ABIGAIL is one of those short films that markets itself as being entirely naturalistic . This is true and you can see the thinking behind that as being a sort of American equivalent as the British social realist drama . Not a lot happens but considering there's so little dialogue what the film does very well is explaining the vain hopes of the eponymous ( Anti ) heroine and the background behind her very unhappy and probably ultimately hopeless life . There's no melodrama involved, just a simple telling of a slice of life in Middle America where the poor working class are destined to remain that way for the rest of their lives
Paradoxically while this may be seen as the film's great strength it also ends up becoming the film's same weakness . The languid pace . the slightly depressing tone and the minimalist narrative that like most realist cinema has an unresolved plot and camera-work might be a turn off for some people and the film lacks a quirky nature indicative of the best short films and ends up being a bit too much like real life , a real world that most of us movie fans are happy to escape from