"Mouse!"

8 April 2025

16 mins 06s

Mouse!

Max Fisher's short film Mouse! uses the prism of the pandemic to examine grief, and the peculiarities of the dynamics between father and son, as three generations of males battle reason in the unfathomably difficult task of understanding one another.

The plot is driven by the youngest of this trio developing a friendship with a visiting rodent as he comes to terms with the loss of his grandfather, and becomes an onlooker in his father's inability to deal with his own complicated feelings of grief.

Caught in the crossfire of all of this male non-communication is mum, who seems to understand both her husband and her son better than they understand themselves

In Fisher's capable hands, deep emotional heft develops around this slight story, and while the reconciliation at its climax feels inevitable, it is nonetheless moving.

What Fisher does best, as both a writer and a director, is to capture the strangeness of the world as seen through the eyes of a child... and vice versa. And, it is in the moments that explore the curious worldview of the youngster, that the film is at its most vivid.

UK

Short Film