HollyShorts Special 8: Sweetwater Review
“I’m told I can be a lot.” – Bettie Rogers
Every so often, I’m lucky enough to see a film that is breathtaking in its style, story, casting and execution. A film that takes me by surprise by being so much more than I expected. I’ll state upfront that this is one of those rare treats
You can’t go home again. It’s a phrase we’ve all heard and a phrase we’ve all learned the truth of. But what if you sort of could? That’s the question, and the situation Robert Rogers finds himself in, in this amazing short feature written by Sean Douglas, who also composed the soundtrack score.
Michael Keaton Douglas is an actor I’ve long said is one of Hollywood’s most versatile, and in Sweetwater he displays an equal talent as a director in this heartwarming film.
Robert Rogers (Douglas) is the son of a long deceased film actress Bettie Rogers (Kyra Sedgewick) and is visiting her old house, his childhood home, which has previously been open to the public in the Hollywood hills. The place is up for sale, and this is Robert’s last opportunity to visit and look around before it’s sold on. Upon his arrival, he discovers a package which when opened contains a gift from a fan of his mother’s.
At first, the gift looks almost like a Magic Eight-Ball toy on a display plinth, which Robert discards. But it’s so much more. The gift is actually a futuristic device which projects an interactive hologram of his late mother, programmed to answer any fan questions via A.I.
As it activates, Robert is understandably stunned and comically confused to be talking to his mother, who doesn’t seem to recognise him as her son, but can answer any question about Bettie Rogers, her family and films that any paying visitor could ever think to ask. He can talk to her, but he can’t touch her – she is as ethereal as a memory.
This film is extraordinary. It is a showcase for Douglas’s immense range, displaying here not only his comedic timing, but also a warmth and depth as his character accepts the bittersweet gift of being able to interact, in a way, with his mother one final time. Perhaps the gift wasn’t the actual device – but the opportunity it presented.
With an ending, which I won’t spoil here, Sweetwater deals with everybody’s impossible yearning to touch our simpler, perhaps happier past and how we remember it. It is a feel-good, emotionally resonant treat that shows, for a change, a positive use of A.I.
Rob Rating = 10