Diving In – Short Film Review

Written and directed by Adam Bowes and Nina Oyama, Diving In is an Australian short film that takes place at the local swimming pool where we are introduced to a competitive swimmer and double above the knee amputee named Alex (Adam Bowes) who has a crush on Jen (Isaro Kayitesi) who is a swimming teacher at the pool. Jen asks Alex out on a date to go see a movie but Alex is so nervous when he around Jen that he makes up a lie so he can decline her invitation.

Later on that same day, Alex is hanging out with his friends regretting his decision. His friends try to give him advice on how to ask Jen out on a date but Alex is lacking in confidence to follow their advice. But one of Alex‘s friends steals his phone off him and they send Jen a message asking her out on a date, with his friend adding a few details that Alex doesn’t want in the message. On top of that, his friends continue to call Jen so it looks like that Alex has called her multiple times. Alex becomes worried about the message his friends sent and all of the calls that they had made to Jen so he attempts to steal Jen‘s phone while she is in the middle of a swimming lesson so that she won’t see the message that his friends sent and all of the missed calls that they made on his phone. However, Alex has to try to do this without getting caught.

Diving In is an adorable short love story. I did enjoy some of the awkward moments between Alex and Jen. Although the two of them are awkward, it is never painful to watch because the two of them are fun and playful with each other. There was one scene that made me feel a little bit uncomfortable, when Alex was hanging out with his friends and they steal his mobile phone. This made me feel uncomfortable, as Alex has no legs below his knees. But once the scene was over, I felt okay again. Adam Bowes co-wrote the film and I believe that if he wrote the segment, then it is alright with me. Plus one his friends is in a wheelchair, so Alex‘s friends in the film weren’t picking on him because of his disability, but so more because he was too scared to ask out the girl of his dreams.

Adam Bowes was very believable playing the shy and awkward character. I could imagine him playing similar characters in other films or television shows. He has excellent comedic timing and for someone who is a double amputee, he is very agile and has a wide acting range. I would love to see him in more acting roles and seeing as he co-wrote this short film, I would like to see him and Nina Oyama write more projects in the future.

Diving In will be available to watch as part of the Sydney Film Festival between the 10th and 21st of June 2020.

For more information, visit: https://www.sff.org.au

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