HOLD is DFW native Frank Mosley’s directorial debut and for that I truly applaud him. Having his movie premiere at the Dallas International Film Festival was a great achievement. The movie tells the story of a young couple whose relationship is tested after the wife is raped by a home intruder. It takes a very interesting direction and shows us things mostly from the perspective of the husband and how he is coping with the situation. The subject of rape is never an easy one so I should make it clear that I am making an assumption here, but I think both the writer and director handled the husbands feelings of inadequacy and his reservations toward intimacy very well.  The overall story is tightly woven and engaging and  Stephanie Rhodes, as Laura Marsh,  does a good job of conveying this tragic circumstance.

Now that all of that has been said I do have to take issue with some of the editing and cinematography. The director made use of very long takes and tight shots in an attempt to convey the self imposed isolation of the central characters, namely Alan Marsh (Robby Storey). It is with this very technique that I feel the filmmakers may lose a large portion of their audience. This is a very risky road to take and can be perceived as amateurish if the audience is too distracted to follow the story. At times it was hard to tell if these were intentional choices or simply an editing technique necessitated by a lack of quality coverage. The latter of course will be frowned upon by anyone in association with the production but I have to stand by that assumption since there were also several shots/scenes in the film with composition and focus issues. In  filmmaking at this level this is something that is somewhat expected, but that doesn’t make it any less distracting.

Also, in my humble opinion it takes an extremely skilled actor to pull off the scenes the way they were attempted here. Robby Storey wrote the story well but as an actor he attempted to internalize so much without the subtle nuances of expression that are necessary to truly guide the audience in the right direction.  

All that aside there is no mistaking Frank Mosley’s talent. The scene that shows the couple leaving their house and going to church is evidence of his ability to tell a strong story with little to no dialogue. The talent is there and once a decent production budget crosses his path I expect to see great things.  He also said something after the film that I thought was brilliant:

“It really doesn’t matter if you were entertained, as long as you were affected”

Well played Frank.