TIFF ’24 Review: ‘Sketch’ is a fun cautionary tale about burying your feelings
‘Sketch’ is an oddly amusing story about grief and the battle to stop a maternal orphan’s real-life monsters.
Imagination is a critical life skill. It’s not only the foundation of creativity, but an important tool for problem-solving. It also has a role in childhood development, and can help children cope with and/or work through their emotions when they’re not yet mature enough to understand them. Imagination can be expressed in play, as well as art with fanciful drawings or spectacular storytelling. Some are more inventive than others, but none should be discounted — particularly if there’s a hint of danger. In Sketch, a girl’s monster drawings are accidentally brought to life by a magical pond, terrorizing her town.
Amber’s (Bianca Belle) mother recently died of cancer and she’s having trouble processing the loss. Conversely, her brother, Jack (Kue Lawrence), and father (Tony Hale) are determined to move forward from the tragedy. Having difficulty expressing her grief, Amber carries a sketchbook in which she draws all manner of murderous creatures — a hobby deemed healthy by the school counsellor brought in when she’s caught crayoning the death of a classmate. In the meantime, Jack comes across a pond in the woods near their home that can mend broken objects. After a couple of tests, he has an unthinkable idea. When Amber tries to stop him, their struggle results in her notebook falling in the water and the manifestation of all her original creations.
This amusing narrative has a Jumanji vibe, but with a much darker sense of humour. Listening to Amber describe her drawings while her father masks his horror to simulate support is one of the picture’s funniest and most heartwarming moments. There’s an insistence that she has no malicious intention, but she’s definitely considered some inventive ways to kill or torment people, from spider-like eyeballs that steal precious items to a creature that stabs people in the stomach — not cut them in half as so many have wrongly assumed. Many of them, like Sleepy Dave, even look harmless and have childlike weaknesses. Appearing as living drawings, some of them are so vulnerable they can just be squished out of existence.
In spite of all the fun and mayhem, this is a story about grief. Amber has found a healthy outlet for her feelings, even if they seem somewhat disturbing. As her aunt (D’Arcy Carden) points out while hiding from a terrifying hand-drawn creature, avoiding the topic isn’t helping anyone deal with their loss. Consequently, young actors Belle and Lawrence give terrific performances, appearing to have a genuine sibling bond that expectedly ranges from antagonistic to deep concern and love. They, along with the class bully played by Kalon Cox, carry most of the film — an intimidating responsibility at any age that they shoulder with ease. Writer-director Seth Worley’s feature debut is darkly funny while maintaining positive undertones as the family heals by literally confronting physical representations of their trauma.
Sketch had its world premiere in the Special Presentations programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Read other reviews from the festival.
Director: Seth Worley
Starring: Tony Hale, Bianca Belle and Kue Lawrence
