Prism is a film of interconnected stories that revolve around different colors that represent various moods and personalities. The premise makes it feel as though the movie is going to be long and artsy. The kind of pretentiousness that contains lingering shots and pompous fluff dialogue. Thankfully, this possibility is not the case. The movie is brief yet poignant, and it progresses at a good pace while never losing track of its central point. The motivations and personalities of the characters become evident especially in contrast to their color schemes.
The short is filmed in black and white, and all of the main characters have some kind of color emanating from them. One character has a purple shirt while another has blue jeans, which are meant to represent their personality.
In the beginning, we’re shown an elderly woman who appears to be locked away in her home. She also seems to have some form of a psychological problem and she sees what appears to be some kind of hallucination. She escapes and the next series of events follows her family and others who intertwine in some way.
The story is fairly well told, considering that it is around 30 minutes. Juggling the various themes along with the sub plots takes considerable skill. Although the movie does have some issues like sub par acting and characterization, the biggest criticism is the climax. The purpose of the events is understandable, it is that it did not feel deserved. If there were some changes to the characterization and alterations to some of the performances then ending would have been more profound.
Prism is a nice creative attempt by Kowalski. With a creative premise and solid filmmaking, there is some interesting content displayed in the short time frame. Unfortunately, some weak performances and strange characterization decisions set the film back from being much better.
