From Omeleto.
A group reads a friend’s last note.
THE NOTE is used with permission from Brett Cramer. Learn more at https://brettcramer.com.
John has died tragically, having taken matters into his own hands, and his friends and family have gathered after his funeral in his mother’s home for the wake. Three of his friends — Hannah, Ethan and Ben — siphon themselves away from the rest of the party. They have John’s last letter to them and gather to read it.
The letter sheds light on John’s state of mind — and then blames his lifelong friends’ insensitivity on why he did what he did. As they grapple with John’s last words, they try to gauge how true John’s last letter is, as well as their own feelings about the loss.
Directed and written by Brett Cramer, this short drama has both a streak of sharp mordant comedy and a forensic eye for the contradictions of human nature, and both strands reinforce one another as Ben, Ethan and Hannah try to come to grips with what John has done. Driven by razor-sharp, rat-a-tat dialogue, the conversation paints a complex, ambiguous picture of a long-time friendship that may have been anything but.
Captured in fluid yet economical camerawork and visuals, the discussion is dominated by Ethan, who has an abrasive intensity in both manner and expression. Played with an unrelenting intensity by actor Kai Morfin, Ethan talks a mile a minute with an often lacerating wit, and what he says is frequently uncensored and provocative to the point of offensiveness, and often domineers over Hannah and Ben, played by actors Meg Cashel and Takaya Lloyd, respectively.
As Ethan, Ben and Hannah bicker and argue, what emerges is a dynamic built on communication patterns of teasing and seemingly jocular insults with the occasional bout of emotional avoidance. Friends since a young age, they made fun of each other as teenagers. But as they got older, the dynamic of their friendship didn’t mature. Instead, it stayed at the same abrasive adolescent tenor, making it hard for them to take John’s problems seriously and compounding their gravity. When those problems hit their crisis point, the group purports to be shocked. But as they talk over John’s letter to them, they question that notion. At least, Ben and Hannah question themselves; Ethan remains unrepentant, at least on the surface.
THE NOTE ends just as Ethan is forced into speaking about John at the gathering, and his final scenes indicate there’s more under the bluster he presented to Ben and Hannah. It ends the film on a complicated, thought-provoking note, asking difficult and complex questions about a serious mental health issue. Instead of asking about only the crisis that precipitates it, it examines what conditions, patterns and persistent behaviors that create the crisis. More broadly speaking, it poses questions about our moral responsibility to one another, including the impact of our words and actions on others and the harm that certain communication and relating styles can engender. The ending image leaves us and Ethan in a reflective, uneasy place, uncertain of easy answers and very uncomfortable.
