Jay Silverman’s Camera, set in a quaint fishing village in Britain, is a film with an enormous emotional heft. Agreed, it could have been a much better work had it prodded more into the hearts of its characters.
Director Jay Silverman prefers it lowkey and dispassionate. Emotions flow like a tranquil river into the veins of this mollifying drama about parental identity and male bonding across generations.
As I watched 9-year-old Oscar (Miguel Gabriel, displaying an Oscar-worthy sensitivity) bond with the extraordinary American actor, 82-year-old Beau Bridges I was reminded of Ratan Tata and Shantanu Naidu.
Unalloyed friendships across several generations are possible. The warm man-to-man vibes between the kid and the octogenarian is peerless. While Bridges is no stranger to building, well, bridges between odd couples, the little boy shows an exemplary understanding of human complexities.
The film beautifully captures human feelings and foibles without fumbling in processing complex human emotions. The camera is about buddy-bonding. But it is also a gentle moody mother-son story about a single mother (Jessica Parker Kennedy) trying to understand her mute son’s feelings. And before forget, Camera is also about a village which is being overtaken by industrialization.
Not for a moment does the narrative feel over-burdened with dramatic conflicts. All the dramatic tension which are raised in the plot finally seems like a part of the same existential design. The camera captures lives in transition in all their confusion . Director Jay Silverman sorts knows the human heart. The rest just follows.