Developing (1994) Poster

(1994)

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6/10
Full of potential
ReganRebecca20 March 2017
I'm sure that a lot of people will watch this out of curiosity since this was Natalie Portman's first film role but it's actually quite a good little short.

The film is about a photographer named Clare (Frances Conroy) who has to have a double mastectomy to combat her breast cancer. Clare is a single mother who lives with her daughter Nina. As the sole parent in Nina's life Clare tries to take a pragmatic view of her mastectomy but she begins to have feelings of self doubt and fear and anger, emotions which she tries to stomp down to protect Nina, even as her resentment begins to come out as she uses the beautiful Nina as the frequent subject of her photographs.

This is low-budget filmmaking, so some of the shots/edits are a bit sloppy but there is enough talent there to make this a solid watch. The script in particular is really strong and manages to cover a lot of ground even if it is a bit too on the nose in places. Conroy and Portman are excellent in their roles as mother and daughter.
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6/10
2 strong lead performances
Horst_In_Translation14 January 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Developing" is a live action short film from over 20 years ago that runs for almost half an hour and stars two fairly prominent names: The first would be Frances Conroy, who is mostly known for "Six Feet Under" and also won a Golden Globe for that show, 10 years after this short film was made. She certainly was a bigger star in 1994 than a certain Natalie Portman. This was very early in her career and she plays Conroy's character's daughter in here. This came out at a similar time like "Léon", which was the big breakthrough film for Portman starring next to Jean Reno. Anyway, back to this one here. It's a bit of coming of age, a bit mother-daughter relationship, a bit dealing with sickness and a very dramatic little movie for sure. I thought this was a decent watch and you could see the talent in the 2 main cast members involved. And also the talent in Marya Cohn. It is a bit of a pity she has not made any films for almost 20 years after this short film. But last year she returned to filmmaking, so there may be hope that we get to see more from her in the future. Not an outstanding film, but a fairly decent watch. I recommend it.
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