Hard Love
Starring: Rob Benson, Laura Moore, Krish Kumar
Directed By: Barry Wilkinson
Grade: C+

Hard Love is a short film that ventures in to the relationship between murder and power and love and fear. The movie begins with Sarah greeting her boyfriend, Kevin, when he comes home from work only to turn the tables seconds later when she attacks him. Kevin wakes up tied up, having no clue what’s going on. He sees another dead body being dragged through the room when his supposed girlfriend claims “That will be you in a few days”. It turns out she secretly has a murderous husband, Jack, who is trusting her to do his dirty work for the first time. She is determined not to let him down and doesn’t know how to say no to him, but gleefully enjoys the work during her interrogation. Before too long she realizes that she needs more than intimidating language or even torture to do what is expected of her. Sarah has been around death, but she begins doubting whether she can end someone’s life herself. If she can’t she might be her “loving” husband’s next victim.

For a film that mostly takes place in a kidnap and torture situation it really isn’t very gory or disturbing. There’s a decent amount of violence, but most of it doesn’t stand out too much. The one part that really caught my eye was the first real physical harm Sarah brings to Kevin via the straightener. The fact that she holds this, a cosmetic tool just about solely used by women, in her moment of fierceness and power without any doubts or weaknesses makes the choice weapon very notable. Later on Sarah’s weaknesses and fears towards both her husband and becoming a killer begin overwhelming her. In this moment she is full of power and energy and embracing all that she is, a women not to be messed with. In some respects she is being controlled by her husband rather than being able to be strong on her own, but in this moment we don’t really know this and she just seems authentically caught up in the opportunity to deceive and overpower the man before her. This is also one of the rare moments where we actually get to see the violence in action as well as the aftermath of it. Sarah straightens Kevin’s ear, scolding his skin. This slightly reminded me of the scene in Sleepaway Camp with the death by curling iron, but with the ear being the far more preferable body part than the unimaginable fate dealt out in Sleepaway Camp.

The story is fairly simple, making the 33 minute running time understandable, but in some ways things feel a little rushed. Sarah is so adamant about how she has reached this new level of love by her husband sharing his dark secret life of killing with her. This viewpoint as a romantic notion is sick indeed, but offers the opportunity for some thrilling character exploration. Yet because of time restraints it seemed like all it took was from convincing from the man she was supposed to kill (who obviously would be saying anything possible to save his life). Then she was suddenly a wreck and sure that she didn’t want to kill and that she and her husband didn’t really love each other, she just feared him. She was basically just taking the words that Kevin had told her in her big revelation, which made it feel forced. Plus at the beginning there wasn’t any hesitancy at all, she seemed completely sure of herself and seemed to take real pleasure in harming Kevin. If she was really doing this out of fear it doesn’t seem like there would be so much joy brought to her by harming an innocent person. Some of the character’s actions don’t match up with what they say and the film could have used a longer running time to really explore these characters and particularly Sarah’s transitions. The film still has a pretty good presence and a moody atmosphere that could make an intriguing feature with some work.