As a piece of story telling Anthony Goulding's scripted short film BUMBLE'S BURDEN works very well because it opens with an audience " hook " of a man dragging a long plank of wood behind him . An opening hook is very important to any story because it drags the audience in . A photograph of an elderly man drops out of his pocket so he picks it up . Who is this man ? Why is he dragging the plank of wood ? Who is the elderly man ? The audience are already intrigued and we're still in the first minute of the narrative . As the story continues we're shown flashbacks and it quickly becomes clear that this is a story of revenge
Where BUMBLE'S BURDEN fails is down to director Vanessa Fielding or more specifically in her casting . None of the performances are bad as such ( Though perhaps Maria McDermottroe is a little over emphatic ) , it's just that Tommy Tiernan doesn't come across as hard bitten or violent enough to be physically able to overpower the ruthless money lender who looks far too much like Ricky Gervaise's David Brent for my liking . Undoubtedly this is a short film whose credit lies with the writer rather than the director
Where BUMBLE'S BURDEN fails is down to director Vanessa Fielding or more specifically in her casting . None of the performances are bad as such ( Though perhaps Maria McDermottroe is a little over emphatic ) , it's just that Tommy Tiernan doesn't come across as hard bitten or violent enough to be physically able to overpower the ruthless money lender who looks far too much like Ricky Gervaise's David Brent for my liking . Undoubtedly this is a short film whose credit lies with the writer rather than the director