Mother’s Red Dress
We always get the sense that there’s a lot about Paul’s life we don’t know, and that his relationship with his parents is complicated, to say the least. But we’re never really able to put our finger on it until the exact moment that writer-director Edgar Michael Bravo wants us to know, and even then, there are still some questions we need answered.
Bravo’s film leads us in one direction, as we follow Paul (Timothy Driscoll) as he goes out-of-town to start his life anew after his mother (Alisha Seaton) shoots her boyfriend right in front of him, but takes a dark u-turn near the end into something else entirely. And yet, the film’s focus and its theme remains crystal-clear: this is the story of a son whose mother has a handle on his life that goes deeper than just the love a mother has for a son. In the end, Paul can’t get away from his mother, or what she’s done, even when he meets Ashley (Alexandra Swarens) and Brenda (Amanda Reed), both of whom work at a coffee shop in his new town, and fill his need for connections outside of his family, although Brenda is jealous that Paul’s affections lean more towards Ashley than her.
I think the thing that I admire most about “Mother’s Red Dress” isn’t the writing or directing (although they are superb), or the performances (although they do draw you in), but the fact that Bravo had an idea, and he executed it in a way that I don’t really feel like I’ve seen before. I’ll be the first to admit that films like “Memento” and “Inception” came to mind at different times during the film, but “Mother’s Red Dress” follows its own path to a conclusion that is, honestly, the only one that really makes sense for the story. In other words, like those Christopher Nolan thrillers, “Mother’s Red Dress” may contain elements and ideas that we’ve seen before, but in the end, it really is a one-of-a-kind thriller.
For more on the film, check out the official website at www.mothersreddress.com.
