I’ve watched this masterpiece twice now and I am even more impressed on the second go. Tim Egan, sole writer/director of Lodestone Films, wrote this short in just 8 hours — from first concept to shooting script — inspired both by his own experience of being hit by a car, and by a friend’s experience with grief and depression:
“Describing a conversation he had with a friend struggling with grief, where she explained that ‘the only good moments of her day being the seconds after she woke up’, Egan obviously had some more symbolic intentions coursing under the surface of his thoughts when writing Curve. ‘Her mind was clear and at peace for a few seconds before she remembered her pain’, he recalls. ‘Then grief rushed in, a feeling not unlike vertigo. She said the earth opened up beneath her and the rest of her day was simply about holding on by sheer force of tension’.”
It’s brilliant, really, and the result is 10 minutes of what feels like a waking nightmare… in the best way possible. The meaning, the symbolism, behind it all is great enough on its own, but even without it this short is perfect in its starkness, its simplicity, the primal fear provoked by watching someone just struggle in desperation to live. It’s hard not to hold your breath for the entirety. Really, just wonderfully done. And hats off to the star, Laura Jane Turner, for conveying a whole range of emotions — hopelessness, grit, disbelief, frustration bordering on rage — without saying a word, save for a guttural cry.
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