A Family Portrait (2009) Online

A couple and their two children go for a professionally-shot family portrait, during which time simmering resentments, suspicions, and emotional distances make the photographer's job a difficult one.

Filmed and then animated, this very short film is a nicely contained scene filled with bitterness which is added to by what the animators were able to layer on top of the original performances. In and of itself the scene is well performed as the restrained but distant couple can obviously barely stand one another for who they now are, while their children through no fault of their own are also impacted, picking up on the tension in their family unit. This is well delivered by the cast, although in a British way of passive- aggressiveness, and avoidance of the actual issues. The clipped delivery gives the piece a tangible air of this, and it is quite hard to watch the resentment at times.

The animation works well with this, although personally I found some of the physical excesses to be a bit too much, and sometimes detracted from how well observed the detail was. Characters morph into ugly creatures, faces contort, and generally the inner emotional ugliness and resentment between the parents is played out visually, until later it spills out anyway. Running under 5 minutes the film is very much on its own terms and its scope is limited, but mostly it does what it does well, with the actual drama and tension of the family unit very clearly presented, while also exaggerated by the animation.