Camelot has a very strong style about it, and it is one that very much fits the narrative. In the film we are told a story about a girl who really has nothing, but has this dream to have the Ford Capri she was once promised by her father (as if somehow this will change the nowhere life she now has). Without money of her own, she makes a play to get enough cash in one moment to be able to afford the car. In case the words 'Ford Capri' don't fill you in, this is not a film about 'one big score' but rather 'one small scrabble'. Accordingly the film has a great sense of this world to it. It doesn't always seem to be visually in the time period it is set (cinematography-wise I mean) but there is no doubt about the low- rent nature of everything. The cheap neon, the knock-off impersonators doing bad jobs in front of working men clubs during a slow day, and generally the characters who all very much feel like winning a couple of grand at the dogs would be beyond their wildest dreams. In short the film feels tatty (in a good way) and it is across the whole film.
This style is perhaps not enough though, and it was disappointing that the film did not have a story and delivery to really match this element of it. Considering how little actually occurs in the story, the film does feel slow-paced. This in itself is not a terrible thing, because it does fit with the low-rent feel to the world, and the 'story in a pub' structure means we are wondering how it all fits together. This does mean that the ending is important and, unfortunately the ending is surprisingly weak. Not only does it 'leave it up to the viewer' but it does so at a nowhere point in the story – the only impact it had on me was to diminish how much I had actually liked the rest of the film by virtue of just how unsatisfying the ending was.
It is a short worth a look for how well it creates a sense of small time nothingness, however the narrative is not as strong as it needed to be, and the deeply unsatisfying ending only serves to reinforce that feeling.
This style is perhaps not enough though, and it was disappointing that the film did not have a story and delivery to really match this element of it. Considering how little actually occurs in the story, the film does feel slow-paced. This in itself is not a terrible thing, because it does fit with the low-rent feel to the world, and the 'story in a pub' structure means we are wondering how it all fits together. This does mean that the ending is important and, unfortunately the ending is surprisingly weak. Not only does it 'leave it up to the viewer' but it does so at a nowhere point in the story – the only impact it had on me was to diminish how much I had actually liked the rest of the film by virtue of just how unsatisfying the ending was.
It is a short worth a look for how well it creates a sense of small time nothingness, however the narrative is not as strong as it needed to be, and the deeply unsatisfying ending only serves to reinforce that feeling.
