The Dish and the Spoon Review
By David Kempler
Falling Short of the Moon
Writer-director Alison Bagnall (co-writer of 1998's "Buffalo '66") has put together a project on a shoestring and tries insanely hard to be odd and lacking in rational human behavior. On that front she has wildly succeeded. "The Dish and the Spoon" follows a character that behaves in ways that make little sense. There is little doubt that all of us know people who act senselessly, and yes, we all know we do so ourselves at times. However, on the screen, irrationality is tough to appreciate and identify with. Other factors have to come into play to prop it all up, and those factors fall short here.
When we first meet Rose (Greta Gerwig), the odd young lady, she is crying hysterically while driving her car. She is disheveled and a bit ditzy. She has just found out that her husband was cheating and her world has collapsed upon itself. This makes perfect sense and early on it looks like Bagnall may have a winner on her hands.
Rose soon wanders into a hollowed out structure in a desolate East Coast beachfront property, where she encounters a slumbering British teen boy (Olly Alexander) who followed a girl to America and was subsequently dumped by her. This serves as their bond. This is a nice premise but Rose's behavior at the end totally undermines it all, not because the relationship doesn't seem viable, but rather because Rose does something so stupid, as to leave you shaking your head. Again, I realize people behave stupidly and often commit acts of self-defeat, but the ending feels incredibly wrong. Then again, maybe it was supposed to feel wrong. I'm not sure.
I think Bagnall is talented. Mr. Alexander has the best performance of the troupe and Gerwig already is off towards a successful career. All of the ingredients are there. Yet, in this case the parts are greater than the whole. Maybe it was the relatively paltry $25,000 budget, or the rushed writing and production. Perhaps there wasn't time to flush it all out. Whatever it was, "The Dish and the Spoon" fall short of the moon.
