Ben Crompton	...	Martin
	Bill Thomas	...	The Samaritan

Like a short road-movie version of Scorsese's "After Hours".

Short films, especially in recent years, have become notorious for being self-indulgent bundles of pretentious meaninglessness; often lacking a (coherent) plot, so that the more deluded and intellectually insecure among us might find meaning where there is none, and then feel better about themselves that way. (The old "fill-in-the-gaps-yourselves" trick employed by lazy, talentless Euro-trash filmmakers/writers. Pompous, low-IQ viewers nearly always fall for that one...) Either that, or the short turns out to have a plot but one which contains an asinine, simplistic political/social agenda - i.e. a short film made solely to pander to left-wing movie critics who then shower this kind of predictable Marxist/liberal propaganda crap with limitless praise, hence giving the film's start-up creator much-needed publicity hence maybe a shot at making a feature film - which then inevitably turns out to be just as pointless and hopeless. Such shorts serve to warn from watching any features the director in question might produce in the future.

"Ripple" is the opposite of all that. It's only aim is to entertain. Paul Gowers advertises himself in a good way. The story has a beginning, middle, and end. It even has a rather satisfactory, amusing final plot-twist. It has been cast well (apart from the mad boyfriend, who is played by an actor far too ugly to have such a girlfriend), and acted well by the lead.

A rare example of a short film that doesn't seem like it takes an eternity for it to end.