This short is about a man who has had hiccups his entire life, with endless humiliations and suffering due to this affliction. At first glance you could assume that it would be a comedy sketch type of short film but actually it does something else. We join the film with the hiccups cured and the man is discussing this with his therapist in voice-over. We see back through his life with the things he had to go through while also suffering the hiccups all the way, and gradually we built towards what it was that seems to have cured him one night at a diner. It has a dark tone throughout.
The idea to play it darker is a good one because we start to understand the character that we have by the end of the film; it isn't played for laughs and there is a certain realism to him that offers interest to the viewer. Speaking broadly I liked the idea but it is the delivery and the detail that didn't work so well with me. The film is too long for what it does, and it is hard not to feel that because it is not particularly well constructed, doesn't build or develop as well as one would have liked. I felt it labored a lot of stuff that really made the same point rather than expanding upon it. The ending is nicely dark but perhaps is not as satisfying as it could have been, with the final shots feeling an bit too open and lacking in impact compared to what had just gone before.
Technically it works very well, with good cinematography and sound. It also has a very good performance from Reeve in the lead role; he convinces in his misery and desperation and he does make for an engaging focal point. It isn't that the film is bad, because it isn't, it is just more that the delivery doesn't make the most of it all of the strengths, which is a shame.
