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Matinee: 'Dotty'
8 May 2021
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 395th in our series of Saturday matinees today: Dotty.
Written by Mick Andrews who also directed it with Brett O'Gorman, this 10-minute piece from 2012 is a modern masterpiece of the short film genre. And since it's Mother's Day Eve, we thought the subject not entirely inappropriate.
In fact, just the opposite.
Boomers inhabit a unique place in human history. The generation after us is perfectly comfortable with technology, as we call it. And they never have to explain anything to (most of) us either.
But we had to hold the hands of the generation before us, explaining everything from the Internet to which key to press to do anything and why the printer isn't working. No other generation will ever experience that.
The young woman is a bit dismissive at first. Not like staff at all.
Of course, now that that generation is in its 90s, we have to wonder what we were thinking by helping them get online with email and banking and streaming and all the rest of it.
Dotty, played by Joyce Irving, is the elderly woman in this piece who simply wants to send a text message to her daughter Carol. But she's forgotten how. So she asks a young woman played by Alison Bruce who brings her tea in her assisted living facility for help.
The young woman is a bit dismissive at first. Not like staff at all.
And that's a clue. You may also notice she isn't wearing a badge. And one other clue is that her character's name is Carol, the same name as Dotty's daughter.
Ah, there you go. One and the same. Although Dotty doesn't recognize her.
Carol shows uncommon (by our standard) patience. She undergoes a key-by-key trial. And, of course, the first time through, things don't quite happen as they should. But Carol keeps at it with a sigh and a smile. And Dotty plods on, finally getting her message on the screen.
Carol's patience was tested but your patience won't be. The piece is expertly edited to make the point and move on. No sense torturing you.
The ending, once you know the identity of the young woman, is just perfect.
Dotty, after all, is concerned that her daughter know she loves her. Which is touching enough in our book. But Carol, sitting right next to her, has demonstrated her love for her mother key by key for what must have been a grueling half hour (condensed to 10 minutes for you).
May all the Dotties in the world -- including our own -- receive that message.