LONG STORY SHORT
Australia, 2021, 90 minutes, Colour.
Rafe Spall, Zahra Newman, Noni Hazlehurst, Ronnie Chieng, Dana Kaplan, Josh Lawson.
Directed by Josh Lawson.
Long Story Short sounds a touch enigmatic. However, it is actually a witty summary of how this entertaining moral fable works. It is a fantasy, a what if…? kind of story.
And, it explicitly notes its debt to Groundhog Day. In fact, this is something of a Groundhog Decade. Our hero, Teddy, wakes up each morning not to find that he is reliving the same day but rather a whole year has gone by – with a complication that he does not remember anything of the year that has passed but everybody else does and takes it for granted.
A moral fable. What if one had the opportunity to look into the future, to see what happens or, as a strong caution, to see what might have happened. How would we change our lives?
There was a film of the 1950s with Debbie Reynolds, It Started with a Kiss. And that is what happens here – vistas of Sydney Harbour, the bridge, the Opera house, the atmosphere of New Year’s Eve, and Teddy rushing to see his girlfriend, kissing her at the midnight moment – only to find that it is someone else wearing a similar dress and colour! The screenplay doesn’t waste much time and soon the couple are in love, engaged. Zahra Newman plays Leanne, a genial and sympathetic woman with whom anyone could fall in love.
Teddy goes to talk to his father in his grave at Waverley Cemetery and there he meets a strange older woman, played with dignity by Noni Hazlehurst, who challenges him about his forever delaying matters, always talking about ‘later’, being preoccupied with work and putting things on the long finger. Then, before you can say long story short, Leanne and Teddy get married. Needless to say, even on the wedding night, Teddy becomes preoccupied with his work.
Then, when he wakes up the next morning, his Groundhog Decade has begun. The audience is tantalised, along with Teddy, about what has happened in the previous year, of which he knows nothing! He does get filled in by Leanne and his close friend Sam (Ronnie Chieng). What could happen over a decade in a marriage? Yes, fondness and love, busyness and work, pregnancy, the birth of a child (and Teddy having to learn whether it was a boy or a girl and dislikes the name, Tallulah), distance, Leanne upset, leaving, possibilities of other relationships, even divorce. With Teddy all the while bewildered because it is still for him, the morning after the wedding night and he still loves Leanne.
There is a mysterious tin with a rattle, a gift from the strange woman at the cemetery, to be opened only after 10 years.
The question is, will 10 years, even in long story short form, be enough for Teddy to realise what he believes in, his love for Leanne, his love for Tallulah?
The film was written and directed by Josh Lawson, national and international actor, who wrote the comedy, The Little Death, and appears here in a significant cameo role as a psychologist with Leanne – and whom Teddy definitely dislikes.
The light touch but serious implications in this moral fable.
1. The title? The story, over 10 years, abbreviated?
2. The variation on Groundhog Day, a groundhog decade?
3. The Sydney settings, the harbour, the beaches in the eastern suburbs, the views? The range of Sydney locations and atmosphere? The musical score?
4. Teddy’s story, his age, meeting his girlfriend, New Year’s Eve, kissing Leanne, the mistake? The quick move, the consequences? Friendship, in love, engagement? Teddy and his always delaying matters,… Later? Always something else to do?
5. Teddy in the cemetery, talking to his father? The stranger, Noni Hazlehurst’s presence, talking with him, challenging him and his delays? Urging him to think? Urging him to act more quickly?
6. The wedding, the celebrations, the gifts, the mysterious tin and its rattle? Not to be opened for 10 years? The range of friends? The support of Teddy?
7. The wedding night, Leanne, her charm, love for Teddy? Teddy and the phone calls, preoccupation with his work and contacts?
8. The next morning, the beginning of the groundhog experiences? A year passing overnight for 10 years? Teddy and his not knowing what had happened during the preceding year? The other characters knowing and taking it for granted, talking about what happened? Teddy and his growing bewilderment, beginning to adjust to the changes each year, intervening in his own life?
9. The range of experiences over the 10 years for Teddy and Leanne, Teddy always being busy, Leanne devoted but feeling more neglected, the discussions with Sam? Leanne pregnant one year, the child the next, Teddy not knowing its name, his reaction to Tallulah? Her growing up? Sam, the melanomas, his illness, death? Teddy and the distance from Leanne, his not believing what was happening, the gradual alienation, Leanne leaving, Teddy and his liaison with, Leanne’s reaction? Divorce papers, Leanne and her relationship with Patrick, the psychologist, Teddy’s negative interactions with him? His growing a beard? Signing the papers? The day with Tallulah?
10. Teddy and Becka moving in? Leanne visiting and talking with Becka?
11. The encounter with the strange woman, telling her own story, the lesbian story?
12. Teddy, the 10th encounter, searching for the 10, the reconciliation, love?
13. The light touch, the serious implications of living one’s life to the full, not delaying, being busy, neglect? And the fable of showing what one’s life could be, might have been?
