Directed by Jo Kennedy, the Australian short feature The Forest is a 54 minute sketch of love and trust, and the nature of those very human emotions.

Centred around the story of one couple, Ashley and Mike, The Forest opens inside Ashley?s mind. She is in the midst of a bizarre dream involving intruders in the dark, a baby she must protect, and a crow.

Deeply disturbed, she cannot stop thinking about it, even during a dinner she and her husband, Mike have at her favourite restaurant to celebrate their tenth anniversary.

It is clear from the outset that things have not been going well with the couple. Something in the marriage is wrong, but the pair seem to want to put it right. Then, a bird ? like the one in Ashley?s dream ? smacks up against the window and she rushes outside to look.

When she returns Mike is praying. Telling her he has been called into work he leaves, abruptly, telling her to sit and eat by herself. Alone and disconsolate, Ashley suddenly realises he has left his briefcase behind.

It is when she follows after her husband to return the briefcase to him that Ashley embarks on a strange, night-time journey through Melbourne.

A host of different characters parade across the screen, all linked to each other in some way and all linked to Ashley, all showcasing different types of love, its ups and downs, its effect on people both good and bad, and the ways it can go wrong.

The story is fast-paced and filled with very human emotions: the fear of a child being berated by its mother, the selfishness of a couple so in love they refuse to answer the door and let another into their world, the mother and wife who feels taken for granted and attempts to reassert her power, just to cite a few.

Coupled with the mystery of Mike (where has he gone? What is he doing?), the interwoven storylines are enough to keep the audience engaged as they figure out who is who, and who is doing what to whom.

In light of the story, the dream sequence seems unnecessary. It is too out of place, too otherworldly for the different plots which all seem to exhibit such uniquely human problems, natures and actions ? as though lines from Stephen King had suddenly popped up in a Maeve Binchy novel.

Without the dream, the story stands on its own. The crow periodically cawing through the air and appearing in Ashley?s house at the end, while artistic, seems unnecessary.

Ashley needed no catalyst to cause her epiphany at the end of the movie. The journey she has been on and Mike?s sudden, emotion-filled return is enough.

Fortunately, the appearance of the crow throughout the story is sporadic and brief, making it easy to forget and concentrate more on the characters presented.

The movie is worth seeing, more for the complexities of the characters and plots than for the mystery of Mike which provides the framework.

The questions asked, ?How do you know if someone really loves you?? and ?How can you tell when someone is lying?? are questions nearly everyone has asked themselves at one point or another.

Ashley?s quest to find the answers makes Jo Kennedy?s first foray into the genre of short feature a moving success.