I Want to Do It [Roshan Hill, Australia, 2019]

A short film from director Roshan Hill, I Want to Do It tells the story of a couple and the woman who is acting as the surrogate for their baby. It’s an interesting tale of sacrifice and the things we do for other people with some strong performances from the cast. Unfortunately, this story is often undermined by various technical faults with the filmmaking.

The first problem likely to be noticed by an audience member is the audio mixing. Dialogue-only scenes are fine, but in any scene where there is music or other sound effects, the dialogue is often drowned out, the result being that it can be quite hard to follow what is going on in the film’s plot. Speaking of dialogue, some of the dialogue has been ADR’d which is of course not a problem in and of itself but the lip synch doesn’t always match up, which can again distract from the film’s story.

In addition, some of the editing choices are strange, often cutting too fast so that the audience cannot take in scenes. There are even a few cuts where characters seem to suddenly and jarringly jolt across the room between shots.

All of this is distracting, but I Want to Do It does succeed where it counts. Particularly, the film’s final shot does a great job of making the human cost of the tragedy clear. Hill had a story she wanted to tell here and with a little refinement it could be conveyed to an audience.

'I Want to Do It' was a film in consideration for SHort Focus Film Festival 2019.