Writer, director, and star Johan Wickholm uses 1970s southern Spain as a tense and atmospheric backdrop for his dramatic crime short Letters of Love. In voiceover narration, Peter (Wickholm), a young athlete, dictates a letter to Valentina, an unknown woman. Wandering the cobblestone streets with a cigarette and a contemplative furrow, he recounts a harrowing story from his past when he was caught in the web of a dangerous drug cartel.
After an innocent night out gone wrong, Peter and his friend/teammate Raymond (Derek Duce) find themselves indebted to Marko (Edoardo Terrabuio), a local cartel member. Peter is quickly caught up in a seductive life of crime, selling drugs for Marko and eventually falling into addiction. Peter’s ties to the cartel grow deeper and his life begins to spiral out of control while Raymond tries everything he can to save his friend from tragedy.
Wickholm’s script is a heartbreaking and familiar story of a man reflecting on his painful past and what he lost in the wake of drug addiction. However, it feels somewhat unfinished in its current iteration, seeming closer to a proof of concept than a contained narrative in itself. Three scenes make up the bulk of the film’s runtime, snapshots offering a tragic look at Peter’s devolution while voiceover narration has the ambitious task of providing setup, exposition, and transitions throughout. As a result, some key emotional beats are told to the audience rather than shown, and characters are often reacting to things rather than experiencing them. We don’t see how or why Peter and Raymond came into conflict with the cartel, just the aftermath as Marko brings them into the fold.
Wickholm and his creative team have a clear and impactful aesthetic eye with visual references recalling classic crime films and nicely emphasizing the dramatic stakes of Peter’s story. Jim Crone’s cinematography is a highlight, with close handheld camerawork putting the audience into the thick of the action. When Peter starts to reminisce, we are thrust harshly into the middle of Peter and Raymond’s first confrontation with the cartel, stark and evocative lighting throwing shadows onto Peter’s bloodied face as he lays collapsed on the ground. Assertive framing choices underscore the fear and anger rippling through the two men while Marko and his lackeys delight in tormenting them. Kathleen Victory’s makeup work is also noteworthy, simply but effectively charting Peter’s journey through his worsening appearance. As Peter hits rock bottom, his gaunt face feels almost unrecognizable from the clean-cut man who opened the film.
While the film’s structure is based around his letter to Valentina, it is centered on Peter’s relationship with Raymond, with Wickholm and Duce’s strong chemistry providing the emotional core. Their quiet moments are imbued with intimate history and care, giving them a nice sense of pathos. Wickholm’s physicality is also impressive, small tremors and movements subtly indicating Peter’s decline. However, both Peter and Raymond’s bigger moments risk veering into melodrama. Tensions run high as Peter’s addiction gets worse, and attempts at intervention devolve into screaming, fighting, and broken mirrors.
Letters of Love is a tense and affecting film about a dark moment in one man’s past. While missing some connective tissue, Wickholm’s strong creative vision and moving story give this short potential to grow into a powerful narrative.
