Short Film Review: Such A Pretty Girl – “elegant in its execution”

It’s amazing what you can pack into six short minutes.  A family history, grief, generational paradigms, religion, and trans identity are all themes writer and director Deborah Puette deftly examines in her short film Such A Pretty Girl.

We meet Meg (Grey’s Anatomy‘s Sarah Drew) who has returned to her childhood home in order to help her aging father, Frank (Harry Groener).  He’s a bit of a curmudgeonly sort, the type who believe ‘men wear ties’ and is frustrated at needing his daughter’s assistance to dress himself.  Frank is seemingly in a hurry, wanting to get the family out the door for church, so he’s calling for Meg and his grandchild to get ready.

When Meg goes to check on Finn (Cole Moreno) she finds her 12-year-old child fashioning a dress, a favourite of her mother’s who has passed away.  Meg is visibly upset, but the root of her emotion is not immediately apparent.  It’s easy enough to feel it’s due to the grief of her losing a parent, but when we see Finn return dressed in more traditional boy’s clothing, we understand.  Finn is questioning their gender, and it seems this may not be a household that is accepting of this change.  Meg has to quickly make some decisions that prove to her child they will not be alone.

What is so striking about Such A Pretty Girl is how much is conveyed in such a short amount of time.  The clever and skilled writing gives you all the family background you need to understand that Finn’s journey may not be an easy one.  Yet the casting here is really the film’s strongest asset.  By having talented young trans actor Cole Moreno in the role of Finn, Puette creates authenticity, as well as creating an air of uncertainty about Meg’s initial emotional turmoil.  His time on screen is brief but impactful.  Sarah Drew also shines as Finn’s mother.

Such A Pretty Girl is a personal project for Puette, who was inspired by her own daughter’s transition and the refusal of her father to acknowledge that journey.  You can feel that intimate connection to the film with every line and each frame.  It’s what makes it have such emotional weight in its run time.  The film easily stands alone as a short, but is also proof of concept for a feature, one that will see the family expand and question their abilities to live as their authentic selves.  If that feature is as elegant in its execution as this short, then it is one I will look forward to viewing.

Such A Pretty Girl premieres at the 44th Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival on April 6th and screens later that month at the Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg.

Check out the official site.