"tender and nuanced a timely film that will no doubt continue to do very well"

Birthday is a short film that was conceived by filmmaker and veteran Chris King. It's racking up awards at film festivals (55 at last count) and garnering praise for its honest depiction of life after a traumatic combat injury. Director/writer King was inspired to create Birthday after becoming friends with marine, Kyle Carpenter, who was severely injured when he threw himself onto a grenade. King wanted to create a nonpartisan piece that shows the emotional truth of such circumstances.

Birthday opens with a young married couple chatting to each other over Skype. He's a marine (Chris Gouchoe) on a tour of duty and she's a schoolteacher (Mandy Moody). Both of them are counting the days until his tour's over and they see each other again. She's made a miscalculation in the dates however and she finds she has an extra day to wait. He tells her, 'It's just one day' and she replies that, 'a lot can happen in one day.' Tragically this proves so when an IED explodes whilst he is out on patrol. Both their worlds naturally fall apart at this point.

Half of Birthday is shot in 2 montage sequences bedded by a string score that some may find a little sentimental. Aside from obviously condensing a large amount of narrative the montage sequences also seem to echo the emotions of the couple. The first sequence seems to amplify their sense of being out of control and that they are just going through the motions with their moments running into each other. There's a sense of detachment from the weight of the action in this montage that creates an emotional shield, almost like shock. The message in this montage is that hope will struggle in the face of adversity. In the second montage however the message is that if you persevere and endeavour to find the essence of what you love and appreciate within your new circumstances hope can triumph over grief.

The acting in Birthday is tender and nuanced. Chris Gouchoe shows the struggle of adjusting to his new physical and psychological parameters and Mandy Moody offers a thorough emotional portrayal of the inner conflicts as his wife. She's stoic in her husband's presence and breaks down in private. It's perhaps this private grief that makes the film more authentic than most. Whilst the outer physical trauma is clearly evident, it's how this blast has reverberated through to their inner landscapes that makes this film different and touching.

Birthday is a timely film that will no doubt continue to do very well as America looks for inspiration in how to not just gain strength after challenging adversity, but unify and then triumph.