Nicholas (Patrick Shane) is followed around by a pair of eccentrically
dressed strangers (Laura Peterson, Jared Rinaldi), who finally corner him
in his own home and confront him with what has been tormenting himm all
along, he has killed a child in a car accident. Of course, there was no
intent behind this, as Nicholas doesn't tire assuring them, but the
strangers are relentless in their reproach, so much so that eventually it
becomes too much to handle for Nicholas ... Sure enough, The
Smiling Strangers is a well-acted film - it's just too bad then that
the script isn't making more out of its premise: Now usually, I'm not one
who needs to have everything explained away, quite the contrary, but in
this short, everything is simmered down to a single scene that lacks any
real narrative arc, instead asks its audience to accept everything as-is,
without setting up the story or characters, which in turn makes it
incredibly hard to get emotionally involved in the film. And that is a
pity, as I mentioned, the acting's pretty good in this one, and the
concept is interesting even, but too much is just left unexplored.
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