COOPED UP

AUSTRALIA, 2016, 85 minutes, Colour.
Charles Cottier, Kathryn Beck.
Directed by Kane Guglielmi.

Making it surprisingly more relevant, Cooped Up screened on Foxtel at the beginning of the spread of the Coronavirus 2020. News items abounded on people having to go into 14 days quarantine.

The action of this short film is confined to the interiors of the house where the central character, Jake, his being quarantined after his sitting next to a man on a plane who contracted a mysterious virus. Jake has been violent at the hospital and gone to a house which belonged to his dead father and which he has inherited.

He is visited by a doctor who is expert and who controls his quarantine for the 21 days, his being initially hostile to her, her demands, taking his temperature, keeping at a distance. She continues to visit, monitors his changing, her visiting after a broken date. She is played by Kathryn Beck.

The success of the comedy depends on audience response to Charles Cotlier and his acting style, his expressions of humour, his being at times ingratiating, at other times irritating.

The film depends on the interactions especially on the dialogue, lots of offhand and jokes, exasperated swearing…

And, as might be expected, although the road is rocky, the film ends romantically.

1. An Australian comedy? Situation? Characters? Interactions? Dialogue?

2. The action confined to the home, interiors? Audiences experiencing the quarantining? The title?

3. Jake’s story? Charles Cottler and his screen presence, comic style? The blend of the ingratiating and the irritating? His background, wrestling, enduring the pain, his tours and fights, the plan to go to the US, motivation, acceptance and their making the toy of him? The background story, his difficult father and his violence, disapproval of his career? His mother, her death? His father’s death? Going to the family home for the quarantining, inheriting it? Discovering the DVD of Japanese wrestling – and outreach from his father?

4. The virus situation, sitting next to the passenger, the secrecy but the news that the passenger had died? Jake taken to the hospital, his violent assault of the staff, going to the home, settling in?

5. Emily, her specialisation, expertise, sent by the hospital, explaining the situation to Jake, the quarantine, the virus, 21 days?

6. Jake, his reaction to Emily, dislike, smart retorts, her taking his temperature, standing at a distance? The successive visits? Jake and his having to find something to do, the Shakespeare, his later recitation of the scene from As You like It? The issue of the phone, contacting his friend? The days passing, indications on the screen?

7. The mouse, his wanting to kill it, Emily’s reaction? The cheese, the traps? His not killing it? And the irony of the infection that he had, coming from the mouse?

8. Emily, breaking down the barriers between them, the date, tipsy, the dress, his reaction? Her gradually revealing something of her story, her academic parents, her mother’s absences, her studies, international work?

9. The drama of his dictating his will on the phone, changing, gifts to charity?

10. His performance of Shakespeare, her surprise? The last day, the tests, the phone calls?

11. The journalist at the door and the interrogation, the need for secrecy, Jake telling him off? The man coming to install the Internet? The plumber from across the street, clearing the toilet of all the tablets? His wanting to blackmail the two, suspected drug dealers? Their playing along with him, the threats?

12. The irony of the drugs and painkillers, lowering his temperature?

13. Jake, the different virus? Emily, her gift toy? Jake preparing to go to the US, his father’s clothes, meeting Emily, proposing? The happy ending?