The Sonnet Project Sonnet #140 (2013– ) Online

I'm not sure why the Sonnet Project decided to do the sonnets in the order that they did; I guess it is more the order they get them made rather than a specific ordered release strategy and, once they are all done then the order of release will not matter. However for someone watching them as they come out, there is a certain roller coaster effect as one sonnet will be about mortality, another about adoration and then we jump to this one – all in the space of three consecutive films for example. In sonnet 140 the writer seems to be hurting, threatening and pleading all at the same time, there is not much actual romantic love in here, although once there may have been.

In delivering that to the screen the film makes a very smart updating by having a stood-up partner leaving a voicemail for her partner (who is off with someone else and ignores the call). This allows the film to have a voice-over/narration delivery – a device that I guess makes sound recording easier to manage but not one I have always liked. Here it works though because the performance is in that message and the lead actress gets a lot into her voice so that we understand her emotional state and therefore the words have more meaning and also a modern context to make them more accessible.

The film video section is important as it fills us in on the various roles and relationships, but it doesn't add too much beyond that. This sounds like a negative but I liked that because it put the visual into the background and allowed the audio to be in the fore, while still connected to the images. It was professionally shot and shows the Atlas statue without fixating on it being there, but it was the idea to have the hurt lover phone message that really works as it explains the pleading, the threatening and the attempt to bargain a bad compromise. This good idea is well delivered by the actress as her emotions come through and explain a lot of the text.