Review: Jack Buckley
This review was written by Jack Buckley and published in the Saint Augustine Record.
Saving Sophie
Following last week’s extremely entertaining Multithon comes another opportunity to appreciate more of the wonderful, local artistry that this city has to offer. This time it’s a screening of local independent filmmaker Lorraine Portman’s Saving Sophie. The film, adapted from her own one act play originally performed at the Limelight Theatre, was written, produced and directed by Ms.Portman, and is her feature film debut. Winner of several indie awards (see the website at www.savingsophie.net) Saving Sophie is a tribute to the wealth and diversity of talent in St. Augustine.
Filmed in St. Augustine, the story opens as four sisters, who at first glance couldn’t be more different in their personalities, arrive en masse at a church to attend the wedding of their niece, Sophie. Sophie is getting married…again. Her first marriage, we learn, soured, and not unexpectedly, after she caught the groom in bed with the best man on the eve of the wedding. To make matters worse, one of them was wearing the wedding dress. Hoping for the best, but fearing the worst, the sisters, using clever, witty and at times spicy, dialogue, expound on their thoughts about love and the relative merits of marriage.
Estelle, Velda, Annette and Marion are the four sisters, whose personalities range from cynical to prudish to neurotic to restrained frustration. Like the faces of a pyramid, each has her own perspective, while sharing a common base. Initially, the wedding scenes serve to underscore their differences, but later, at the funeral of their grandmother, their commonality and similarities become quite apparent. It’s in this narrative development and character interaction that the real strength of Saving Sophie lies. Ultimately, by the film’s end, their obvious individual differences become transparent and superficial, and we see come to see them as more alike than not.
While the film may be conveniently pigeonholed as a romantic comedy chick flick, it’s much more than that oversimplification implies, and will—or certainly should—appeal to anyone with an appreciation for the essential elements that comprise a good film. Certainly, men are somewhat marginalized in this film (I have my own thoughts about the uncle in the dog suit), but no more so than most women are in just about all other films, so the turnabout is fair, and all in good fun.
Particularly notable about the film is what Ms. Portman is able to glean from her modest, $60,000, micro-budget. (by comparison, the average Hollywood film budget is $60 million). Saving Sophie was shot on film in Super 16mm format, unlike most indies, which utilize newer and less expensive digital video formats. The differences are not only obvious, but striking. Despite advances in digital video technology, few would disagree that film still provides a far superior image. The cinematography, also done by Ms. Portman, who holds a BA from Smith College and an MFA from the Florida State Film School is deft and f-stop perfect. Without the benefit of special effects, and expensive cranes and dollies, she gets maximum effectiveness from the excellent performances of her well-chosen cast, and from background action and cutaway shots that offer details which are often overlooked in low-budget productions. And In the true spirit of an independent filmmaking, just about everyone—the cast and the hard-working crew—generously contributed their time and skills to make the project work. This wasn’t about making money (though that would be nice), it was about making a film, and that spirit of cooperation and purpose shines through in Saving Sophie.
Saving Sophie will be shown on Saturday night, July 2 at 8:00 p.m. at the Flagler College Auditorium. Admission is free.