Rafael Sierra and David Melendez created this touching short and I really would love to see it one day expanded into a full-length movie.
The story begins with an elderly man forgetting his wallet after he gets up from a park bench. A short time later, a young reporter finds the wallet and looks through it for identification so she can return it. All she finds, however, is a Dear John letter that is decades old...and she reads about the heartbreaking story about a teenage girl who is calling things off with Cliff because her parents say she's too young to get involved with him. The reporter then decides that she must assemble the few clues she has to find the owner of the wallet...and perhaps help get Angela and Cliff back together. The first person she needs to find is the woman who wrote the letter. She visits many folks named Angela and eventually find her (Susan O'Gara) in a retirement home--and Angela tells her the sad story of her relationship with Cliff. It seems that Cliff was going off to war and she didn't want him to worry about her...so she broke things off. She'd hoped to take up with him later, after she was older and Cliff returned, but she only saw him one more time...and he had a wife and four kids...so she said nothing and remained single the rest of her life. As for Cliff (Jim Webb), the reporter soon finds him and discovers that he's not married...nor has he ever been nor has he had any kids! So what is the meddlesome but well meaning reporter going to do next and what will happen with these sweet elderly people? See the film...you won't regret it!
So why did I love this film? Well, I thought Webb and O'Gara were simply wonderful. I was particularly impressed by Webb and very surprised by O'Gara, as the only other film I saw her in was one where she played an insane old lady who kidnaps a guy on his way to a Halloween party and insists she's captured a real zombie! "Chomp" is about as different from "The Wallet" as you can get...as were the two performances by O'Gara! I also really admired the writing, as the story was just as sweet as you could ask for...and it had me in tears by the end!
The story begins with an elderly man forgetting his wallet after he gets up from a park bench. A short time later, a young reporter finds the wallet and looks through it for identification so she can return it. All she finds, however, is a Dear John letter that is decades old...and she reads about the heartbreaking story about a teenage girl who is calling things off with Cliff because her parents say she's too young to get involved with him. The reporter then decides that she must assemble the few clues she has to find the owner of the wallet...and perhaps help get Angela and Cliff back together. The first person she needs to find is the woman who wrote the letter. She visits many folks named Angela and eventually find her (Susan O'Gara) in a retirement home--and Angela tells her the sad story of her relationship with Cliff. It seems that Cliff was going off to war and she didn't want him to worry about her...so she broke things off. She'd hoped to take up with him later, after she was older and Cliff returned, but she only saw him one more time...and he had a wife and four kids...so she said nothing and remained single the rest of her life. As for Cliff (Jim Webb), the reporter soon finds him and discovers that he's not married...nor has he ever been nor has he had any kids! So what is the meddlesome but well meaning reporter going to do next and what will happen with these sweet elderly people? See the film...you won't regret it!
So why did I love this film? Well, I thought Webb and O'Gara were simply wonderful. I was particularly impressed by Webb and very surprised by O'Gara, as the only other film I saw her in was one where she played an insane old lady who kidnaps a guy on his way to a Halloween party and insists she's captured a real zombie! "Chomp" is about as different from "The Wallet" as you can get...as were the two performances by O'Gara! I also really admired the writing, as the story was just as sweet as you could ask for...and it had me in tears by the end!