Childless is one of those films which has a gimmicky premise but still manages to get a viewer emotionally invested in the story. It uses one of the most interesting story devices to come along in ages and employs it to great effect, giving you a personal and affecting experience that would probably not have been possible without the technique.
Childless is about a 16-year-old girl's funeral — the preparations and the actual event. We are introduced to five main characters who let us know exactly what they're experiencing by talking directly to the camera (including the deceased teenage girl).
Not many movies have the guts to break the fourth wall. First of all it goes a major way to breaking the illusion that we're supposed to be watching a story unfold, blatantly acknowledging the fact that it is, after all, just a movie. When it does get used it's usually for some sort of commentary on filmmaking or society (Funny Games, for example) or for comedic/sarcastic effect (Death Proof, for example). To marry this technique with a serious movie is an odd concept indeed but writer/director Charlie Levi (making an impressive feature film début) pulls it off very well. You soon get past the gimmicky nature of it and end up really feeling part of what's going on, feeling as if you're just another person within the story.
The film is all centred around the funeral of a teenage girl and how her death and the ordeal of watching her being buried affects various different people in her life. Her father, her aunt, her step-mother, and her step-uncle are those who we get to spend time with, alongside the deceased girl herself (it's creepy at first to see her lying in a coffin talking to you, but quickly becomes strangely effective). Each of them have their own problems, both related and unrelated to the teenage girl, and we get them explained to us as if we are the lent ear of a psychiatrist or polite neighbour who's come over to pay their condolences. Each of these people feels absolutely real, thanks both to the performances and the believable screenplay, which is essential for this "talking to the camera" technique to work properly.
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