Blowing Up—A Perspective on Grief and a Lesson in Compassion

Blowing Up is an honest, down-to-earth representation of grief and how battling it affects people differently. Director A.J. Fitzgerald paints us a vivid picture of Janine’s perspective—her grappling with her grief as society urges her to move on even when she’s not ready to do so. The blow-up doll is an interesting and clever metaphor—showing how Jan’s been bottling everything up, becoming a husk of a person because when she’d spoken out before she was deemed too tiring and troublesome for those around her.

The short film opens with Scott (Don-Dimitri Joseph) speaking to an off-camera Jan (Maria Todero). Within the past year, Jan’s father had passed away and Jan had fallen into a deep depression as she grappled with the grief. Despite this, the audience already gets a sense of bitterness from Scott towards Jan despite his kind tone. He says that the lack of intimacy between them is her fault and that he’s scared to talk to her about it due to how her grief changed her as a person. He then expresses hope that the hangout later for her birthday will perk her up and raise her spirits. When Jan goes to work, she receives the same kind of sentiment from her best friend Miranda (Danielle Rodd) and her boss at work (Tenaya Cleveland). Miranda implies it’s her fault for not talking about her feelings anymore while her boss implies that it’s her fault for staying sad—and both hope that her birthday celebration will snap her out of her grief.

Obviously, it doesn’t—grief simply doesn’t work like that. As ridiculous as that belief sounds though—the idea that a night’s distraction is enough to make a feeling as strong as grief disappear—it actually reinforces the plot. The representation of Miranda and Scott as friends—and of Jan’s boss as a metaphor for society itself—is painfully realistic here. Miranda and Scott were dreadfully ill-equipped to help Jan but refused to communicate that in a sincere or genuine way. They became trauma-bonded with each other and their feelings towards Jan festered into resentment. As a result, they’d mutually concluded that it was not their problem by making Jan’s grief about themselves—deciding that it was Jan’s fault for simply not getting better. In reality, all Jan needed was some support, both from her friends and her workplace, as she aimed to heal—not for Miranda and Scott to tire themselves out in “helping”, and certainly not for her boss’s artificial nothing-burger words.

The cast is fantastic! Kudos for the diverse representation and the great acting. Each character was unique and felt like someone real. Todero’s portrayal of Jan’s pent-up anger was exactly what it needed to be after her long silence. Rodd as Miranda and Joseph as Scott were great too—though their performances were sometimes bogged down by their lines (more on this in a moment). Cleveland’s performance as Jan’s boss was wonderfully obnoxious and unhelpful and quite honestly perfect.

Now as just one nitty-gritty thing—the critique. And keep in mind this is only my personal opinion. While the overall story has a lot of heart, some scenes could be tweaked to be more impactful. Some lines of dialogue are written with the sole intent of delivering information, which sometimes goes on for a little too long. Trust in the audience more! However, it’s good to show more than tell.

Overall, Blowing Up is a moving piece about those dealing with the grief of a loved one. It’s a statement of how those grieving are always asked to move on far before they are actually okay to do so—to distract themselves instead of dealing with it properly for the sake of those around them—and how this, in turn, only results in everything becoming bottled up in an unhealthy manner. It is also, most of all, a lesson—to be more understanding, more compassionate, and more patient towards others who may be working through something.

Incluvie Score: 5⭐️ out of 5

Movie Score: 4⭐️ out of 5