"Sleight Of Hand" REVIEW | A Magical Stop Motion Animation

Today I invited my girlfriend to sit next to me, pulled out some invisible popcorn, made ourselves comfy and began watching "Sleight of Hand". 

Sometimes, when I find a movie that I like (and it has some sort of connection with conjuring), I try to see if I can buy it from somewhere and view it. If I can't find it anywhere (like it has happened many times) then I try to find who has worked on the movie, if they're still alive and if they have an email address, I send them an email.

I usually keep sending them one email a week for about 2 months. If I get no reply after that, I stop. Well, my perseverance this time has won (thankfully) and Richard Chataway from ANIFEX has replied to my request, allowing me to view his animation movie and review it for all of you beautiful people, without giving any spoilers. So, here we go!

The IMDB synopsis to the movie page reads, "Sleight of Hand. A set of techniques used by someone to manipulate objects secretly to deceive. This is a stop-motion film about illusions. A Man yearns to know his place in the world and how he fits in, when sometimes it's better not to know."

You must understand that when I read sleight of hand I instantly connected the movie to magic. Upon seeing the trailer to this movie and watching a man build a robot, I instantly associated the room with a stage, the man with a magician and his contraception with a sort of Robert Houdin piece of machinery that will help the magician perform his magic trick.

Well, I was definitely in the wrong here. Not what the movie is about. Went in with certain expectations and what I got was... well, let's take it from the beginning. 

The movie lasts 10 minutes. It portrays a man building another person. There is no dialogue in the movie, the soundscape being composed of beautiful symphonic music and special sound effects. Due to this, the entire plot of the animation is shrouded into mystery. What you see is what you get, and what you see is definitely intriguing enough for you to want to see more. 

The piece is finished and the artist proceeds to work together with it. Without spoiling for you guys, something happens. The main character sees something, something shady, ghost-like, which makes him sit down and wonder what it could be (while you sit and wonder while it could be, too).

Then he realizes. 

But you don't.

So you sit there watching him trying to catch this invisible entity. 

And then he does.

And that's when I started smiling. A smile that did not leave me until the end of the movie. An inception of the most beautiful kind happens. And that's when you realize how the title of the movie fits perfectly with the picture.

I loved it. It's one man's quest to try and understand himself and what he finds is not what he expects. I believe it talks of how there's so much more to life than we can imagine and we can choose to be happy not knowing or find out more and see what we do from there.

So, my question for you everyone is: if you would be talking to a young adult that wanted to find themselves, what would your advice be?