You don’t have to be Harry Potter to bring magic into your life. And yet, the H.P. initials seem to be a person’s lucky charm. This is what happens with Harriet Padgett (Harry Potter fan, by the way), the protagonist of ‘I Won’t Say I Love You‘ short film, who, although she seems to accept the ugly truth that she will never manage to rebuild a new life with anyone, succeeds in overcoming the vagaries of the contemporary world. The romantic dramedy signed by Jamie Anderson is that kind of uplifting movie you need when you lose hope in destiny, providing viewers the bittersweet, still with a silver lining, story of a divorced woman for whom the job of being a mother becomes her supreme reason to exist. Without being a project that discusses in a solemn way the status of women in contemporary society, this short film is not lacking a sensitive substrate, despite the dynamic and optimistic interface the director exploits both at the level of the script and the cinematic materialization. Obviously, many viewers may not be impressed by the degree of originality of the storyline or by the inner complexity of the characters, since the narrative thread doesn’t defy the well-known formulas, but, beyond these aspects, even the most demanding ones will see in the quality of the image and framing or in the cohesion of the technical elements a fresh and promising directorial vision.
Her son’s departure to the United States to study at the university leaves in Harriet’s soul a void that she cannot fill. However, Harriet also knows that she cannot always be a divorced single mother and that she needs a partner to live the rest of her life with. Perhaps her departure to the United States will not only give her a chance to see her son again, but also the possibility of an unexpected marriage.
Dynamic and funny, sprinkled with tender moments and small bits from the absurd comic of everyday life, Jamie Anderson’s short film is a light x-ray of the middle age crisis imminence. Despite its relatively small size, the short film is based on a rather broad narrative consistency that is sometimes supported by ellipses. In fact, the director seems to pursue a much more ambitious project than the narrative thread depicted in this short film. Thus, ‘I Won’t Say I Love You’ is rather the initial version of a future feature film that will certainly have the potential to please most fans of this genre.
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