God Of Love- A Short Film by Luke Matheny

*Won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short in 2010


The Gist

For the past couple of years Raymond Goodfellow has had a HUGE crush on the girl of his dream Kelly.  The one small problem with this crush is that Kelly has a crush on Ray's best friend Fozzie who could care less about the crush of Kelly.  Fozzie really only wants to help out his friend with getting his dream girl but doesn't want him to get hurt in the process.  One night before performing with his band at the local pub Ray prays to whoever will listen to him that they might help him with some guidance as to help him win Kelly's love.  After performing a couple of the numbers Ray heads over to the bar where the bartender hands him a gift labeled to Ray and no from address.  When he opens the package he sees that it contains love darts and an instruction book on how to use them.  Basically, whoever owns the darts throws them at their target and whoever is hit by the dart falls instantly in love with the next person that they see for exactly 6 hours.  In these 6 hours permanent feelings can develop by the end or the target will go back to their old feelings making everything quite awkward.  Instead of risking it Ray runs a test on his band mate to see if they work and by the end of the test the darts pass with flying colors.  Ray soon starts to the spend every waking moment making sure that the 10 hours he is to spend with Kelly are perfect.  The next day Ray goes to Kelly's house and tries one last time to get her to go on a date with him without the dart but when she refuses he realizes he has no choice and hits his target.  The next six hours are packed with ice-skating, love poems in foreign languages, romantic seafood themed dinners and the ballet but when the clock starts ticking and Ray has no where to turn he goes in for the big kiss only to find the love darts may not have gone the exact way that he had wanted them to go in the first place.   


What We Think
Reviewed by The North Star
Run Time: 18 Minutes
Rating: Not Rated (Because it is a short film)
I am a huge sucker for short films if they are done well.  If you can have an audience attached to characters and a story in under 30min that is a huge accomplishment and is a sign of true genius.  God Of Love was one of the best short films that I have ever seen and is nearly perfect.  I first saw this gem when watching the 83rd Annual Academy Awards Ceremony where is won Best Live Action Short Film.  The Academy Awards had also been advertising on their website and throughout the show that all of the nominees for Best Live Action Short and Best Animated Short Film could be purchased on iTunes and so I was soon curious to know what made these films win an Oscar so I went on-line to purchase them.  One day after-school I watched this film with Dream Catcher and after it was over almost played it again it was that good.  The thing I loved most about this film was that it told a perfect story in only 18 minutes.  In every second of the short film I learned more about the characters and felt more connected to them and their problems.  This is an aspect that I almost never find in professional movies on the big screen. Hollywood has seems to have lost the idea of having a good, believable plot and it is all about special effects.  With God of Love you can tell that the production team spent a long time on the script and making sure they cut out every line that didn't drive the plot forward in some way which is something every screen writer should do. 


The other great thing about this movie was the characters.  Ray was completely lovable and you really wanted him to get the girl of his dreams and for them to live happily ever after.  My favorite character was his best friend Fozzie because he was completely dead-pan for a huge portion of the movie so it made his lines a lot funnier because he was saying it with almost no emotion.  Fozzie was also the best friend that a person could imagine for because he told you where he stood on certain issues but he still backed you up on the decision that you picked even if he didn't completely agree.  Then there was Kelly who was the one caught in the middle of these two guys and completely unaware of the craziness that she has unknowingly stepped into. She was a good character because she provided very conflict and the girl who played her portrayed her a way that made the character believable and not annoying because if someone else had read the lines only slightly differently she could have been annoying but this actress was great.


In all, I loved this short film and everyone should watch it because it is worth it.  This was better than more than half of the films that are currently in the theaters and wasn't even close to the length or budget.  This film shows how films should focus on the story and not the special effects in movies!  Congratulations, Luke Matheny on your deserved Oscar and I can't wait to see what you come up with in the future!!

Real Teen Rating~ A+ :If you haven’t seen this move you are a deprived soul!