Ella (Laura Martinet) remembers a time when she fell in love with Tom (Hugo Plassard), the man she believed she would spend the rest of her life with. However, Tom is now in prison, and Ella is left to her own devices–left to sit and think about what the future holds for her. Little Wing is Ella’s story as she reminisces of the past and thinks to the future–trying to come to terms with her present.
Little Wing is a story about love and loss, it’s something that will easily resonate with viewers, there’s no doubt about that. However, the film approaches things like grief in a way that we don’t often see in film–it constantly addresses it in a positive way, and that creates a stellar juxtaposition that transcends the film almost in its entirety.
Even though Little Wing attempts to look at the silver lining present in the toughest of situations–there’s no hiding the harrowing situations strewn throughout the film (and I don’t believe that Writer-Director Lauren Ramecourt is trying to either). The use of light helps to tell this story, but it’s not just light and dark or simple light. There’s often a red light that seems to signify death, that seems to remind viewers that the life that Ella once had is no more–that her present isn’t all that she hoped it would be. The red light is almost horrifying, dabbling in the horror genre just a bit, strengthening the narrative and the film as a whole. Viewers get drama from start to finish, and there are moments of levity that exist throughout as well–but as Little Wing briefly transitions to something akin to horror the film takes on new meaning. This bit of horror actually makes the film better and it allows us to see the troubles that Ella faces in a more realistic light (no pun intended).
While Little Wing is driven by dialogue, it’s not inundated by dialogue. The dialogue never steals from the moment, it never becomes too overwhelming or bogs down the emotion present at any given time. The dialogue can be powerful and take over a scene when it needs to, but it can shift in a matter of seconds and help to supplement the visuals as well. The dialogue is wonderfully written, and in the moments that ultimately work for the film, not a single word is wasted.
It seems that Little Wing could have been significantly shorter, as some of the bulkier scenes do nothing but chew time, to lengthen the film, but not strengthen it. In a film of less than twenty minutes, there’s no reason to be stingy about the final length. Make some changes, cut some of the content, and focus on the brilliant emotion strewn throughout the film.
Little Wing makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways. It expresses the reality of the world in which we live, and it’s a sound reflection of the hoops that we are often forced to jump through throughout our lives. Viewers are inundated with emotion at the start of the film, and most of the rest of Little Wings is dripping in emotional relevance as well. Viewers understand the purpose of the film, and even with the film being longer than it needed to be, I truly believe that everyone will be able to appreciate what is being said and done throughout. As beautiful as this film is, as important as its message is, the one thing that I keep coming back to is that Ramecourt needs to spend some more time in the cutting room. This doesn’t hinder the overall film–but it does make some instances more challenging than they need to be.
Written & Directed by Lauren Ramecourt.
Starring Laura Martinet, Hugo Plassard, Marie-Ange Paoletti, Jean-Charles Soletti, Baya Massamba-Wa, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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