Rating: 5/5
The film “If Anything Happens I Love You” was released on Nov. 20, 2020 on Netflix, depicting two grieving parents as they cope with the loss of their daughter from a school shooting.
The animated film has no dialogue, but spoken words were not needed to capture viewers’ attention. Despite the film’s runtime of 12 minutes, the directors Michel Govier and Will McCormack were able to skillfully tie the artistic elements, especially the minimal use of color, the lighting, and the scratchy rendering, with the music to capture the raw emotions of the heartbroken parents.
The film starts with the two parents, devoid of any color and happiness, who avoid each other until the mother stumbles upon their child’s shirt. The film progresses in black and white, and viewers come to understand that the lack of color is meant to demonstrate how the joy and color the child brought to the parents’ lives have vanished.
The montage that follows depicts flashbacks of the child growing up, illustrating her loving relationship with her parents. These scenes build up to the moment when their daughter walks into the school building that she never exits. The film doesn’t show the violence of the shooting, but viewers see the outlined sketches of school doors and hear the heart-wrenching sounds of panicked screams, gunshots and finally—a heavy silence. As the film comes to an end, with a faint wail of sirens in the background, the parents receive a haunting text message.
This last text strikes close to home in the hearts of viewers, especially for parents who have lost a child to a school shooting. Gun violence was at an all-time high in 2018, with 54,940 gun violence incidents in the U.S., according to data from Gun Violence Archive 2018, making the film more relevant. The last text in the film echoed the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School located in Parkland, Florida, when many parents received heartbreaking goodbye messages from their children.
Overall, “If Anything Happens, I Love You” is a powerful film that will leave viewers in tears. The film effectively conveys the pain, anger, and grief families experience upon the loss of a loved one.