Young Caden (Andrew J McGuinness) finds himself sitting on the bench of
a bus station, all devastated and waiting for a bus to anywhere but here -
and why wouldn't he be devastated, he has just caught his girlfriend
(Monia Ayachi) cheating on him with another woman. In other words, he's
someone who couldn't care about that old lady, Ethel (Starr Gilliard),
sitting down next to him, starting a conversation about, of all things,
apples. He tries to shut her up without being rude, but she, a widow quite
obviously in need of someone to talk to, isn't one easily to be shaken ...
and once Caden starts listening to Ethel, he realizes she has quite a few
things to say that might lead him in the right direction in his life that
he has just a moment ago regarded as totally wrecked ... Now I
don't know if above synopsis makes The Purpose of Apples sound like
a saccharine sweet cliché of a romantic drama with little roots in real
life but plenty of tearjerking moments ... but this short is actually very
good, it's subtly directed and acted, stays away from kitsch usually
identified with films like this, it's very well-structured, and it's
actually pretty grounded by ... apples!
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