The many intricacies of a funeral, particularly of the military kind, are apparently a lot more complicated than we give them credit for. Or at the very least, that’s what a feuding sibling pair would have you believe in writer/director Anna Koukouli Born’s short film Angel. The sudden passing of an estranged father spells all manner of chaos for his family, and it’s down to a volatile pair of brother and sister to mend bonds both in person and in the afterlife.
Just when her life couldn’t get any more convoluted, corporate exec Elvira (Rachael Hip-Flores) and her hot-tempered brother Jake (Jarrod Bogan) are informed of their dad, Angel’s tragic death. Returning back to their distraught mother Sarah (Nicole Ansari-Cox) and family members Bruna (Brenda Cisneros) and Steve (Peter Rambo), they are immediately overcome with responsibilities and the burden of losing Angel without any meaningful closure. Organizing his funeral is one thing, but making amends is quite another. Elvira and Jake eventually settle on retrieving the beverage of beer he was drinking at the time of his passing and must figure out a way to slip it into his coffin unnoticed.
What sets Angel apart from other films of its kind is how it gets the biggest laughs out of situations it shouldn’t. Despite the patriarch being a difficult man, there’s a lot of deep-seated trauma that lurks beneath everyone, especially Elvira and Jake. And often, the only way they can deal with that is by cracking the off-kilter joke. Whether it’s greeting her mother or choosing a funeral uniform, the quibbling never stops, and neither do the laughs.
Born’s writing is impeccable, and her script translates incredibly well to the screen. There’s a natural, almost unscripted flow to the dialogue that really keeps the balance of dark humor and sentimentality precisely where it needs to be.
Ansari-Cox is a delight, even with Sarah on the brink of collapse as a grieving widow. Hip-Flores is also brilliant, but there’s something really intriguing about Jake, whose career in the Navy has never lived up to that of his father’s, a chip on his shoulder he carries everywhere. You never see it manifest too directly, but it’s always there in the back of his mind.
There’s something deeply profound about how a family can come together in spite of their differences, and that is punctuated even more so in this film. With a hint of the absurd and a whole lot of drama, Anna Koukouli Born’s Angel will win you over with its cast and touching story.
