From Omeleto.
Twin siblings botch a robbery.
MATTRESS EXPRESS is used with permission from Noah Morse. Learn more at https://instagram.com/mattressexpressthefilm.
Ben and Rosie are twins fighting to pull their childhood home out of foreclosure. In a final desperate move, they decide to team up with their unsavory Uncle Lloyd to pull off a robbery at a local mattress store, manned by an eager employee named Corbin.
But pulling off a crime as a family affair is no easy task, and when the twins botch the job, the night spirals out of control in a pile-up of mishaps, misunderstandings and buried hurts and resentments.
Directed by Noah Morse from a script co-written by Nir Liebenthal and Dylan Trupiano, this quirky short crime-drama combines moments of sinister criminality, offbeat humor and the shaggy eccentricities of humankind in its snapshot of two siblings pushed to the edge. Well-written and cleverly orchestrated, the storytelling conjures the spirit of the Coen brothers, fans of whom should find plenty to enjoy here in Ben and Rosie’s misadventures.
After laying out the various pieces on the narrative chessboard — the foreclosure, the twins’ differing temperaments, the mattress store employee’s eagerness to prove himself — the story’s momentum is set off as Ben and Rosie embark on their endeavor. But the twins are comically inept at the robbery — it’s not so easy to steal mattresses — and they’re often at odds, as the briskly paced storytelling finds humor in the intersection of high-stakes crime and human ineptitude.
But after the job is botched, the story takes a darker turn, as guilt, conscience and fear of getting caught weigh on Ben and Rosie. Those heavy feelings, combined with their uncle’s snap but incorrect read of a situation, lead to a cataclysmic misunderstanding that only embroils them deeper into the quagmire. But it also gives Ben and Rosie the chance to hash out the loss and grief that gave rise to the situation. Actors Isabella Tagliati and Nir Liebenthal handle the comic aspects of the story well, but they’re especially compelling when they reveal themselves as two broken souls who need their connection more than ever, especially as they’re forced to face the aftermath of their night gone terribly wrong.
By the end of MATTRESS EXPRESS, Ben and Rosie have reconnected, and while we don’t know their ultimate fate, the conclusion nevertheless achieves a sense of peace. Formerly fractious, stressed and scrambling, the twins are finally on the same page — a sad and troubled page, to be sure. But at least they’re together, and they have one another to face whatever fate awaits them.
