With a dead baby in the bedroom, they start panicking as an endless number of friends and relatives knock on their doors, call them on their phone and on Skype. But the goodbyes are tense and nervewrecking. Eventually, the baby's dad joins the array of guests. As time runs out and take off time gets nearer and nearer, the two pace around the house in real time not knowing how to handle the situation.
The film is very theatrical in nature, always a tricky business that requires a strong screenplay and magnetic performances. The requirements are comfortably met, and as well as a strong narrative with soft spoken dialogues that accentuate the emotional rollescoaster in which the two leads find themselves engulfed, Payman Maadi and Negar Javaherian in the starring roles perfectly play off each other and greatly portray paranoia, fear and also struggle with their conscience. It's also great to see Jaividi completely comfortable with the new age "props" of today's modern technology and use them creatively within the suspenseful context. Furthermore, it's only fair to point out the cleverness of the dialogue in the interactions between the leads and the people that start invading their home - the pawnbroker, his mother and so on. The absent mindedness is evident while there is always that uncertainty of the situation escalating into travesty and that either () or () might give into the weight of the burden they suddenly find carrying on their shoulders.
Melbourne is an interesting and ambitious problem that opts an intelligent screenplay over visual grandeur. The great news is that it works. It works on emotional levels and by following a simple structure, without resorting to strange dream sequences or cinematic illusions. This is a snippet of a life story of an ordinary life in extraordinary circumstances.
