Echo (2013) watch online HD

Echo opens with a young girl on the street getting a phone call. We only hear her side of it but it is clear that something serious has happened to her father and he has been taken to hospital. As she cries and is overwhelmed, people come to comfort and help her out.

This short film appears not to have too much going on in it but this is primarily because it doesn't really give us a start/middle/end narrative and in particular the ending is very open indeed, leaving it to the viewer to decide what they think for themselves. It is a risky approach because you need the viewer to work with the film, but in this case it does come off. The character of Caroline appears different at several points of the film and all that has happened is that the viewer's perspective of her has shifted, she has not changed herself. These perspective changes are what drives the film forward in place of narrative developments and they mostly work while also leaving things open.

The main reason this approach works is that Carse is brilliant in the lead role. She is very convincing in her character, no matter what is happening and even when she appears to be wholly one thing or one way, she has enough in there so that it is clear nothing is as simple as it appears. Considering she is on screen the whole time and that the audience's view on her was so key, it was important that she deliver and indeed she did. Arnold's direction is even-handed, with plenty of longer shots which highlight how good a job Carse is doing.

Echo is not really about a traditional story so much as it is about the viewer's understanding of Caroline, and it is open at the end, so I can see why some may have an issue with it, however it is cleverly done in the construction and the potential in the writing is perfectly realized by a very strong central performance from Carse.

Seventeen year old schoolgirl Caroline receives a phone call that her father has been injured in a motorcycle accident , Seeing her distraught a couple of passer-bys intervene and give her the money for a taxi to hospital . As it transpires Caroline doesn't visit the hospital simply because there has been no accident

We've all heard of The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf ( Though possibly Bob hasn't ? ) and here we have an identical premise . When I say identical I mean that literally , it's not a reworking of the original story nor inspired by the original story but effectively the exact same story where the protagonist is now a teenage girl suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder . It's only 18 minutes long which means you're left with the feeling that the story has played its hand far too soon and you're able to second guess what the pay off is going to be before it happens on screen so all the faults of a familiar story are totally compounded by the short running time . I agree it's well acted , well framed and shot but because it's a fable that we all remember from childhood it feels rather empty and oh so predictable . In fact the only surprise is no one gets eaten by a wolf but when you see a young boy cycling down a drive way in slow motion and ominous music on the soundtrack you don't use 50/50 ask the audience or phone a friend to ask what might happen next . Indeed ECHO seems a very appropriate title since we've all heard it before

A story that has been heard before in so many variations that this is certainly an Echo of nothing original. Directed by Lewis Arnold and written James Jose Walker this is a re-telling of the 'Boy who cried wolf' and not a good re-telling at that. Arnold directs by the numbers and relies heavily on his cinematographer and the performance of Lauren Carse, who is a very good actress and needs little direction in this done before tale. The cinematography is really nice when it involves the improvised outdoor scenes involving Carse and Carse & Oliver Woollford, who plays the younger brother. Caroline's family scenes are wasted opportunities by Arnold and Walker to engage the audience by giving more depth to her and the film's lack of story. It is also hard to ignore that Carse does not come across as a 17 year old school girl and is apparent in her performance at times. This is blatantly obvious when Carse and Woollford are on screen and he effortlessly steals the scenes. It is obvious that the casting of this piece is questionable including the very wooden and unconvincing Carolina Giammetta, who plays the mother.