“You’re being quite negative…maybe you need to actively focus on the positives a little bit more,” is a line that will stick with you from watching Saul Abraham’s sensitive and imploring short film, Enjoy. Escaping our own dark thoughts or depression should be approached with as much grace as possible.
Himesh Patel plays Michael, a tutor struggling with his own mental health. Since the beginning of 2020, thousands of us have dealt with more complicated and unprecedented feelings even though Abraham’s film isn’t explicitly a pandemic analysis. It’s easy to find yourself connecting to his character as he seems to wander through his daily routine: teaching an angry kid named Archibald, exercising at the pool, and having dinner with his girlfriend, Katie.
Whether Abraham wanted to quietly display how teaching professionals aren’t appreciated enough was intentional or not, it is a side effect of Michael’s plight. Archie constantly pushes Michael’s buttons by screaming at his mother with Michael within earshot or when he openly mocks Michael’s attempts at rapping–something Patel’s character uses to help himself. Even though he has some music available online, it feels like Michael isn’t totally ready for the world to hear it.
Sadness and cruelty can live close to one another and overlap in a dangerous way. Michael and Archie eventually connect, and Patel and Tom Sweet, as Archie, share some moments of kindness. Yes, the children are our future (as the song goes), but if they don’t know how to firmly grasp and diffuse their own anger and confusion…we are truly screwed.
Patel has proven himself as an introspective and thoughtful actor, and when he discovers his own passions, his entire being changes. It’s a performance imbued with careful elegance. Abraham’s film never wallows or holds our hand in a condescending way. It is refreshingly honest.
There are small gestures of light and kindness throughout Enjoy, and it hits home that you need to find your own pieces of joy. It can be the rain beginning to fall on a swimming pool as you swim through it or a silent moment during dinner with a loved one. It may not always feel like it’s getting better, but Enjoy invites us to try and see the light.
