Strangers: A Happy Little Rom-Com

James Fink-Jensen’s Strangers is a 7-minute comedy of awkwardness following a blind date between two people and a hall monitor part timing as affectionate mother. There’s also a disgruntled barista (Grace Dewhurst) thrown in, because tired retail service workers are the unacknowledged backbone of comedies about goofy protagonists. 

Two university students meet on a blind date and one has to take his meds to begin to get through it. Of course, he fails to take them, fumbling in the cafe’s restroom, because public restrooms are an altogether different universe where normalcy looks like applying every ounce of your civility and physical strength to keep strangers (Ami Rose, comically unsettling) out of your stall. Nigel (Hamish Boyle) will have to rely on his wits on this adventure. 

His counterpart, Evelyn (Lisa Zhang) is relatively more relaxed, in fact, deceptively so. It allows Nigel’s blustering nervousness to take centre stage—only to be upstaged by the delightfully unhinged entrance of Felix (Steven Glyde). We do not learn until later that he is Evelyn’s flatmate, but his general presence is a lifesaving boost to the comedy. 

The sunshiny colours and lighting of the rom-com drenches it in happiness long before the ending and irrespective of the plot points. The background score adds a zing of gravity to the whole affair. Felix, of course, is king. 

There is no doubt about how such a cheerfully set up film is likely to end. The cuteness is the point, and everyone here did, in fact, understand the assignment. Strangers ends with not one left standing, transformed into friends and lovers with all sorts of anniversaries to dream of. 

Watch Strangers Short Film