More Than a Job's Worth (2005)

A young boy on work experience at an Employment Centre has a strange and unusual gift allowing him to see deeper into the lives of the people he encounters.

Director:

Alex Kalymnios

Writer:

Alex Kalymnios

Stars:

Charlie Finn, Ryan Mootoo, Leroy Golding

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Charlie Finn	...	Will
Ryan Mootoo	...	Prakash
Leroy Golding	...	Mr. Odumenya
Edmund Dehn	...	Sokol Baci
Susanna Northern	...	Annette
Hari Kalymnios	...	Man in Café
Florian Denk	...	Man in Casino
Joe Hine	...	Supporting Artist in Casino
Giles Beer	...	Employment Officer
Clark Crocker	...	Employment Officer
Uzma Iqbal	...	Employment Officer
Triada Kalymnios	...	Employment Officer
Alistair Wood	...	Employment Officer
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vincenzo Adriani	...	Supporting Artist in Employment Centre
Jack Bowman	...	Supporting Artist in Employment Centre

Storyline

A young boy on work experience at an Employment Centre has a strange and unusual gift allowing him to see deeper into the lives of the people he encounters.

---

Genres:

Short

---

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 August 2005 (UK)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

10 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Principle Photography was shot over one weekend and involved converting a restaurant into an Employment Centre. The set was constructed Friday night and deconstructed on Sunday night in time for breakfast first thing Monday morning!

User Reviews

An interesting tale but lacking substance and meaning

Ed is on work experience at the job centre, working with a slightly older man to deal with enquires and type them into the system. His mentor thinks he can read people easily but Ed knows better – he has a gift of doing just that – seeing their past and their actions played out in front of him.

This is the simple set up for a short story that plays on this ability without really adding much in the way of substance into the mix. The flashes of people's pasts suggest that it is heading somewhere but, when we get to the final story it is too simple and unlikely to really satisfy as a conclusion. We know nothing more than we did at the start except that maybe this gift is real and, in this story, items can bring bad luck. "So what?" you may ask – and so did I.

The direction is OK and the flashback scenes are pretty stylish despite being a little obvious and recognisable but the story isn't there. The acting is OK but again with nothing to work with in terms of meaning, most of them are just there. Mootoo is natural and convincing but unfortunately is playing the arrogant sort of wide-boy tw*t that we all wish we didn't know but do.

Overall, more meaning or substance would have been a vast improvement on what we have here because, despite being quite interesting on the whole, the end result is pointless and quite unsatisfactory.