DECRESCENDO BY OLIVIA CHIESI
Directed by Olivia Chiesi / Reviewed by Riya Saha
“The Italian musical command decrescendo (abbreviated decresc.) is an indication to gradually decrease the volume of the music.”
Just an 11 minutes movie, it knows how a mystery should work. I wished the movie could be 1 hour 30 minutes long feature film with all the past and present story of young Benjamin. Every scene of Decrescendo is clear in my eyes, and yes such a solid storyline. After all, it is a movie directed by Olivia Chiesi where Benjamin is an avid music lover, who is seen to be driving while listening to music. It is here too you will fall in love with the beautiful picturesque. Finally, he reaches his destination a huge mansion, where his sister greets him. 
He enters the house speaking with his sibling about the last time he met her, and his sister told him that the last time was two years ago on her birthday.
The next scene is Benjamin greeting his mother in the dining table and here he meets his father. Speaking one or two words, suddenly Benjamin starts to encounter hearing issues and becomes very conscious. Every small sound becomes very loud him, the sipping of wine, her sister puts a grape on her mouth and bites it, Benjamin could hear that sound too. His sister taps her finger on the table, and Benjamin could feel the loud sound.
In the present time, with the audience giving preference to script, it has become very competitive to create mystery movies because audiences have watched too many and, everyone around can easily predict the next twist. This is why we need directors who refuse to be obvious. And I must say Decrescendo is one such movie. Once again I say, this movie has a great storyline, and it must have a sequel, it must reveal the secret of the statue which Benjamin hugs and gives a kiss.
The movies give rise to several questions, why Benjamin does not stay with his parents? Again, who is the beautiful girl statue? Who pulls Benjamin inside the swimming pool? Will Benjamin recover? Was Benjamin under any kind of spell?
Queries, doubts, tension is what a real suspense movie means. This movie was satisfying and pulls off its tricks in plain sight. 
The sound creates a compelling environment from the moment Benjamin experiences the disorder, the sound of someone laughing, the falling of water, the sound where someone calls Benjamin by his name, the tinkling of the piano frequently washes over the noiseless actions of this film but seems also to dictate its momentum.
The film’s leading man Benjamin (Drew Schrum) is a great performer and did justice to his character. But for the scriptwriter and the director, this is a damnably hard film to write about without giving some games away. Drew Schrum’s character in the movie is phenomenal. He is a natural everywhere from the very first shot, the way he was driving, the way he was humming the song, the way he greeted his sister, and the climax, from where he started experiencing the hearing disorder. 
His body language in this film was constant and you can feel his pain.
The credit of the movie goes to Olivia Chiesi that she packages this sinister thriller with such piling twists. Hoping for its sequel!
