Love Takes Time But A Great Film May Only Require Effort and Passion
Written by Jaylyn Kahle | Directed by Frank Vazquez | Review by Antonio Rozich
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]rank Vazquez's "Love Takes Time" is a short flick that shows it doesn’t take much to create a great film.
To put it bluntly —
Love takes time, but you don’t need a top-class camera, you don’t need a big budget, and you don’t need 100 minutes to tell a story and send the message across —
You just need a great idea and people who know their job.
In other words, although love does take time, effort, and passion, a great film only takes initiative and passion, with time being a relative aspect.
Even when it comes to the story of "Love Takes Time," there’s not much to talk about, and I mean this as a compliment. So how come after you watch this particular short film, you feel everything that’s needed to be said is said? To be honest, I’m not sure either, but it completely works.
Like that famous 6-word story by Hemingway —
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn,” the film tells you everything while at the same time leaving so much space for the viewer to add new blocks to the story.
A Foundation for Love
Vazquez didn’t build a house, and I’d dare to say that wasn’t his intention. He just created the space for the audience to build upon his foundation.
Although in many other cases that might create a feeling of disappointment and one may even feel cheated by the film director, in the case of "Love Takes Time," it’s quite the opposite.
The message is written and sent across —
Now it’s up to the audience to give it a read and create their thoughts about where the story should go next.
Another interesting aspect is the seasoning of supernatural Vasquez brings to his dish, to use a food analogy. You can’t but not respect how the movie manages to introduce the element of supposed “time travel” without the need to over explain the logic behind the concept.
If the story works and the flow is in balance, you don’t need to explain why it goes in one direction and not the other —
You merely accept it as a fact
It’s perfectly clear it was the director’s intention and not an oversight or lack of judgment.
Brian Larios and Lisa Christine Holmberg are amazing in their roles. The film doesn’t have some complex or dramatic acting, and again, that’s as it should be. Their characters represent everyday people with love struggles everybody faces, you and I included.
Instead of a specific element overtaking the movie like dramatic acting or unusual camera shots, everything is ordinary and smooth. Even the couple of scene cuts that might not be the perfect addition to the overall quality.
Love takes time but great films can be short
Finally, a story doesn’t need to have a beginning and an end to be great, everybody knows that. But it needs to create intrigue, and it requires an investment from the viewers even if they aren’t entirely aware of it.
Although only 7 minutes long, "Love Takes Time" will put a question mark above your head. And the question the film will plant in your mind isn’t about the film itself, but about whatever might currently be happening in your life —
From love to family to your career. Are you using the time you have correctly? Are there past actions that in hindsight you could’ve done better, and what can you learn from those moments?
If the film lasted for 30 minutes or even if it was a full 90-minute movie, it wouldn’t be a problem after you finish watching, you might also feel a slight sadness that the story didn’t develop further.
But that’s precisely the point
A good story will develop further long after the camera turns off, and the actors leave the scene. It’s just that it moves from the screen to your thoughts and "Love Takes Time" accomplishes exactly that.
Antonio Rozich is as a copywriter who enjoys dangling into fiction more than anything. From film scripts to audiobooks and flash fiction Antonio loves them all. He rarely rejects an opportunity to either write his original story or help somebody improve theirs. Besides his usual copywriting, he also helps filmmakers with their screenplays, by editing them and finding ways to improve the initial filmmaker’s idea.
