3 out of 5

Director: David Michôd

I realize not everything has to have a point.  It’s fair to just capture a slice of something, to present it as truthfully as possible, for the sake of just documenting or capturing a feeling, a moment, an emotion.  Netherland Dwarf comes really close to realizing that concept, but a beat of misdirection muddled my connection to it and made it hard to suss out what director Michôd was after.

This little kid loves rabbits.  He reads about them in a big book all day long and will tell anyone and everyone about the difference between breeds.  But he really wants a Netherland Dwarf.  His father is loving, and patient… and dealing with a separation from the boy’s mother that is creating something of a problem in his social life, since mom just called from San Diego to say she won’t be back to take care of their son for another six months or so.  These flashes of character are wonderfully brought to love by our actors and shot carefully confined in a small, couple room apartment.  Minor details of the boy trying to smooth down his hair or put on a headband, the father dismissive of some of his son’s rants but turning with true fascination when his son presents a picture of a giant rabbit…  It’s a small life, and an isolated one, worn down by (we assume) a job and just the day-to-dayness of things.

It would make both father and son’s day to finally get a Netherland Dwarf – unbridled glee for his son, a diversion for dad.

Perhaps because the other Blue Tongue shorts conditioned me so, there’s an undercurrent of something’s-wrong to the whole flick, but I also think this is portrayed by the lighting, the music, the mood, and the rather claustrophobic shooting.  The rabbit affair doesn’t quite turn out as hoped, and there is the cap to our slice-of-life, turning this one moment into the apex of something for both of these characters… but the smoothness and eloquence of the short up to this point gets bumpy when something actually has to happen on screen, and then the emotional results feel equally uncertain.  LACK of clarity can also be a point, of course, especially in something hoping to show how the real world is often gray, but even that isn’t fully felt, despite a perfectly staged final shot of our primaries bordered by narrow walls.

Netherland Dwarf is excellently executed, but I don’t think it fulfills its promise, hoping for its audience to fill in its emotional gap.