction aspect. One that shows a grieving man trying to get past the death of his son and how he deals with it. Because it’s a short film, there’s not much more to it than that. I thought the acting of the main character was good and really brought out the intended feelings for the audience. What did you think David?

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David: I thought that Travis Mitchell was fantastic. Acting in a room where you are talking to a disembodied voice must have been difficult, and he owned the emotion of losing a child. I thought it was great to see this other side of him, especially since Reina was so humorous. I really liked his role.

The idea behind the deletion seems to me to be akin to pulling the plug on someone who is braindead, or assisted suicide for someone who is drastically ill. It’s just a devastating feeling to have to let someone go when you may not be ready. I really liked the subject matter of this film, and thought that the dialogue was tastefully written. There are hints to a larger story - a failed relationship between the father and mother, a father that is a working white collar man who may not have been around, etc. It’s very well done, and that’s what stuck out the most for me.

Other than the acting, was there anything that really stuck out for you in this short?

Shannon: Honestly, I don’t think there is much else that really stuck out in my mind on this one. Like you said, it was really just the father in a room talking to his computer that was supposedly his son speaking to him. Kind of reminds me of that movie Lucy, though Partitioned Heart isn’t awful like that movie was. Did anything else stick out to you? Like perhaps the way the “voice” was being portrayed on screen?

Also - I don’t know why I thought this because it probably wasn’t supposed to be - but I found the deletion of the program to be somewhat humorous. I guess because to me it’s such an easy thing to delete something on the computer (when it’s a file, not a program embodying a loved one) but his son had to tell him what to do. It was complicated at all. That’s just me.

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David: That made sense to me - I have a mother who is computer illiterate, and if I was a computer program, I’d have to teach her how to delete me too. I thought that part hit home for me, because can you imagine walking someone through the process of killing you? It sounds like the forum for a really terrible, drawn out horror film, and instead, we get that as a tiny little short.

Overall, I think this one is a solid little short. I’m going to give it an “A-”. What say you Shannananananananananananana?

Shannon: I’ll give it a “Liked It.” I thought the concept was cool and the short overall was good and well put together.

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