GROWING PAINS | Omeleto

A teenage girl cares for a sick father who grows his own 'medicine'.
GROWING PAINS is used with permission from Jack Curtis. Learn more at https://growing-pains-film.com.
Shy and quiet Rhea is like any other student in her class on the surface. But in reality, she shoulders a great responsibility: she cares for her sick father Martin her own at home.

Her father grows his own "medicine" to help alleviate the symptoms of his illness. But when Rhea's mean classmates discover this, Rhea is put in a tricky situation, one that might imperil her situation at home.

Directed and written by Jack Curtis, this powerfully incisive short drama is both a portrait of a young daughter caring for an ill parent and an indictment of rigid and outdated laws that hurt and criminalize an already vulnerable segment of the population. Told in a restrained, naturalistic style, the narrative nevertheless captures its young protagonist's helplessness and struggle in the face of forces larger than herself, as well as the isolation and silence she's forced into because of it.

The layered, complex narrative juggles many different dramatic elements: Rhea's home life, her protective relationship with her father, and her life at school where she grapples with cruelty and the legal nature of her father's medication. All these are laid out with attention to detail, firmly establishing Rhea's different contexts and roles. At first, Rhea's home and school life are sharply demarcated, with her home visually softened with shadow and warmth while her school is shot with a brighter, almost harsher light.

Rhea, too, is different in each domain. At school, she is shy and recessed, but at home she holds a huge amount of responsibility, showing strength and level-headedness beyond her years. Actor Lola Woods plays these different sides of Rhea with compelling precision and vulnerability, offering a multidimensional character that we come to empathize with, particularly when we see her solicitousness and protectiveness with her father, played by actor Garry Robson with a believable affection for his daughter and an underlying desperate frustration with his illness.

The heart of the conflict comes, however, when these contexts and roles clash or endanger one another, particularly when Rhea's mean classmates discover what Rhea's father does to manage the pain and discomfort of his condition. They manipulate her into a series of decisions that culminate in a suspenseful, devastating climax, where the invisible force of the law that Rhea and her father fear becomes all too palpable. Impeccably crafted and performed all around, GROWING PAINS leaves us feeling as distraught and helpless as Rhea, as we wonder what will happen to her and her father and question just what such a show of force is meant to say or serve in the first place.

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