“Kill Peter Wright if you have to but don’t kill yourself”
This was my favorite line in TimH and Sammy Paul’s new short film “The Fleeting Little Life of Peter Wright”. It is the launching point for a monologue that gives hope to those who might feel as though they have hit a dead end.
This one line, however, also got me thinking about the people that did go through with it. The people that have taken their lives because they saw no other way out. Maybe because they had depression or were suffering from some permanent trauma.
I go to MIT and we have had two student suicides in the last week. Eight suicides in the last year. Right now, suicide is a very difficult subject for me to digest because I can’t think about it in the abstract; the effects of it are very much present in my life right now. Maybe it is because right now I (and everyone else in the MIT community) am searching for answers that no one has, but I’m having trouble digesting the light comedy of this film while I am surrounded by the weight of two suicides. On top of that, one of the students hung himself in the student center. His body was found by another student. Because of this, finding humor in the scene where Jenny finds him about to hang himself in the hallway made me feel uncomfortable.
I don’t want this to sound like a criticism because I think the film was done very well and actually makes very valid points. And I definitely don’t think anything should have been changed to accommodate what I said above. And on top of that I think the film was not meant to explore death as much as it was meant to explore life. My comments are rather irreverent to the film but I just needed to write them down because this has been a very difficult week and writing is one of my main coping mechanisms…
My own personal discomfort aside, I think this was a fantastic film and I am very glad it was made. In order for suicide to become less of a taboo topic, people need to start conversations about it and this film does just that.
There were some brilliant shots that I particularly liked as well. First, I loved how the monologue ended with Peter removing the rope from his neck. Second, I really liked the framing of Peter and Jenny sitting on the edge of the building where we can see their backs but most of the frame is taken up by the sky. Maybe I’m reading too much into it but the metaphor of having the entire world in front of him came through very clearly. Also, it was a little unconventional which I felt lent itself nicely to a film about an unconventional topic. Finally, the last shot of the film, where Peter walks onto the train with his luggage I though was executed really well. Maybe I’m just extremely unobservant but I did not realize the train was there until he stepped onto it. I was watching his feet walk purposefully towards the edge of the platform and when he stepped onto the train I breathed a sigh of relief.
I have not watched the google hangout yet so perhaps this has been confirmed/ denied, but I interpreted it as though Jenny was Peter’s conscience. Going with this interpretation, I really liked how blunt she was and how she almost seemed to switch sides between suicide being the answer and it being a negative thing. I felt like this made it so much more real and much less like we, as the audience, were being lectured to. It was really effective in creating a lot of questions and opening up many opportunities for discussion.
This “review” (more like post film stream of consciousness/ though vomit) was a little longer than I expected it to be and it is 3 in the morning so I am just going to end by saying that I definitely recommend watching this film. The acting was incredible, the cinematography was on point, and I don’t think the writing could have been better.
I think I will come back and revisit this film in a few months when I’m not in an emotionally compromised state.
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