Glenn Owen Dodds
Next in our David Wenham reviews is another live action short called Glenn Owen Dodds (2010), written by Trent Dalton, directed by Frazer Bailey, produced by Play TV, and starring David Wenham in the title role, Abe Forsythe as Michael Radcliffe, and Bella Heathcote as Julie. Again I found it on Youtube and will include a link below. This one is a bit lighter than the last one.
Spoilers!
We open on our hero, Michael, a young man, strolling down the street in a city somewhere. He glances down a side street and pauses when he sees a long line of people waiting at a basement door of an old brick building. Coming up behind the older gentleman at the end of the line he asks what's behind the door and is told, "God! The Almighty, Creator of the universe." Michael looks skeptical, but when a woman comes out of the door overcome and crying, and the line moves up, he moves up with it. When he finally goes in he finds himself in a long, ill-lit hallway leading to a doorway partially hidden by paper streamers. As he cautiously approaches the doorway we begin to hear a voice yelling things like "Go!" and "Move it, use your four legs!" and then the indistinct noise of a radio. Coming through the door we see someone bent over said radio listening to a horse race (I think) and grumbling when his horse loses. This, it seems, is G.O.D., or Glenn Owen Dodds. Average height, skinny, messy red hair, slightly rumpled. He greets Michael, calling him by the wrong name, but kind of in the manner of an absent minded father calling all his children's names until he gets the right one. (Think how many children God has) As Glenn comes forward he stops at his desk and pulls something out of a drawer. He shakes Michael's hand then suddenly says, "Look, burning bush!", using the distraction to slip the something into Michael's pocket. He pushes Michael into a seat across the desk from him, searches for a bit in a file cabinet till he finds his file, which appears to be 3 or 4 typed pages. Michael comments that he doesn't look like God, prompting Glenn to say he moves with the times. He starts a rather old fashioned timer and explains that Michael gets a five minute session for a strictly voluntary donation. He starts reading from the file while Michael sits there looking rather bewildered. At one point Glenn notes where he lives and states it's near some kind of Gardens which he seems very enthusiastic about. Michael has clearly not been there. Glenn flips a page then suddenly drops the file in frustration, "So you don't believe I exist." He goes through a little silly business, mostly involving sleight of hand; Michael is unimpressed. So after a dose of alka seltzer, Glenn proceeds to read interesting tidbits from the file, including at least one item that Michael swears he never told anyone. "All knowing, mate," Glenn says tapping his forehead. He stops the timer when the phone rings; we only hear his end, but whoever is calling is warning him about an asteroid heading towards Earth. "Won't hit for a couple of years," he assures Michael. He restarts the timer and returns to the file, now going over Michael's love life, or lack thereof. Glenn reads, "'Believes he will never find true love.' Well, he won't believe in me, but he'll believe in something like that." He gives him a word or two of advice about meeting girls, skims over the rest of the file, and looking at the last page notes, "Got a nice low sin rate." Now he tells Michael that everyone is allowed to ask him one question. Michael asks in an offhand manner, "Why are we here?" Strangely, no one has ever asked him that before. He holds out his finger, indicating Michael should do the same, and we get a very obvious God-raises-Adam-from-the-dust moment, but right before their fingers touch the timer goes off. Glenn ushers Michael toward the door, after collecting some coins for the offertory basket. He tells him not to worry about why we're here because he's got it all sorted, and as he is leaving he hands him an umbrella. Michael slowly walks out the building and down the street to the bus stop looking very thoughtful, and somewhat nonplussed. There is a young woman sitting on the bench reading a magazine (Julie I assume). They exchange shy smiles, then out of the blue there is a crash of thunder and it starts pouring down rain. Michael offers to share his umbrella and they sit nice and close under it waiting for the bus. Julie goes to take a drink from her coffee cup and the lid suddenly pops off, spilling coffee down her front. Michael reaches into his pocket and finds the thing that Glenn stuck there, and it turns out to be a handkerchief. He offers it to Julie who uses it to blot her coffee spill. The hanky has G.O.D. on it and she questions this. She is doubtful that there is one supreme being who can change the world just like that. She snaps her fingers and suddenly the rain stops, giving her pause. Then the bus arrives and she asks if he's taking this one. It is going to the Gardens Glenn had talked about, and Michael decides that yes, he is taking this one. As the bus pulls away the camera moves into a nearby pub where we see Glenn sitting at a little table drinking beer and watching another horse race on which he has bet, and which he loses...again. We close as he drains his glass, calls for another, and says to the server, "God bless you, love."
This was a terribly cute, extremely tongue in cheek little piece that, again, I likely would never have seen if not for who was in it. I didn't even know it existed until I started seeing Amazon ads in my ad bars basically saying, if you like movies with David Wenham, you should buy this! And let me just say that choosing to make God a ginger was kind of brilliant, considering that redheads are supposed to have no souls. And this was clearly a choice they made, since David is usually blond, or at least strawberry blond in his movies of late. As for moving with the times, everything about that office and the way he looked indicated someone who was a little behind the times. But he was delightfully dorky and clearly didn't care much what anyone thought of him. This short shows David is every bit as good at comedy as he is at drama. The script was clever, with lots of quotable lines. Michael was mostly there to be a straight man, but he played his part well enough, and he did get a little pay off at the end. Also, the walk down the hallway to the office was not unlike walking to the confessional, from a Catholic perspective. So, was Glenn really God, was he a servant of God or one of God's messengers? And why would anyone who is all knowing always lose at the horse races? All fair questions, but you will have to watch and decide for yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP4s132GPXI
Spoilers!
We open on our hero, Michael, a young man, strolling down the street in a city somewhere. He glances down a side street and pauses when he sees a long line of people waiting at a basement door of an old brick building. Coming up behind the older gentleman at the end of the line he asks what's behind the door and is told, "God! The Almighty, Creator of the universe." Michael looks skeptical, but when a woman comes out of the door overcome and crying, and the line moves up, he moves up with it. When he finally goes in he finds himself in a long, ill-lit hallway leading to a doorway partially hidden by paper streamers. As he cautiously approaches the doorway we begin to hear a voice yelling things like "Go!" and "Move it, use your four legs!" and then the indistinct noise of a radio. Coming through the door we see someone bent over said radio listening to a horse race (I think) and grumbling when his horse loses. This, it seems, is G.O.D., or Glenn Owen Dodds. Average height, skinny, messy red hair, slightly rumpled. He greets Michael, calling him by the wrong name, but kind of in the manner of an absent minded father calling all his children's names until he gets the right one. (Think how many children God has) As Glenn comes forward he stops at his desk and pulls something out of a drawer. He shakes Michael's hand then suddenly says, "Look, burning bush!", using the distraction to slip the something into Michael's pocket. He pushes Michael into a seat across the desk from him, searches for a bit in a file cabinet till he finds his file, which appears to be 3 or 4 typed pages. Michael comments that he doesn't look like God, prompting Glenn to say he moves with the times. He starts a rather old fashioned timer and explains that Michael gets a five minute session for a strictly voluntary donation. He starts reading from the file while Michael sits there looking rather bewildered. At one point Glenn notes where he lives and states it's near some kind of Gardens which he seems very enthusiastic about. Michael has clearly not been there. Glenn flips a page then suddenly drops the file in frustration, "So you don't believe I exist." He goes through a little silly business, mostly involving sleight of hand; Michael is unimpressed. So after a dose of alka seltzer, Glenn proceeds to read interesting tidbits from the file, including at least one item that Michael swears he never told anyone. "All knowing, mate," Glenn says tapping his forehead. He stops the timer when the phone rings; we only hear his end, but whoever is calling is warning him about an asteroid heading towards Earth. "Won't hit for a couple of years," he assures Michael. He restarts the timer and returns to the file, now going over Michael's love life, or lack thereof. Glenn reads, "'Believes he will never find true love.' Well, he won't believe in me, but he'll believe in something like that." He gives him a word or two of advice about meeting girls, skims over the rest of the file, and looking at the last page notes, "Got a nice low sin rate." Now he tells Michael that everyone is allowed to ask him one question. Michael asks in an offhand manner, "Why are we here?" Strangely, no one has ever asked him that before. He holds out his finger, indicating Michael should do the same, and we get a very obvious God-raises-Adam-from-the-dust moment, but right before their fingers touch the timer goes off. Glenn ushers Michael toward the door, after collecting some coins for the offertory basket. He tells him not to worry about why we're here because he's got it all sorted, and as he is leaving he hands him an umbrella. Michael slowly walks out the building and down the street to the bus stop looking very thoughtful, and somewhat nonplussed. There is a young woman sitting on the bench reading a magazine (Julie I assume). They exchange shy smiles, then out of the blue there is a crash of thunder and it starts pouring down rain. Michael offers to share his umbrella and they sit nice and close under it waiting for the bus. Julie goes to take a drink from her coffee cup and the lid suddenly pops off, spilling coffee down her front. Michael reaches into his pocket and finds the thing that Glenn stuck there, and it turns out to be a handkerchief. He offers it to Julie who uses it to blot her coffee spill. The hanky has G.O.D. on it and she questions this. She is doubtful that there is one supreme being who can change the world just like that. She snaps her fingers and suddenly the rain stops, giving her pause. Then the bus arrives and she asks if he's taking this one. It is going to the Gardens Glenn had talked about, and Michael decides that yes, he is taking this one. As the bus pulls away the camera moves into a nearby pub where we see Glenn sitting at a little table drinking beer and watching another horse race on which he has bet, and which he loses...again. We close as he drains his glass, calls for another, and says to the server, "God bless you, love."
This was a terribly cute, extremely tongue in cheek little piece that, again, I likely would never have seen if not for who was in it. I didn't even know it existed until I started seeing Amazon ads in my ad bars basically saying, if you like movies with David Wenham, you should buy this! And let me just say that choosing to make God a ginger was kind of brilliant, considering that redheads are supposed to have no souls. And this was clearly a choice they made, since David is usually blond, or at least strawberry blond in his movies of late. As for moving with the times, everything about that office and the way he looked indicated someone who was a little behind the times. But he was delightfully dorky and clearly didn't care much what anyone thought of him. This short shows David is every bit as good at comedy as he is at drama. The script was clever, with lots of quotable lines. Michael was mostly there to be a straight man, but he played his part well enough, and he did get a little pay off at the end. Also, the walk down the hallway to the office was not unlike walking to the confessional, from a Catholic perspective. So, was Glenn really God, was he a servant of God or one of God's messengers? And why would anyone who is all knowing always lose at the horse races? All fair questions, but you will have to watch and decide for yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP4s132GPXI